Scheffler hangs on as McNealy, Smalley lead PGA Championship at Aronimink

Scottie Scheffler kept himself in the PGA Championship, but the bigger storyline at Aronimink was how quickly the golf course took over. The world No. 1 called Friday’s pin locations the hardest he has ever faced, and the second round turned into a test of patience as much as power, with the championship’s architecture and setup dictating the terms.

At Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, the 108th PGA Championship returned to a site that had not hosted the event since 1962, when Gary Player won there. The Philadelphia region had not seen a major championship since 2013, adding to the sense that this was as much a civic return as a tournament stop. Aronimink, a Donald Ross design restored by Gil Hanse from 2016 to 2018, is also the first venue to host all three of the PGA of America’s rotating major championships.

That design pedigree mattered once the championship tees and pins were in play. Early practice-round talk suggested the course might be gettable, but the combination of wind and severe hole locations changed the mood fast. Scheffler’s second-round 71 left him tied for ninth at 2-under, still within striking distance but facing a leaderboard led by Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy at 4-under.

Scheffler’s numbers showed why he remained dangerous even without a low round. He led the field in greens in regulation percentage at 71.30 percent, and he stayed near the top in SG: Total, evidence that he was still finding plenty of chances even while the greens and pins turned scoring into a grind. The issue was not whether Scheffler could hit shots. It was whether Aronimink would let those shots stay rewarded.

The leaderboard had other familiar names lurking as the weekend approached, including Hideki Matsuyama, Chris Gotterup and Aldrich Potgieter. But the larger question was whether this setup would produce a true major-championship examination or simply more frustration. Scheffler’s ability to remain in the hunt despite describing the pins as the hardest he has ever seen offered one answer: elite players can adapt when the course becomes the main character.

That also places the final two rounds in a sharper historical frame. Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus each won the PGA Championship five times, Tiger Woods won it four times, and Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas have each won twice. Against that backdrop, another major title would not just add to Scheffler’s resume. It would confirm that even at his most severe, a setup-heavy championship can still be conquered by the player who keeps his distance from the noise and his tee shots in play.