Alex Smalley kept his composure amid pure chaos Saturday in the PGA Championship, when he vanished from the leaderboard with a shaky start and when he surged back in front with sublime shots along the back nine at Aronimink Golf Club.
His voice was calm and steady after signing for a 2-under 68 for a two-shot lead. He recognizes the stakes and the stage for someone who has yet to win on tour.
“I’m trying to downplay that as much as I possibly can just to make it seem like any other golf tournament, because essentially that’s all it really is,” Smalley said.
One look at the leaderboard would illustrate this PGA Championship is wildly different. Fourteen players had at least a share of the lead at some point Saturday. There was a seven-way tie for the lead with an hour left in the third round until Smalley’s big finish.
And he’s still left with an All-Star cast of contenders — 11 of them major champions — within five shots, a list that includes Masters champion Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Scheffler said when he finished with a 71, leaving him five shots behind. “I’ve never seen a leaderboard like this, this bunched up. Going into tomorrow, it’s quite literally anybody’s tournament.”
Smalley at least gets a head start thanks to six birdies over his last 10 holes that helped him recover from the rough start to become the only player to break par in all three rounds of the tournament.
His finishing kick kept this PGA Championship from having the largest 54-hole logjam in major championship history. Midway through the third round, 28 players were separated by two shots.
Rahm and McIlroy were among those tied for the lead at one point. Schauffele and Patrick Reed were right behind. About the only one who failed to seize on the moment was Scheffler, who missed six putts inside 10 feet, four of them for birdie.
Smalley’s final birdie putt from just inside 15 feet put him at 6-under 204, two shots ahead of the group that includes Rahm and three ahead of McIlroy, Schauffele and Reed.
“The challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well. That’s probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up,” Rahm said. “And it’s going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow.”
It starts with Smalley, a 29-year-old who spent three years in the Wannamaker dormitory at Duke, the name on the heavy PGA Championship trophy to be awarded Sunday. He is playing only his fifth major, never cracking the top 20. He’s also winless on the PGA Tour, but he showed up for his first major of the year off three straight finishes in the top 20.
Key to his round was a 15-foot par putt on the sixth hole to stop the slide. He took the lead with a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th — 551 yards into the wind — stretched it two shots by reaching the par-5 16th in two for another birdie and then had a bogey-birdie finish.
Rahm had a careless three-putt bogey on the final hole that slightly soiled his 3-under 67 and was part of the five-way tie for second with Ludvig Aberg of Sweden (68), Matti Schmid of Germany (65), Nick Taylor of Canada (65) and Aaron Rai of England (67).
McIlroy began the third round five shots behind but with 29 players ahead of him. He blasted his way to a 4-under 66 — his 25th score in a major at 66 or better. His target was to reach 5 under, and it looked like he might get there until failing to birdie the par-5 16th and having to scramble for bogey from a plugged lie in the bunker on the 17th.
“I feel like I still did enough to think I have a chance going into tomorrow,” McIlroy said.
Schauffele had a 66 and Reed bounced back with a 67, two shots behind along with McNealy, who bogeyed the final hole for a 71.
The pin positions were far more accessible than the previous two days, as McIlroy had predicted. No one shot better than 65, though Chris Kirk had a double bogey on the 18th for one of those rounds. Justin Rose was outside the cut line on Friday until holing a chip from deep rough for eagle on his last hole to make it with one shot to spare. He shot 65 and was among those four shots behind.
“When you have a set of greens like this, you can start to frustrate people pretty easily,” McIlroy said. “It’s frustrating to us, but at the same time, it creates a hell of an entertaining championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week.
“But watching and playing are two different things.”
What a show, indeed.
The leading 10 players come from seven countries, four of them major champions. Taylor saw the leaderboards across Aronimink and kept right on walking.
“It’s so bunched, it’s kind of pointless,” Taylor said. “I’ll definitely be aware late tomorrow, if I’m in that position. But with so many things going on, it’s just a distraction if you start looking at it.”
That’s what faces Smalley on Sunday, when he will try to become the first player since Shaun Micheel to make a major his first title on one of the main six main tours in the world. A victory would also come with a $3.69 million payout.
“Anybody who wants to play golf for a living dreams of winning on the PGA Tour when they’re younger. I recognize that I have an opportunity to do that tomorrow,” Smalley said. “I recognize that it’s on a stage that’s a little bit larger than most other tour events.”
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