2026 PGA Championship updates: Scottie Scheffler ties lead in opening round

Scheffler shares the lead

And just like that, Scottie Scheffler sticks it on the par-4 11th and drains the birdie putt to join the leader log-jam at three under.

Scottie climbs within 1

Scottie Scheffler just dropped a huuuuuuge birdie putt on No. 10 to reach two under overall — just one shot shy of the tournament lead.

Checking in on Scottie

Halfway through his opening round, defending champ Scottie Scheffler is one under par and two shots off the lead.

3’s a crowd

A fun stat noted just now on the ESPN broadcast: 56 players — more than a third of the entire field! — are currently within three shots of the lead, which stands at three under par.

Loaded leaderboard

Seven players currently hold the first-round lead at three under par, four of whom have already completed their second rounds:

Aldrich Potgeiter
Stephan Jaeger
Min Woo Lee
Ryo Hitsatsune

Three others are currently in the midst of their opening rounds:

Martin Kaymer (through 12)
Justin Thomas (through 8)
Alex Smalley (through 7)

Martin Kaymer claims share of lead

Martin Kaymer won the 2010 PGA Championship for his first-ever major. He followed that up with wins at the Players Championship and U.S. Open in 2014, but that is the extent of his PGA Tour record. He was among the first group of players to join LIV in 2022.

Kaymer is currently ranked 1,160 in the world, but his PGA win in 2010 gives him a lifetime exemption into this major. He’s missed the cut in 5 of his last 6 appearances, but a bogey-free round of three under par through 12 holes today has Kaymer tied for the early lead.

Jon Rahm explains on-course apology

After he signed for a one-under 69, Jon Rahm met with the media and was asked why he apologized to someone on the 7th hole.

“I got a flier on my second shot that went long,” he said. “It’s not a good spot. Just out of frustration, I tried to make an air swing, just over the grass, and I wasn’t looking, took a divot, and unfortunately, I hit a volunteer. Unfortunately it hit him in the shoulder and then the face. Which I couldn’t feel any worse. That’s why I was there apologizing. I need to somehow track him down to give him a present because that’s inexcusable and for something that could be completely avoidable. Whether it was my intention or not, it was just not good.”

“All right, thank you”

Rory McIlroy? Not pleased.

Rory McIlroy’s quest for a second straight major did not start well.

McIlroy, who started on the back, turned in even par but finished his round with four straight bogeys. He shot four-over 74 and is currently tied for 122nd at the PGA. Afterwards, he described his round simply as “s—.”

“I started missing fairways,” he said. “I missed the fairway right on 4, the fairway right on 6, the fairway right on 7, fairway right on 9. From there, it’s hard. I didn’t have great angles either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky. I felt like I did OK. I made that birdie on 5 to get back to even par after the soft bogey on 4, then I just got on that bogey train at the end.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler begins his title defense

Scottie Scheffler is off and running at the PGA Championship. Opening his tournament with a late tee time, Scheffler found the fairway, green and then two-putted for par on his opening hole. He’s playing alongside Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose in the third-to-last group off the first tee today.

Scheffler is the defending champion at the PGA, and he enters this week having finished second in his last three starts.

Bryson DeChambeau made one birdie in the first round of the PGA Championship — and it came on his final hole. (And it followed a bogey-double bogey stretch.)

He finished with a six-over 76 and is currently tied for 120th place. He’s got work to do tomorrow.

We now have three 67s in the house: Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger and Min Woo Lee.

Of those, only Lee entered among the favorites; the other two are each outside DataGolf’s top 100.

It’s early yet, of course. But with Bryson DeChambeau at 7 over par, Rory McIlroy at 3 over, Ludvig Aberg at 2 over par each and others like Scottie Scheffler just getting started, we’re guaranteed to have a mix of expected and unexpected names at the top — and near the bottom. 

Fascinating development with Garrick Higgo, who spent 15 or so minutes pleading his case in the scoring area post-round before ultimately accepting and signing for his two-shot penalty and one-under 69.

He was miffed by the lack of flexibility with the rule, which basically states that if your tee time is 7:18 a.m. and you show up at 7:18:30, you’re late. But he was proud of the way he battled back.

He’s T11 at 1 under par.

The early wave is starting to finish up, which means we’re getting a better sense of how the course is playing thus far. The early leader in the clubhouse at 3-under 67 is Aldrich Potgieter, who’s among the longest drivers on Tour. The solo leader at the moment is Min Woo Lee, another bomber. Keep an eye on that trend.

Arguably the most impressive performance thus far comes from Garrick Higgo, though; he was penalized two strokes for showing up late to the first tee and then rallied to shoot one-under 69. That’s especially impressive given Higgo’s poor form; entering the event his best finish is T40 in a dozen starts this year.

So far this PGA Championship rocks.

Dylan Dethier chiming in here for the next couple hours, but I’ll start off by saying I’m loving what I’m seeing. The course is hard, probably harder than most people projected. There are plenty of birdies and bogeys and just enough strangeness. The leaderboard is a mix of knowns and otherwise. Jordan Spieth is inside the top 10. The fans are out and about. The atmosphere’s great. It’s only going to get better. 

Jordan Spieth is now within one of the lead. 

Seeking the final leg of the career Grand Slam, Spieth is 2 under through 10. He has hit 87.5% of his fairways and 80% of his greens through 10 holes. 

In the pre-tournament press conference, Spieth said the best way to approach the one tournament he wants to win is to not focus on it. “The easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way.”

So far, so good.

Daniel Brown has joined Stephan Jaeger and Bud Cauley at the top of the early PGA leaderboard. 

Brown, the 102nd-ranked player in the world, holed his approach shot on the par-4 11th from 102 yards. He then followed that eagle with a birdie at No. 13 to get to 3 under.

Frustrations are continuing here for Bryson DeChambeau. 

On the par-3 17th, DeChambeau blocked his tee shot well right near the hospitality tent. His pitch from the rough came up short of the green, and he eventually made bogey. Walking off the green, DeChambeau was telling caddie Greg Bodine about his hands and where they are at contact. That’s one of the issues he was trying to work out on the range Wednesday night.

Last week, Tyrrell Hatton called his major record “horrific.”

The Englishman has two top-fives in his last three major starts, but his only top 10s at the PGA Championship came in 2016 and 2018. His week is off to a rough start here at Aronimink. He birdied 11 but has played his last three holes in 4 over, including a three-putt, double bogey at the par-4 15th. He then proceeded to block his tee shot on No. 16 right and had an animated conversation with his caddie (maybe himself) down the fairway.

On the other end of the scoreboard, Stephan Jaeger continues to set the pace. He’s 4 under through 10. 

Garrick Higgo is back to even par after being assessed a two-stroke penalty for being late to his tee time this morning. 

Higgo walked up to the tee box a minute late while holding his butter and was informed that he was late and would be given a two-stroke penalty. He made double-bogey 6 on the first hole but birdied No. 3 and No. 9 to make the turn at even.