{"id":648721,"date":"2026-05-17T14:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/648721\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T14:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:42:10","slug":"a-wild-saturday-stampede-of-stars-validates-the-pga-championship-and-aronimink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/648721\/","title":{"rendered":"A wild Saturday stampede of stars validates the PGA Championship and Aronimink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n

The footsteps of giants were echoing behind him, each one louder than the last. <\/p>\n

All Maverick McNealy could do was wait. <\/p>\n

The PGA Championship co-leader after two rounds was still 40 minutes away from teeing off when he walked off of the practice green and came face-to-face with the avalanche at his heels. On a giant video leaderboard rising in the distance, the household names were floating toward the surface like the first bubbles of a boil. By the time McNealy and fellow longshot Alex Smalley teed off, the 36-hole co-leaders would be joined in first place by Rory McIlroy. Not long after that, they would be leaders no more. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Rory McIlroy roars into contention for PGA Championship, setting up a wide-open Sunday at Aronimink<\/a><\/p>\n

For all of the grumbling that emanated from the starriest of corners of the players\u2019 locker room during the first two days at Aronimink Golf Club, the mayhem that golf\u2019s titans unleashed in Round 3 will only embolden tournament officials. Long a major in search of an identity, the PGA Championship suddenly has set itself up for a finish that can command the attention of even the casuals. The biggest names, the best games, all will be there, almost without exception. <\/p>\n

McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Reed … all will enter Sunday\u2019s final round within two or three strokes of the lead. Right on their heels are the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, and Rickie Fowler. <\/p>\n

Represented in that group are five of the six pre-tournament betting favorites. <\/p>\n

But Smalley, the man who enters Sunday with a two-stroke lead, is a relative unknown who bogeyed three of his first four holes but shot three-under on the back nine to regain the lead. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, my PGA Tour career isn\u2019t necessarily very long at this point, but I\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d said Aberg, who shot a 68 to stand in a group of five players two shots behind Smalley. \u201cIt\u2019s very tight. I think there\u2019s a lot of good players within striking distance going into tomorrow, and it\u2019s a cool thing, I think, for the viewers. I think it\u2019s cool to see that many guys have a chance to win a tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

PGA officials deserve plenty of credit for that, especially after the veiled and not-so-veiled criticism they received from the likes of McIlroy, Scheffler and Reed for the setup at Aronomink during the first two rounds. The player\u2019s critiques regarding pin positioning were both understandable and fair. A golf course is supposed to allow for players to differentiate themselves based on their skill. When pin positions are so difficult that they becomes more a matter of chance, it introduces a degree of randomness that can have a leveling effect, particularly in a field as big as the PGA Championship. That was certainly the case in the early going at Aronimink, with 15 players within two strokes of the lead after 36 holes, and with five of the world\u2019s 13 top-ranked golfers missing the cut entirely. <\/p>\n

That being said, the early-round variability played a direct role in what could end up being one of the more memorable weekends of drama. With course conditions loosening, weather warming, and the toughest pin locations exhausted, the final two rounds of the tournament will allow the remaining superstars to battle each other at near-unprecedented level.<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit to the PGA for the setup,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cThey found some incredible hard pin locations out there. . . As hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well. That\u2019s probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up and it\u2019s going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow. So in that sense, showmanship-wise, they\u2019ve done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Scottie Scheffler\u2019s using a Philly-centric golf bag at the PGA. Will that karma help him win a 5th major?<\/a><\/p>\n

Smalley thickened the plot considerably late in the day, birdieing five of his last 10 holes to separate himself from a pack of seven golfers who had been tied for the lead. That pack at minus-4 also includes longshots Matti Schmid, Nick Taylor, Aaron Rai, and McNealy. <\/p>\n

But the story that will resonate is Saturday\u2019s stampede of superstars. Rose, last year\u2019s Master\u2019s runner-up, shot a 65, with McIlroy and Schauffele shooting 66 and Rahm a 67. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different challenge, and that\u2019s the cool thing about it is it\u2019s on its own,\u201d Reed said. \u201cBut the great thing about all the golf courses we play, no matter where it is, whatever major championship we\u2019re playing, if you\u2019re hitting the ball well and you\u2019re putting well, you\u2019re going to be able to handle anything. We\u2019re the best players in the world, so when they throw a really hard challenge at us, that\u2019s when the top players are going to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min The footsteps of giants were echoing behind him, each one louder than the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,279895,99],"class_list":["post-648721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-pga-championship-aronimink-rory-mcilroy-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}