Alex Smalley, Maverick McNealy atop cluttered PGA leaderboard

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- Well, that didn’t clear things up.

After seven players shared the first-round lead at the PGA Championship, Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley will enter the weekend narrowly ahead but in prime position to earn a career-changing win at Aronimink Golf Club.

McNealy and Smalley -- two players without a regular-season win or a major top-15 on their resume -- finished Friday’s second round at 4-under-par 136 for the championship, and another 13 players are one or two shots behind, setting up an unpredictable weekend at the second major of the year.

It’s just the third major in history to have 15 players within two shots of the lead after 36 holes, per Elias Sports Bureau.

Smalley posted a 69 during the morning wave to set the clubhouse lead, and McNealy was the first player all week to touch 6 under before two late bogeys set him back. They’re one in front of Chris Gotterup (5-under 65), Max Greyserman (69), Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (67), South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter (70), Australian Min Woo Lee (70) and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger (70).

Of that top eight, McNealy, Smalley, Gotterup, Greyserman, Potgieter, Lee and Jaeger have a mere two top-10 finishes at majors among them. Only Matsuyama has prevailed on this stage before, when he captured the 2021 Masters.

But the group at 2 under features heavy hitters who could apply pressure Saturday. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler bogeyed three of his first four holes and settled for a 71, but he’s only two back along with Cameron Young (67), Justin Thomas (69), Harris English (67), Ludvig Aberg of Sweden (66), Si Woo Kim of South Korea (67) and David Puig of Spain (67).

Snatching the lead Friday was something like a curse. Smalley, one of Thursday’s seven co-leaders, was the first of three players to forge a solo lead at 5 under only to give it all back.

He played the back nine -- the more difficult half of the course -- in 2 under par but proceeded to bogey Nos. 1, 2 and 3. He bounced back with a birdie at No. 4 before pitching his third shot at the par-5 ninth to 14 inches.

Smalley, a 29-year-old without a professional win, said he tried not to follow the scoring.

“But it’s hard to sometimes because the leaderboards are right in your face and in a number of spots,” Smalley said. “So realizing that I was near the top and there’s a lot of golf left, you just have to try and keep pushing forward and just try to hit as many greens as you can and try and get as many birdie putts as you can, because it’s playing pretty difficult.”

It was Potgieter’s turn next, as the 21-year-old birdied Nos. 3 and 9 and spent most of the back nine at 5 under. But he stumbled on his last two holes, bogeying both to drop back to where he began.

He chose to pick out a silver lining: There’s less pressure as the hunter than the hunted.

“There’s going to be a lot of (fans) out following us, but I think it will be better than the final group maybe or something like that,” Potgieter said. “So I think there’s a lot of positives still taking into this weekend being in the position I am instead of leading by one or being tied for the lead.”

This made way for McNealy, who rebounded from a bogey at No. 15 with an eagle 3 at No. 16 and added birdies at Nos. 1, 2, 5 to hit 6 under. Then a short par putt slid by at No. 6, he missed the green at the tricky par-3 eighth and a decision to chip with the toe of his putter didn’t pan out, producing another bogey.

“I didn’t feel like I played that great,” said McNealy, who has one FedEx Cup Fall victory to his name. “I somehow got a lot out of my game, and this is obviously new territory for me. But I am confident that it’s going to go into the experience bank, and good or bad, I’m going to learn a lot from it. And really excited to test my game in ways it hasn’t been tested before.”

Gotterup’s 65 is the best round of the tournament so far. Ranked No. 10 in the world, he burst onto the scene with last year’s Scottish Open title and third-place finish at the Open Championship before he won two events on the PGA Tour this winter. Gotterup birdied Nos. 7, 8 and 9 at the end of his round to surge up the leaderboard.

Jaeger managed to par all 18 holes Friday, while Greyserman, a native of New Jersey like Gotterup, chipped in for eagle on his final hole, the par-5 ninth.

Gotterup was one of many to comment on the media’s incorrect expectations at Aronimink.

“I was watching the coverage yesterday, and they were like, ‘I can’t believe the scores are this high,’” Gotterup said. “And then you see guys pulling 5-woods on par-3s and it’s like, yeah ... there’s going to be (one) birdie maybe for the day on a hole where you’re hitting 5-wood into a par-3. So, yeah, I don’t think it’s easy by any stretch of the imagination, but obviously whoever wins is going to have played the best. So that’s all you can ask for in a tournament.”

The cut line landed at 4 over par, with 82 players (top 70 plus ties) qualifying for the weekend. The highest-ranked player to miss the cut is World No. 6 Tommy Fleetwood of England (5 over), along with Norway’s Viktor Hovland (6 over), U.S. Open champ J.J. Spaun (6 over), Keegan Bradley (6 over) and Bryson DeChambeau (7 over).

Ben Kern was the only PGA teaching professional of 20 in the field to make the cut. Kern racked up six birdies amid a round of 67 to get to 1 over.

Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy, who described his first-round 74 as “s--,” rebounded to shoot a bogey-free 67. The World No. 2 moved to 1 over to comfortably make the cut, but he blamed the overly challenging pin locations for the bunched-up leaderboard.

“It’s easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and not that it’s hard to make bogey, but it feels like bogey’s the worst score you’re going to shoot on any one hole,” McIlroy said.

“I’ve always felt like really good setups, it starts to spread the field a bit, and not-great setups sort of bring everyone together. I feel like that’s what’s happened the last two days.”

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