A crowded leaderboard at the 2026 PGA Championship—58 players are within six shots of the lead after 36 holes, the most in the history of the event—will make Saturday’s third round at Aronimink Golf Club all the more intriguing.
Is it anybody’s major to win? Well, actually, yes. Of the last 36 winners of the Wanamaker Trophy, all of them were within six-shot margin halfway through the championship.
Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley enter the weekend out front, shooting four-under 136s to grab a one-stroke edge on Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Chris Gotterup, Aldrich Potgieter, Stephen Jaeger and Max Greyserman. Among this pack of eight, just one has won a major previously (Matsuyama), which could bode well as the leaders come to grips not just with a difficult course but with the spectrum of a career-changing victory on the line.
However, that pressure will be ratcheted up a bit when seeing two of the names that are two strokes back at two under par. They would be Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, and Justin Thomas, a two-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy.
The cutline fell at four-over 144, with 82 players advancing to the weekend. Saturday’s third-round starting times will be released shortly. Here’s everybody who made the cut:
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Alex Noren, +4 Jhonattan Vegas, +4 Michael Brennan, +4 Nicolai Hojgaard, +4 John Keefer, +4 Taylor Pendrith, +4 William Mouw, +4 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +4 Brian Campbell, +4 Shane Lowry, +4 Daniel Berger, +4 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, +4 Elvis Smylie, +4 Luke Donald, +4 John Parry, +4
Michael Kim, +3Padraig Harrington, +3 Kristoffer Reitan, +3 Chris Kirk, +3 Daniel Brown, +3 Brian Harman, +3 Justin Rose, +3 Sami Valimaki, +3 Rasmus Hojgaard, +3
Mikael Lindberg, +2Kazuki Higa, +2 Sam Burns, +2 Keith Mitchell, +2 Joaquin Niemann, +2 Tom Hoge, +2 Denny McCarthy, +2 Alex Fitzpatrick, +2 Chandler Blanchet, +2 Sam Stevens, +2 Matt Fitzpatrick, +2 Martin Kaymer, +2 Matt Wallace, +2 Casey Jarvis, +2 Dustin Johnson, +2
Jordan Spieth, +1 Rory McIlroy, +1 Brooks Koepka, +1 Xander Schauffele, +1 Rickie Fowler, +1 Bud Cauley, +1 Sahith Theegala, +1 Ryan Gerard, +1 Ben Griffin, +1 Matti Schmid, +1 Collin Morikawa, +1 Corey Conners, +1 Nick Taylor, +1 Ben Kern, +1
Daniel Hiller, ERyo Hisatsune, ERyan Fox, E Cameron Smith, E Rico Hoey, E Patrick Reed, E Haotong Li, E Andrew Putnam, E
Jon Rahm, -1 Patrick Cantlay, -1 Jason Day, -1 Aaron Rai, -1 Kurt Kitayama, -1 Andrew Novak, -1
Ludvig Aberg, -2 Si Woo Kim, -2 Harris English, -2 David Puig, -2 Scottie Scheffler, -2 Justin Thomas, -2 Cameron Young, -2
Max Greyserman, -3 Min Woo Lee, -3 Stephan Jaeger, -3 Aldrich Potgieter, -3 Chris Gotterup, -3 Hideki Matsuyama, -3
Alex Smalley, -4 Maverick McNealy, -4
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
