US PGA Championship 2026 golf: day two – live updates | US PGA
Key events
There goes Patrick Reed’s bogey-free status. He three-putts from the fringe at the back of 6. Slightly clumsy, given the lucky break of avoiding the fescue, and the subsequent controlled muscle onto the green.
-3: Smalley (2*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Reed (6), Blanchet (2*), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler’s travails from the tee box continue. His drive at 12 disappears into thick stuff down the left. He can only chop out, and is fortunate his ball skips over a fairway bunker. Then his wedge in is distinctly average by his absurdly high standards. He overhits a downhill par putt, and does pretty well to make the one coming back to limit the damage to bogey. But that’s two dropped shots in his first three holes, and he’s slipped down the standings to -1.
Garrick Higgo, who rocked up for work late yesterday but still shot 69 despite the two-shot penalty his tardiness cost him, arrives on the property in plenty of time. He’s got just over three hours to get to the 10th. “Scottie Scheffler made his tee time after getting arrested, so there’s no excuse really,” deadpans Mel Reid, who has been a wonderfully entertaining addition to Sky’s commentary team.
Patrick Reed gets up and down from the rough at the back of 5 to maintain his status as the only bogey-free player in the field. But he’s getting a bit ragged, and carves his drive at 6 towards the fescue on the right. “Don’t go in the fescue! Don’t go in the fescue! [resigned] Oh alright then, go in the fescue! [utterly defeated] Aw fuck-ing hell!” Apologies for the effing and jeffing, but that was some top-notch comic delivery. But he catches a break, the ball stopping just short of the tall grass … and he’s able to gouge out his ball all the way to the green. He should scramble another par from there.
There were a couple of hole-outs for eagle yesterday: Dan Brown from 101 yards on 11, Jon Rahm from similar distance at 2. Now David Lipsky repeats the feat from 43 yards on 9. He’s +2, and that’s the first hole-out of his major career. He’s +2.
Scottie being Scottie, he nearly makes the downhill 20-foot right-to-left birdie putt on 11. One more turn and it was in. But he’d have surely settled for par when watching that drive hysterically carve off to the right. Meanwhile back on 4, Patrick Reed joins the leaders by creaming his approach from 160 yards to five feet, and mopping up what’s left for birdie.
-3: Reed (4), Smalley (1*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Scheffler (2*), Blanchet (1*), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler likes a soft-shoe shuffle around the ball on his downswing, we’ve long known this. On 11, however, he takes it up a notch by performing the Tippy Toes, all over the place as he sends his tee shot into a bunker down the right. Scottie’s not easily flustered, of course, and finds the centre of the green with his second, giving himself an outside change of birdie, the sort he so often makes to sicken the rest of the pack. But if his opening two tee shots are anything to go by, a Scheffler procession is by no means a certain thing.
The two-time winner Justin Thomas played the front nine in 32 strokes yesterday. The back nine wasn’t so kind – two bogeys on the way home – and he’s not enjoying this stretch today, either. From the centre of 11, wedge in hand, he lands his ball on the false front of the green, and it’s dispatched back into a bunker. His splash out finds the same false front, and this time the ball u-turns back into greenside rough. He does very well to chip to six feet and make the bogey putt, but he’s back to level par for the tournament now, having yesterday reached the giddy heights of -3.
Scottie Scheffler’s third at 10, from 44 yards, is no good. It’s 20 feet shy of the flag. He can’t make the par saver, and that’s an immediate backwards step for the world number one and tournament favourite. Matt Fitzpatrick bogeys too, and it’s a double for Justin Rose. They’re -2, +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile on Sky, Laura Davies asks Wayne Riley what he thinks the leader will be on at the end of the day. Five under, he answers, without a beat of hesitation. In other words, good luck trying to go low, gentlemen. It’s going to be another hugely entertaining day!
Rose gathers himself and sends a decent wedge into 10, from 77 yards to 16 feet. He’ll have a look at a damage-limiting bogey. Meanwhile Scottie’s lie in the rough on the left isn’t great, and he’s forced to take his medicine, punching back out onto the fairway. Even the strongest hitters in the business aren’t of a mind to take liberties with this rough. To think everyone was talking about bringing Aronimink to its knees with some bomb and gouge at the start of the week! A textbook study in hubris, and that’s before we get around to the subjects of Rory and Bryson.
“Aww-wwwah!” Justin Rose yelps in anguish. He’s found a big fairway bunker down the right of 10. There’s a huge face which rises to the right, and water on the left, so he tries to bite off more than he can chew. The ball slaps apologetically into that face, nowhere near clearing it. He escapes with his second attempt but from 77 yards out, will now be doing well to limit the damage to bogey. Rose walked off 18 last night with a huge smile on his face, rolling in a long par saver; he’ll need to draw from those street-fighting reserves again now.
Scottie Scheffler barely missed a fairway yesterday, arguably the main reason he’s started this tournament fast, a rare feat for him this season on the PGA Tour. (On average, he’s been nearly three shots worse for his first round when compared to his cards on days two, three and four.) So the rest of the field can be forgiven for taking a collective gulp. However, golf being golf, he sends his opening tee shot today into the rough down the left of 10. That only just crept in, so it probably won’t stop him taking a shy for the green, but let’s assume nothing until he gets to the ball and discovers the lie he’s copped. Meanwhile up ahead, Robert MacIntyre bogeys the hole after finding a fairway bunker with his tee shot. He’s immediately back to +1.
It’s another dropped shot for Martin Kaymer, the result of a wayward drive. It was a bit of a surprise to see Kaymer, now 41, at the top of the leaderboard yesterday evening. The German reached number one in the world for a wee while back in 2011, won the 2010 PGA and the 2014 US Open, the 2014 Players, and sunk the decisive putt at the Miracle of Medinah. It’s a hell of a CV. But he’s done absolutely nothing in the majors since a tie for seventh at the 2016 PGA, an absolutely dismal record for a player so good, and has since disappeared on the LIV tour. Injuries have taken their toll, to be fair, so you can perhaps understand how he bristled at the champion’s dinner earlier this week when a PGA official asked him if he was still playing. “I’m not flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys,” he fumed, and that righteous anger fuelled yesterday’s excellent 67. But that’ll only propel you around Aronimink for so long, and he’s started out struggling today. He’s back to -1 in short order.
Shane Lowry duked out a steely 68 yesterday. Birdie at the 18th sent him away with a cheery look on his face. But he’s handed that shot back immediately with a careless three-putt on his first hole of the day, the 10th. Back to -1 for the 2019 Open winner. Also heading in the wrong direction early doors: the 2010 champion Martin Kaymer, who bogeys 2 to fall out of the big leading group. Speaking of which, Scottie Scheffler will be on the scene in less than ten minutes.
-3: Scheffler, Smalley, Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Kaymer (3), Reed (1), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Only one player went bogey-free yesterday: Patrick Reed. The 2018 Masters champion has already won twice on the DP World Tour this year, as well as contending a play-off in another tournament. And he competed hard at Augusta last month. He’s in form, and with his talent for and enjoyment of battling through things, might be a good shout this week. His opening drive today is wayward, and he’s forced to chop out from the cabbage, but he wedges his third from 50 yards to eight feet and calmly tidies up to keep his blemish-free record in tact. A 68 yesterday, and he’s -2 overall.
Block party. It’s happening again. He’s happening again. Michael Block, the club pro who lit up the 2023 tournament with three rounds of 70 and a 71 that included an ace with Rory McIlroy in attendance, is doing it again. A round of 70 yesterday, and now a 20-foot putt for birdie at the par-three 5th. He’s -1 overall and already beginning to dream of making the cut. It’d be an early birthday present: he’s 50 next month. Good luck finding a single punter at Aronimink who won’t be cheering him on.
About the weather. It shouldn’t be too different to the first day. A little bit warmer, but with the wind expected to occasionally pick up again. It’s blowing pretty briskly right now. There’s not much chance of rain, and the course didn’t get a soaking tonight, so it’ll be a little bit firmer and the ball should scuttle further. Which, given so many of the fairways at Aronimink tilt towards penal rough, may not necessarily be a good thing. But it’s a great day for golf!
Preamble
There are seven players tied for the lead, and another 42 within three shots of them. The day before Moving Day is going to feature a lot of jostling for position.
Here’s what the top of the leaderboard looked like at the end of the first day …
-3: Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune, Kaymer, Scheffler, Smalley
-2: Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele, Conners, Reed, Lowry
… and here are today’s tee times (BST). Starting on the 1st …
1145 Michael Block, Rasmus Højgaard, Dustin Johnson
1156 Mark Geddes, Steven Fisk, David Lipsky
1207 Sungjae Im, Austin Hurt, Casey Jarvis
1218 Andrew Putnam, Michael Kartrude, Matt Wallace
1229 Martin Kaymer, Elvis Smylie, Davis Riley
1240 Jason Dufner, Haotong Li, Jimmy Walker
1251 Nick Taylor, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Jordan Smith
1302 Emiliano Grillo, Patrick Reed, Pierceson Coody
1313 Brian Campbell, Adam Schenk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1324 Marco Penge, Sepp Straka, Patrick Rodgers
1335 Aaron Rai, Travis Smyth, Sami Valimaki
1346 Sam Stevens, Jayden Schaper, Garrett Sapp
1357 Timothy Wiseman, Matti Schmid, Austin Smotherman
1715 Aldrich Potgieter, David Puig, Denny McCarthy
1726 William Mouw, Chris Gabriele, Taylor Pendrith
1737 Tom Hoge, Bryce Fisher, Joaquin Niemann
1748 Keith Mitchell, Billy Horschel, Ian Holt
1759 Gary Woodland, Jason Day, Sam Burns
1810 Wyndham Clark, Cameron Smith, Brian Harman
1821 Patrick Cantlay, Min Woo Lee, Sahith Theegala
1832 Si Woo Kim, Derek Berg, Joe Highsmith
1843 Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Rickie Fowler
1854 Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton
1905 Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm
1916 Daniel Hillier, Ryan Vermeer, Max McGreevy
1927 Paul McClure, Mikael Lindberg, Angel Ayora
… and starting on the 10th …
1150 Andrew Novak, John Parry, Jordan Gumberg
1201 Ben Polland, Kurt Kitayama, Nico Echavarria
1212 Akshay Bhatia, Ricky Castillo, Michael Thorbjornsen
1223 Luke Donald, Jesse Droemer, Stewart Cink
1234 Hideki Matsuyama, J.J. Spaun, Max Homa
1245 Ben Kern, J.T. Poston, Russell Henley
1256 Adam Scott, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger
1307 Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry
1318 Chris Gotterup, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood
1329 Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas
1340 Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose
1351 Zach Haynes, Alex Smalley, Chandler Blanchet
1402 Bernd Wiesberger, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Andy Sullivan
1710 Braden Shattuck, Alex Fitzpatrick, Ben Griffin
1721 Francisco Bide, Harry Hall, Ryan Gerard
1732 Johnny Keefer, Rico Hoey, Nicolai Højgaard
1743 Shaun Micheel, Michael Brennan, Garrick Higgo
1754 YE Yang, Jhonattan Vegas, Matt McCarty
1805 Lucas Glover, Tom McKibbin, Stephan Jaeger
1816 Daniel Brown, Adrien Saddier, Harris English
1827 Jacob Bridgeman, Bud Cauley, Alex Noren
1838 Chris Kirk, Max Greyserman, Kristoffer Reitan
1849 Maverick McNealy, Thomas Detry, Padraig Harrington
1900 Ryan Lenahan, Ryan Fox, Kazuki Higa
1911 Jared Jones, Michael Kim, Ryo Hisatsune
1922 Tyler Collet, Kota Kaneko, Brandt Snedeker
