If you’re frontrunner sports fan—the kind that wear Dodgers hats on Tuesdays and Yankees caps on Wednesdays—the PGA Championship isn’t for you. Golf’s odd-duck major has long been a celebration of no names, underdogs and club pros, and that has continued in extreme fashion in 2026 with a historically tight leaderboard topped by an array of players even hardcore golf sickos would struggle to recognize at Starbucks.
That’s not just a vibe either, it’s a stat. According to ESPN’s Research team, this is just the second time in the past 30 years—and the first time in the past 23—that we’ve seen a final pairing at a major with less experience in the winner’s circle than Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid.
Per the ESPN Research team, the final pairing of Alex Smalley & Matti Schmid is the 2nd time in the last 30 years that the final pairing in a major includes two players without a win on the PGA TOUR or DP World Tour.
The other was the 2003 PGA Championship with Shaun Micheel…— Stephen Watson (@SWatsonTV) May 17, 2026
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That’s a remarkable summation of the 2026 PGA Championship so far but now comes the hard part for the last duo off on Sunday. At Oak Hill in 2003, Shaun Micheel held on to win by two over Chad Campbell. It still stands as his sole PGA Tour victory.
Will Smalley or Schmid be able to navigate those uncharted waters like Micheel did 23 years ago? It won’t be easy. You have to go all the way down to Bud Cauley at T-11 to find a chaser who hasn’t won a PGA Tour tournament before. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but with the likes of Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele lurking, it’s going to take a little luck and A LOT of grit if Smalley or Schmid are to lift the Wanamaker (and claim their first PGA Tour title) on Sunday.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
