PGA Championship: Buckle up, chaos ahead as 22 players are within 4 shots of lead
Alex Smalley, who has never won a PGA Tour event, leads a jam-packed leaderboard.
The leaderboard at the 108th PGA Championship is an absolute traffic jam at the top. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Jamie Squire via Getty Images NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Look, I don’t want to jinx anything here.
It’s possible that someone is going to grab control of the PGA Championship on Sunday and run away with it, stiff-arming the field and walking up the 18th at Aronimink Golf Club with a four-shot lead. You know what’s even more possible? We’re headed for a free-for-all like golf rarely sees, a jailbreak where we won’t know the winner of the year’s second major until the final putt on 18 — and maybe not even then.
“It's a jam-packed leaderboard,” conceded Xander Schauffele, who’s in the mix after a -4 Saturday. “Come (Sunday), there's going to be 25, 30 guys within striking distance with 9 to 10 holes to play. ” Heading into Sunday’s final round there are, actually, 22 players within four shots of the lead, 30 within five.
Alex Smalley, the loneliest man in professional golf, holds the lead at -6. Behind him at -4: pretty much everyone. If Smalley, in the final pairing Saturday, hadn’t suddenly caught fire with six birdies in his final 10 holes, the leaderboard would have been as thick as it’s ever been in a major championship.