Davis Riley entered the final round of the PGA Championship on Sunday four shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler.

When the former Alabama standout followed a bogey on the par-3 sixth hole with a triple-bogey 8 on the seventh, Riley had shot his way out of tournament contention.

But over his final 11 holes at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, Riley posted three birdies and eight pars to finish at 6 under for the tournament and tied with Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau for second place – five shots behind Scheffler.

“Super excited the way I finished,” Riley said. “It was kind of a gut punch what happened on 7. I knew it put me out of position to win, but I knew there was a lot to play for, and I bounced back really good.

“Yeah, if you’d have told me at the beginning of the week I’d be in the second-to-last group on Sunday, I’d be stoked. Very fun week, a lot to learn from, and I’m already itching for the next major.”

Riley’s previous best showing in a major tournament had been a tie for 13th at the PGA Championship in 2022.

“This is a big step forward for me,” Riley said. “I’ve been trying to find — I’ve been in some pretty good form the last two months. It was a struggle at the beginning of the year, but I’m starting to see a lot of good golf shots and holing a lot of good putts. Hopefully, this thing can kind of catapult and get my season going.”

Riley has won on the PGA Tour in each of the previous two seasons.

In 2023, Riley teamed with Nick Hardy to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

In 2024, Riley won the Charles Schwab Classic at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, by five shots, with Scheffler and Keegan Bradley tied for second.

But before the 2025 season, Riley tinkered with his swing. He played five tournaments in the first two months, missed four cuts and withdrew from one event. His 12 rounds of golf included two of 80.

Riley said he started playing better when he got “back to some of my old DNA.”

Riley has missed only one cut in the 10 tournaments since the 0-for-5 start to 2025, and the PGA Championship finish was his third top-10 showing.

“It’s easy — us golfers — to get obsessive about neutral,” Riley said. “So I spent a lot of the offseason trying to really straighten out my ball flight and almost even see a little bit of cut with my irons. …

“I feel like when I’m playing my best golf, I’m seeing about a 5- or 10-yard draw with my irons and seeing that path around one and a half to two and a half. I spent a lot of time in the offseason trying to neutral it out. With the longer stuff, I would say 7- to 4-iron, I can start seeing it curve too much. I was like: I need to zero this out. Especially in right-to-left winds, I kind of struggle, and I felt like — I don’t know, I got obsessive with being zeroed out, and it didn’t really work out for me.

“Me and my coach, Jeff Smith, spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year reevaluating things because it’s so easy to get caught up in the offseason saying I’ve got to be perfect, that when the year starts, I need to be perfect, instead of doing the same things and being — enjoying the mundane of things and just getting back to that DNA.

“I’m starting to see a lot of that proper curvature, and I think having control with my irons and the driver has been a big reason why I’ve been playing better.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.