NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Alex Smalley's performance in the second round of the PGA Championship defied his winless run on the PGA Tour.
Smalley has zero wins in 140 starts on tour and was a major longshot win the 108th PGA Championship.
On Friday, Smalley instead grabbed his share of the PGA lead with fellow longshot Maverick McNealy, a unheralded pair at Aronimink unexpectedly taking the top spots on the leaderboard.
Smalley circled the Donald Ross
layout like a majors veteran and charged into contention, posting four birdies on his way to a sensational 1-under 69, with his name popping up atop the leaderboard.
Try as he might, Smalley could not avoid peeking at the leaderboards dotting the course.
“I try not to, but it’s hard to sometimes because the leaderboards are right in your face and in a number of spots,” said Smalley, playing in his fourth PGA.
The 29-year-old Smalley, out of Rochester, New York, has never finished higher in a major than a tie for 23rd. That came at Oak Hill in the 2023 PGA in his hometown. But his game has been trending upward, with seven top-25 finishes this season, including a second with teammate Hayden Springer in New Orleans and as seventh-place finish at Doral.
He conceded his newfound attention was taking some adjustment.
“I don’t like being in the spotlight a whole lot, so 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 said. “Starting to get better. But my first couple years on tour, I kind of struggled with that. It’s a different feeling when you have hundreds or thousands of eyeballs on you at once. It can be a little overwhelming.”
Smalley, at a 4-under 136 through two rounds, rebounded from three straight bogeys on Nos. 1-2-3, his back nine, with birdies at the fourth and ninth holes.
His second shot on the fourth, from 147 yards to 9 feet for an eventual birdie, rallied the fans around him.
“I guess it was close to going in the hole because some of the crowd and the grandstand behind the green went a little crazy,” Smalley said.
Smalley just might have to get used to big shots, and a bigger fan club.
McNealy, who made an eagle and two birdies in a five-hole span, does have one career tour victory, the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in 2024. He finished tied for 18th at the Masters this year, his best major finish.
“I didn’t feel like I played that great,” McNealy said. “I somehow got a lot out of my game, and this is obviously new territory for me.”
The last time the leaders after 36 holes of the PGA were no more than 4-under was in 2012 at Kiawah Island.
Michael Kim looked to be headed home for the weekend midway through his second round at Aronimink.
He struggled mightily over his first nine holes Friday and, after a birdie, three bogeys and a double-bogey, was at 4 over for the round and 7 over for the championship, sinking on the leaderboard with the prospect of missing the cut that hovered near 4 over.
After three pars on his inward nine, the front side, the 32-year-old from South Korea made his move with a birdies at the fourth and sixth holes, getting closer to a cut line.
He parred the eighth and ensured his spot for the weekend by holing out from 65 feet, just off the left side of the par-5 ninth, beating the cut line by a stroke.
Ben Kern made the most of his return to what he considers the big stage.
The general manager at Hickory Hill Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio, was the low club professional after two rounds of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. The 41-year-old opened with a 74 and matched his previous event career best with a 67 Friday for a 1-over total. He was the only one of 20 club pros to make the cut.
Kern grew up in Arizona, played collegiately at Kansas State and spent six years chasing his golfing dream while competing on mini tours and trying Q school. Then, he decided to change direction after he got married, entering the business. He spent 10 years in Texas before moving to Ohio.
Making the cut guarantees a second weekend stay in the championship for Kern, who finished 42nd in 2018 and described it as his as his first event on the big stage.
“The game was pretty sharp that week," he said.
History is repeating for Kern in the Philly suburbs. With Hickory Hills' club president as his caddie, he has found 19 of 28 fairways and hit 26 of 36 greens, and offset seven bogeys with nine birdies.
“I felt a lot more freed up today,” Kern said. “Put the ball in the right spots, and the flat stick was hot.”
His performance Friday also gave Kern confidence heading into the weekend.
“It just tells me, it shows me, it proves to myself that I can hang with these guys when I’m playing solid, and it was really nice.”
All eyes were on Garrick Higgo as his second-round tee time approached.
A day after Higgo was penalized two strokes for being late for his first-round tee time, the South African took no chances ahead of Friday's second round, lingering near the dual 1st and 10th tee box as his 12:43 p.m. time approached.
ESPN even had a countdown clock superimposed over a its video monitoring Higgo’s movement toward the tee.
The 27-year-old made it onto the 10th tee in plenty of time and without incident.
On Thursday, Higgo arrived on the first tee box at what he estimated to be 30 seconds after his listed 7:18 a.m. tee time. His first swing of the championship turned out to be his third because of the penalty, yet he still managed a 1-under 69. Without the penalty, he would have been among the first-round leaders at 3 under.
He struggled in the second round with seven bogeys and one birdie for a 76, missing the cut at 5 over.
The threesome of Justin Thomas, Cameron Young and Keegan Bradley were put on the clock during the second round of the PGA Championship.
Thomas, looking to add the 108th PGA to the titles he won in 2017 and 2022, admitted the group was a bit behind, but disagreed with the move.
“We were behind,” Thomas said. “I think that wasn’t our issue or being annoyed by it, it’s just the fact that we weren’t holding up the group behind us. They were about -- it seemed like every time we were on the green, they were on the tee and so on and so forth.”
Thomas cited the importance of the championship and the challenging cold and windy conditions for the pace of play.
“There’s so much that goes into golf and there’s so much that goes into hole to hole in terms of, are you hitting it close, are you able to tap it in, or you have to mark it, stuff like that ... it’s very hard to make that call. And we just didn’t agree with it, to be honest.”
The group got taken off the clock one hole later.
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