PGA Championship 2026: The extra cash Alex Smalley earned making his final birdie putt is legitimately mind-blowing
Alex Smalley went from T-4 to T-2 at the PGA with a birdie on the 18th hole. That earned him an extra $822,600.
Four shots back of winner Aaron Rai, Alex Smalley understood he wasn’t going to win the PGA Championship if he made the 20-foot birdie putt he was standing over on the 18th green Sunday at Aronimink. The question is whether he realized how much he still would walk away with if he could hole the putt? He made it, and shortly afterward the magnitude of the moment settled in for the 29-year-old PGA Tour pro, playing in just his fifth major championship and never having finished better than T-23 in his prior starts.
The birdied allowed him to close with a 69 and grab a share of second place with Jon Rahm at six under for the championship. In turn, his payday at Aronimink jumped significantly; a four-way tie for fourth would have earned him $981,400, but T-2 was worth $1. 8 million.
In other words, the putt was worth $822,600. And let’s look at that a little more closely. The most Alex Smalley had ever won in any tournament of his career was $652,000 when he finished T-2 at the 2023 John Deere Classic.
So that putt by itself was worth more than his biggest previous payday in his five years on the PGA Tour. (It also joined one of the more ignominious clubs on tour). More PGA Championship coverage pga championship PGA Championship 2026: Golf needed a new hero.