Smalley Holds Two-Shot Lead at US PGA Championship, Big Names Lurk

Alex Smalley, a 29-year-old from North Carolina who has never won a professional golf tournament, will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the US PGA Championship after a turbulent third Saturday at Aronimink. The leaderboard was in constant flux, with numerous players briefly sharing the lead before falling back. Smalley stands at 6-under par, two strokes ahead of a five-way tie for second.

Philadelphia loves an underdog, but the trumpeter may want to hold off on the Rocky theme. Smalley, ranked 78th in the world, faces a crowded field of contenders eager to chase him down Sunday.

Twenty-one players are within four strokes of the lead, including eight major champions. Jon Rahm is in the group immediately behind Smalley at 4-under, while Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed are one stroke further back at 3-under. Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Cameron Smith and Hideki Matsuyama are grouped at 2-under. Even Scottie Scheffler, hampered by a cold putter, remains within striking distance at 1-under.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Scheffler said. “I’ve never seen a leaderboard this bunched up. It’s quite literally anybody’s tournament.”

Smalley played in the final pairing alongside Maverick McNealy. Until he birdied the par-5 16th to pull clear, he was part of a six-way tie for first place, which would have set a record for the largest tie entering a final round in a major, surpassing the five-way tie at the 1933 Open Championship at St Andrews.

It is the first time Smalley has held the 54-hole lead in a professional event. “I don’t like being in the spotlight a whole lot,” he said Friday night. “I’m still trying to get used to playing in front of large groups of people like there are at tournaments like this one.”

He appears to be adapting quickly. After four bogeys in his first eight holes on Saturday, Smalley played the next 10 holes in 5-under par to seize the lead.

Behind him, the group at 4-under includes Ludvig Åberg, Jon Rahm, and England’s Aaron Rai. Rai held his score until a disastrous 18th hole, where he went from left rough to a right bunker. No Englishman has won this tournament in over 100 years.

Canada’s Nick Taylor, also at 4-under, said the crowded leaderboard made it pointless to check. “It’s so bunched it was kind of pointless,” Taylor said, adding that Aronimink’s demanding greens required full focus.

The tournament, widely criticized for its difficulty, may produce one of the most dramatic finales in major history. Sunny skies and shifting winds made several par-4 greens reachable off the tee on Saturday, and tournament officials set more generous pin positions after complaints from McIlroy and Scheffler about the first two days.

On Friday, Scheffler called the pins “absurd” and McIlroy said they were “not great.” After shooting 66, McIlroy explained he was venting frustration. “When you have a set of greens like this, you can start to frustrate people pretty easily,” McIlroy said. “You heard it in me last night, you heard it in Scottie. There was a lot of guys that were frustrated yesterday coming off the course. But at the same time, it creates a hell of an entertaining championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week, but watching and playing are two different things.”

McIlroy was in better spirits Saturday. “No profanity today,” he said as he entered the press area. After a disastrous opening round in which he made four consecutive bogeys and tied for 105th, McIlroy climbed back into contention. “I’ve climbed my way out of that hole and I’m proud of myself for doing that,” he said. “There’s one more day left, and I feel like I’m close enough to the lead that I’ve still got a good chance.”

“It is,” Schauffele said, “going to be an absolute free-for-all.”