NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Once again, the game’s best challenged Aronimink at the PGA Championship, and once again, the course pummeled the field. But this time, Aronimink had a co-conspirator: the PGA itself, which placed Friday’s pins in what Scottie Scheffler called “absurd” locations.
Need proof? Here’s proof. The lead after Thursday was 3-under. The lead after Scheffler left the course about halfway through Friday’s round? Still at -3, thanks to a wicked combination of wind, undulating greens and those diabolical pin placements.
By the afternoon, though, the wind had rolled out, and the low scores rolled in. Alex Smalley set the pace at -4 early in the afternoon, and then Maverick McNealy matched him in the late wave. Both briefly held two-stroke leads on the field, and both almost immediately gave those leads back.
Smalley has only played in four majors before this week, three of them PGA Championships. He’s never finished higher than a T23 at Oak Hill three years ago, but he’s riding a streak of five straight top-25 finishes in PGA Tour starts. McNealy is a similar story: in his 13 prior major starts, he’s never finished higher at the PGA Championship than the T23 he carded in 2024 at Valhalla. His best finish at a major was T18 at this year’s Masters. He’s never been inside the top 25 at the halfway point of any major, so this is all uncharted territory for both of them.
“I didn't feel like I played that great. I somehow got a lot out of my game, and this is obviously new territory for me,” McNealy said. “But I am confident that it's going to go into the experience bank, and good or bad, I'm going to learn a lot from it. … This is the next step for me as a professional, is competing and playing well in this type of tournament.”
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Also in the mix: 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, in at -3. Aldrich Potgieter appeared to have the tournament in control before bogeying his last two holes to finish at -3. And Chris Gotterup rode the best round of the day, a 5-under 65, to a similar -3 finish. Stephan Jaeger played a slow and steady round — no birdies, no bogeys — to stay at -3. Min Woo Lee took the opposite approach — four birdies, four bogeys — to arrive at the same spot. Max Greyserman joined the group of six players at -3 by eagling his final hole of the day, the par-5 ninth.
“I saw plenty of putts miss from short range, even myself, and it's just one of those where you can't let your mind spiral,” Lee said. “But it is tough, I'm not going to say it isn't tough, because, I mean, it is bloody tough, but, yeah, that's what you expect at a course like this.”
Lurking just a bit further down the leaderboard are some notable names. Justin Thomas hung on through a rugged early start to finish at -2, right alongside Scheffler. At -1: Jon Rahm, in need of some good major news after a series of struggles. Masters champion Rory McIlroy battled back from his worst PGA Championship round ever on Thursday to fight his way up to +1 at the weekend.
“I think everyone's got to feel like they have got a chance,” McIlroy said. “Yes, it's bunched, but you get on a run with wedges on that front nine and you shoot 4-, 5-under and all of a sudden you're right in the thick of things.”
What’s remarkable about the current leaderboard is how few major winners are at the top of it. Among those within two shots of the lead, only Matsuyama has won even a single major. How will the majorless leaders deal with the pressure of a championship weekend? We’re about to find out.
