The PGA Championship's 36-hole glut at the top. Plus: Higher scores than most people thought

Share articleGolf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s daily newsletter for the 2026 PGA Championship. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox. Good evening! We’re through the second round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink. I’m Alex, and Gabby will tag in from the Philly area shortly. Here’s where things stand: T-1. Maverick McNealy (-4) Alex Smalley (-4) T-3. Aldrich Potgieter (-3) Hideki Matsuyama (-3) Chris Gotterup (-3) Stephan Jaeger (-3) Min Woo Lee (-3) Max Greyserman (-3) T-9. Cameron Young (-2) Justin Thomas (-2) Scottie Scheffler (-2) Ludvig Åberg (-2) … and a handful more. Full leaderboard. Imagine normally hitting a golf ball several yards farther than Rory McIlroy. That’s real life for one person in professional golf these days: Aldrich Potgieter, a 21-year-old South African who turned pro in 2023 and is now contending in a major for the first time. A few quick season stats to help you understand Potgieter’s whole deal: (Also, pounds lost from last season to this season: about 35, now down to 200.) That imbalanced game doesn’t often work at this level: Potgieter’s previous five major starts have gone cut, cut, 64th place, cut, cut. That’s why he’s ranked 75th in the world despite out-hitting everyone. It might even be a generous ranking: Data Golf has Potgieter at No. 185. He’d be a highly unusual major winner. His only tour win to date is last year’s Rocket Classic, which he won at -22 in a three-man playoff as most of the PGA Tour’s best players took the week off. On the rare occasions when Potgieter has hit his irons and putted well, he’s been competitive. This season’s primary example was a fifth-place finish at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. But what’s happening at Aronimink is a little different: This is not a long course by tour standards, and Potgieter’s big numbers off the tee (second this week in driving distance, as of late today) aren’t why he’s contending. He’s just 63rd in strokes gained off the tee. Instead, he’s scoring with his flatstick, sitting at second in strokes gained putting through 36 holes. Sometimes, you just have a week. Potgieter may also, perversely, be benefiting from Aronimink’s setup, which doesn’t necessarily favor long hitters but is keeping players unusually clustered on the leaderboard. A hot putting week can go a long way here, and so far, it has. A few setup notes from Gabby, who’s been on the course all week:  💬 The early week buzz around the PGA Championship was that the course may not be able to properly defend itself against these pros and 190 mph drives. The bomb-and-gouge method wasn’t just predicted, it was guaranteed — even by Rory McIlroy himself. That foresight could not have been more wrong, at least looking at yesterday and today here at Aronimink. The best players in the world are getting pummeled by this place. The wind is blowing, and the PGA Championship’s hole locations are not for the faint of heart. Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer at the PGA of America, is taking full advantage of the tabletop-sized shelves built into Aronimink’s greens. Just consider the position of the pin on No. 14, which is placed seven paces off the back right side of the green. Scottie Scheffler called it the “hardest pin that I’ve seen in a long time,” and this morning, I watched Tommy Fleetwood ping-pong his ball back and forth across it, leading to a very easy double bogey. You know the course is holding up against these players when they start to complain about the setup. I heard that at least one top-15 player in the world lamented that the eighth hole is one of the “stupidest” he’s ever seen. Through the championship, the par-3 currently has a 3.399 scoring average, and 110 players have left the hole with bogey. Warmer weather tomorrow and Sunday could produce more birdies and an easier test, but so far, Aronimink has proven itself. That, or the PGA of America dialed things up to silence the haters. More from Gabby now on another relatively unknown contender: Alex Smalley has never won a professional tournament, but he’s been quietly building his confidence and trending on the PGA Tour. The 29-year-old’s last five starts: T17, T7, T2, T14 and T21. As I watched Smalley battle Aronimink to stay in contention today, I spotted his mother, Maria, who follows every tournament round her son plays. Maria is more than just a spectator out there, tracking everything related to Smalley’s statistics while simultaneously filming every shot with her phone. Walking a hole with Smalley’s mom — sometimes referred to as his “momager” — gave a behind-the-scenes look into his preparation. The Duke alum graduated with a 3.6 GPA and majored in environmental science with a focus on climate studies, and his parents both come from chemistry backgrounds. Smalley is a unique breed of golfer — methodical, analytical and not seeking the spotlight. But he puts his head down in practice and grinds away. Today, he made three bogeys in a row after a rules official warned his group for slow play. But Smalley then bounced back with two birdies to round out the day with a 1-under par 69. More here. 🫤 Why Aronimink has proven a much tougher test than expected, by Brendan Quinn. 😬 Bryson DeChambeau missed the cut, his latest major disappointment. Here’s Brody Miller. 🦅 Not PGA-related, but important: As the Trump administration takes over a beloved municipal course in D.C., Barry Svrluga has thoughts on what it should look like. As a longtime East Potomac player, I’m highly concerned the course will soon be less affordable. We’ll see. 🗣️ Find The Athletic’s live coverage of every round here, starting early each day. Yesterday, as we covered here, South Africa’s Garrick Higgo showed up a few seconds late to his morning tee time. Per the clearly written rules, the PGA of America assessed him a two-shot penalty. After his round, Higgo offered a sensible interpretation, “I was there on time, but the rule is, if you’re one second late, you’re late. So if you think about it, I was there on time.” This morning, we asked readers of The Pulse, our daily general sports newsletter, if they thought it was fair to penalize the 27-year-old two strokes … and more than 40 percent took Higgo’s side. These people walk among us every day. Higgo (+6) missed the cut today by a shot. So if you think about it, he made the cut. One group to follow: Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley, final pairing. Co-leader McNealy has been on the PGA Tour since 2019 and notched his first win with a walkoff birdie to close the 2024 season. The 30-year-old Stanford alum is one of the better putters on tour, but his approach play has done the heavy lifting to put him in prime position here. We’ll be back here for more tomorrow after Round 3. 📫Love the Golf Briefing? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.  Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms