2026 PGA Championship live updates: Rory McIlroy fighting to make cut on Friday at Aronimink

This leaderboard is BUNCHED. As it stands now, just nine strokes separate our leader Maverick McNealy from those sitting on the current cutline of four over. There are 33 players even par par or better, and 46 within six shots of the lead. It may be a tired cliche, but it really is anyone’s ballgame.

With the afternoon wave turning to the back nine, we now have a pretty good idea of where the cutline will fall. According to Data Golf’s live model, there is roughly an 80 percent chance the cut comes at four over and a 20 percent chance it comes at three over. 

Check out more about the PGA Championship cut rules, projection and bubble players here.

Jon Rahm is making a move at Aronimink. The two-time major winner has made two birdies over his past four holes and has moved into a tie for third as he plays his back nine.

If he can nab the Wannamaker Trophy this week, he’d be three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam — with a chance to complete it later this summer at Birkdale. 

We have a new name atop the leaderboard: Maverick McNealy.

The 30-year-old has made three birdies and an eagle (with just one bogey) to put get to four under for his round. With Aldrich Potgieter dropping a shot at the 17th, McNealy now sits alone in the lead at five under.

Rory McIlroy looks like an entirely different player in Round 2. A day after posting a disappointing 74 to start his championship, the Masters winner is two under through his opening nine to start his second round. His bogey-free 33 has him back to two over for the tournament and seven back of the lead held by Aldrich Potgieter. If he can stay steady coming home, he’ll stick around for the weekend and have an (outside) shot at winning the PGA for the third time in his career.

Oof. Brutal break for Sahith Theegala on the 10th hole.

After driving it in the fairway bunker, his second shot from the sand clipped a tree branch and then seemingly … disappeared. Once he reached the time limit searching for it, he had to take a lost-ball penalty and replay his shot from the sand. 

That stroke-and-distance penalty took what would’ve been a bogey and turned it into a triple, dropping Theegala from three under all the way back to even par. 

Let’s run down the leaderboard at 4 p.m. ET. 

–Aldrich Potgieter is at 5-under. He just made a good par 12 after hitting his tee ball nearly out of bounds. 

–Alex Smalley is 4-under. He shot a one-under 69 in the morning wave. 

–Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Chris Gotterup and Stephan Jaeger are 3-under. Matsuyama shot a 67 and Gotterup a 65 during the morning wave. Lee is on the 9th hole and is even par for the day. Jaeger is on the 1st hole (after starting on the back nine) and is also even par for the day. 

How many players are 10 shots or closer of the lead? Uh … 101. Things are tight. 

I also liked this thought from Scheffler:

Q. We were just — most of this we discussed about how difficult the course is and the conditions and the pins and whatnot. When you look up and see a 65 for Gotterup, for Chris for today, did you see a 64 out there, and how good of a round do you figure that was?

Scheffler: I think you can always see it, and I think that’s what is great about the harder tests. A lot of times you see somebody figure it out. Like you see that in a lot of U.S. Opens, you see that in a lot of these tournaments. And, like you see it on a golf course like Riviera, like somebody always figures it out. I think that’s when you see a really good test. I think a lot of times you see the scores get so close together it may not be as good of a test. So when you see a score like that from a guy like Chris, he’s obviously a really talented player — and I think that’s a good thing. It’s got to be a heck of a round. And, yes, I did see it out there, but I was six shots off of that, so that was a pretty good round.

Pin locations is THE topic as players are coming through the interview area. Here’s what Scottie Scheffler had to say:

Q. The setting up of the pins, does that feel harder than recent PGA Championship setups.

Scheffler: This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on Tour, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I did ask, I asked Fooch [Mark Fulcher], who caddies for Justin Rose. He’s been around a long time — and I asked Teddy, too [Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott — have you seen anything like this before? They said maybe Shinnecock [2018 U.S. Open] is the only place they have seen that has pins that could compare to this.

But it’s different in a sense on this golf course, because Oakmont, their greens are extremely severe, but they’re extremely severe in one direction. Here, it’s like the green may slope all this way and then we put the pin down here and then there’s also a slope this way. And like it’s not as, how would you say, natural to the slopes that are there. There’s a bit more, I think, that’s manufactured into the greens, and it’s just very difficult.

It’s difficult to get the ball close to the hole. It’s difficult to hole putts, especially when you have big slopes and wind, and I think that’s why you see the scores so close to par.

Justin Thomas just came through the interview area, and he had this to say about his group being put on the clock by officials:

Q. We saw you talking to an official. Were you guys put on the clock and what happened there?

Thomas: We were, yeah. We just didn’t really agree with it. It’s hard because it’s kind of the whole time par thing. What is time par? How can time par on this course be the same when it’s blowing 25 and the pins are tough than if it’s not? And does time par change every day? There’s just so many factors that go into it.

We were behind. I’m not — I think that wasn’t our issue or being annoyed by it, it’s just the fact that we weren’t holding up the group behind us. They were about — it seemed like every time we were on the green, they were on the tee and so on and so forth.

The hard part to me with the whole pace of play thing is that you, there’s so much that goes into golf and there’s so much that goes into hole to hole in terms of, are you hitting it close, are you able to tap it in, or you have to mark it, stuff like that, to where, are you holding the group up or are you not, to where it’s very hard to make that call. And we just didn’t agree with it, to be honest.

But we got taken off, and a hole later we were caught up. So it kind of goes to our point of why we didn’t think we should of, but it is what it is. It’s a part of it.

Q. Did you rush at all, did you do anything differently knowing you were on the clock?

Thomas: No. I backed off on my first shot being on the clock even. It’s just, it’s so hard out here, and that’s the last thing I’m going to do is make a mistake because I feel like I’m rushing.

If we were, for some reason, to get in a position where I was getting, we were getting bad times and we were continuing to be on, I would have had more discussions with the rules officials to kind of plead my case. But that was — it’s hard enough — I’m not going to sit out there and take two minutes, like that’s disrespectful to the field and everybody.

But at the same time, I’m not going to — you know, I’m not going to rush and hit a shot that isn’t right. So just kind of went about my business and just was ready to play when it was my turn like I feel like I do normally.

I also thought this was interesting from Gotterup:

Q. Do you remember playing a lot of other golf tournaments where the pins are this specifically tucked or challenging or on ridges, or does this happen more than we think?

Gotterup: On Tour they do a good job — I mean good being relative — but like a good job of putting it in tough spots, you know, where a grain changes, and as a player you don’t think it’s good because it’s tough, but it’s probably good for scoring.

I don’t think — I think this week is definitely an extreme in that department, more so with the wind. I think if it wasn’t blowing 20 mph, I don’t think it would be — I think there would be a lot more birdies. But every hole today for the most part, there were some on front that were reasonable and you can make birdie. Like hole 7 was relatively easy, 9 was relatively friendly.

But a lot of the holes feel like they are, like with the wind, you have no margin for error. Twelve today was four paces on the green and a shelf, and it’s straight downwind. I mean, no one’s going to try to skip it up there and stop it on the shelf. You’re just going to have 25 feet, which is fine, it’s not unfair, but you’re not going to see a lot of shots that are hitting next to the spin and spinning back there.

Chris Gotterup has come through the press tent — and I thought this exchange was interesting. 

Q. We’ve heard some grumblings from players as they’ve walked off the golf course. We get the impression that it’s hard, but is the setup fair, in your opinion?

Gotterup: I’m going to try to answer this properly. I don’t think it’s unfair, but I do think for pace of play and certain aspects, there have been a couple — you know, 14 today is probably aggressive, I will say. You’re hitting a 4-iron to a 10-foot circle, and if it doesn’t go there, it’s off the green, and if you hit it 40 feet left, you have a very hard two-putt.

So, you know, Bob [MacIntyre] made birdie in my group and he hit a great shot. So is it unfair? Probably not. But is it going to make the round slow? Yeah. Yesterday I think hole 8 was probably pushing it a little bit. I hit 5-wood yesterday, and I hit 7-iron today. Granted, I don’t know if they were expecting 30 mph winds yesterday, but I also did shoot five-under today.

So like I don’t think it’s — I don’t think it’s unfair by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re not going to get any 4.5-hour rounds out here if that’s what they, if that’s what’s going to happen. So, unfair, no, but, you know, tough to make birdies.

So let’s talk Scheffler. Two-under for the tournament. Two back of the lead as he exits. According to BetMGM at the moment, he’s the favorite, followed by Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, Chris Gotterup, Jon Rahm, Min Woo Lee and Nicolai Hojgaard. What about the current leader, Aldrich Potgieter? He’s 16th on the board, at +4,000. Interesting! 

Something that may interest only me, but … the PGA Championship’s online leaderboard is a good two or so minutes ahead of the broadcast. Scottie Scheffler’s birdie on 9, his final hole of the day, was posted well before ESPN showed it. 

Goooood afternoon! I’m at the controls now here. It’s Friday. We got some stars teeing off. Should be a good afternoon. Mildly wondering what I, the 14ish-handicap, would shoot today at Aronimink playing from the back tees and putting everything out. 130? More?  

Feel pretty comfortable saying that Chris Gotterup’s 65 Friday will be the round of the day, especially considering it came from the morning wave. He’ll sit a three under through 36 holes and just said he’ll gladly watch the boys play this afternoon, knowing how tricky the course is setup in pretty difficult conditions. 

Born and raised in New Jersey, not far from Aronimink, Gotterup says it feels a bit like home out here. 

There’s some recurring chatter about the fairness of the hole locations at Aronimink, and Shane Lowry just offered the best explanation after his round. He said usually at Augusta National, there are some hole locations on the edge of fairness, but then the next hole will be in a bit of a bowl. At Aronimink, there were no holes cut in bowls on Friday, he thought. Rather, he felt every pin was “on the bonnet of a car.” 

If there is going to be any sort of morning vs. afternoon wave differential, it could play out today. Thursday afternoon’s golfers got chilly, windy conditions for basically all of their opening 36 holes, and Friday afternoon’s golfers are seeing Aronimink settle in for a partly sunny, calmer evening. The course is set up more difficult today than during the first round, by nearly one shot on average. We’ll see if the boys bring us back to center in the afternoon. 

Major shoutout to Ben Kern. 

Never heard of him?

That might be because he’s a club pro who just shot one of the rounds of the day, a 67 in the chilly morning wind here at Aronimink, and will have no problem making the cut. The most faithful PGA fans will remember Ben from the 2018 PGA at Bellerive. That’s a deep cut, but a reminder that he is, indeed, a baller. 

Certainly some discourse surrounding the PACE of PLAY at this PGA Championship. As someone who is on-site, it’s clear to see a lot of that is logistical. The 1st and 10th holes share a tee box, which gets extra complicted during these first two rounds when groups are starting on both holes. The 9th hole (par 4) and the 17th (par 3) cross paths, right before making the turn, which causes delays. 

The ESPN broadcast caught the Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley group being told they were put on the clock, which certainly cause a bit of a disagreement with PGA of America rules officials. We’ll see what the explanation looked like when Thomas finishes and speaks with the media, but rounds are not quick. Thursday afternoon rounds approached the 5-hour, 30-minute mark. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse today.