The last hour of competition Saturday at Aronimink changed the PGA Championship quite a bit. The whole story focused around how many players were packed near the top of the leaderboard, with some 30 men within three shots of the lead at one point.
Then Alex Smalley, the leader after Round 2, rattled off three birdies in four holes and built a cushion, no longer making the aforementioned stat the story. He gave one back late, to bring more back into the mix, but then birdied the last hole and the 29-year-old Duke product shot 68 to take a two-shot lead into the final round. He was three over after the first four holes and still ended two-under on the day, making seven birdies.
Heady stuff.
A birdie on 18 & brilliant back nine. Alex Smalley will head into the final round with a two-shot lead. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/b0vpS7pMBM
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 16, 2026
Just think, Smalley, playing in only his fifth major, has only one top-10 finish this year and was not eligible to play in the Masters just a month ago. He tied for seventh place at Doral two weeks ago and tied for 17th last week at Quail Hollow.
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Hot on his heels is a mixture of others who are untested in this spot, with others who absolutely are. There are 22 players within four of the lead.
Smalley is playing in the last pairing with Germany’s Matti Schmid, playing in only his second major as a pro. They go off at 2:35 p.m. ET at Aronimink. But Jon Rahm (67), Rory McIlroy (66), Xander Schauffele (66) and Patrick Reed (67) are not far back. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (71) missed many shortish putts Saturday and is five shots back.
Rahm is with Canadian Nick Taylor in the penultimate pairing (2:25), while McIlroy and Schauffele, both three off the lead, are paired together at 2:05 p.m.
Here is a list of all pairings and tee times for Sunday’s final round.
7:40AM ETBrian Campbell, +16 Casey Jarvis, +10
7:49AMBen Kern, +8 Luke Donald, +8
7:58AMElvis Smylie, +7 Collin Morikawa, +5
8:07AMRasmus Neergaard-Petersen, +5 Kurt Kitayama, +4
8:16AMJason Day, +4 Ryan Gerard, +4
8:25AMMatt Wallace, +4 Alex Fitzpatrick, +4
8:34AMSami Valimaki, +4 Rasmus Hojgaard, +4
8:43AMJohn Parry, +4 Shane Lowry, +4
8:52AMWilliam Mouw, +4 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +4
9:01AMAlex Noren, +4 Patrick Cantlay, +3
9:10AMRyo Hisatsune, +3 Corey Conners, +3
9:19AMSahith Theegala, +3 Matt Fitzpatrick, +3
9:28AMSam Stevens, +3 Keith Mitchell, +3
9:37AMDaniel Brown, +3 Daniel Berger, +3
9:46AMJohn Keefer, +3 Michael Brennan, +3
9:55AMJhonattan Vegas, +3 Ryan Fox, +2
10:15AMChandler Blanchet, +2 Denny McCarthy, +2
10:25AMKazuki Higa, +2 Haotong Li, +1
10:35AMRico Hoey, +1 Jordan Spieth, +1
10:45AMTaylor Pendrith, +1 Stephan Jaeger, E
10:55AMAldrich Potgieter, E Justin Thomas, E
11:05AMCameron Young, E Si Woo Kim, E
11:15AMAndrew Novak, E Andrew Putnam, E
11:25AMDaniel Hillier, E Dustin Johnson, E
11:35AMTom Hoge, E Padraig Harrington, E
11:45AMMichael Kim, E Nicolai Hojgaard, E
12:05PMDavid Puig, -1 Scottie Scheffler, -1
12:15PMHarris English, -1 Rickie Fowler, -1
12:25PMBrooks Koepka, -1 Sam Burns, -1
12:35PMMikael Lindberg, -1 Brian Harman, -1
12:45PMChris Gotterup, -2 Hideki Matsuyama, -2
12:55PMMax Greyserman, -1 Min Woo Lee, -2
1:05PMCameron Smith, -2 Ben Griffin, -2
1:15PMBud Cauley, -2 Martin Kaymer, -2
1:25PMJoaquin Niemann, -2 Justin Rose, -2
1:35PMChris Kirk, -2 Kristoffer Reitan, -2
1:55PMMaverick McNealy, -3 Patrick Reed, -3
2:05PMRory McIlroy, -3 Xander Schauffele, -3
2:15PMLudvig Aberg, -4 Aaron Rai, -4
2:25PMJon Rahm, -4 Nick Taylor, -4
2:35PMMatti Schmid, -4 Alex Smalley, -6
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
