Aldrich Potgieter heads into the weekend one shot off the lead at the PGA Championship at Aronimink.
A bogey-bogey finish saw the young South African fall one behind of duo Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy on a day of extremes at the second Major of the year.
Potgieter is seeing the bright side of his late stumble.
“No, I think you kind of are looking at it as an aspect of, okay, sleeping on the lead is not – it’s always good, but it’s mentally probably draining for a week like this where it’s so big. So I think being in a couple shots back kind of puts me in that position to be able to go and go look for a low round instead of defend,” he said.
“I think the weather’s also looking good, so might be able to go and get some more birdies.”
Birdies on 3 and 9 plus a string of pars had helped the South African to the top of the pile before the mistakes crept in late.
The two drop shots cost Potgieter some history on Friday. The 21-year-old Potgieter’s bid to become the youngest 36-hole major leader since Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters fell just short.
including top-ranked defending champion Scottie Scheffler, just two strokes off the lead entering the weekend.
McNealy, never in the top 25 after 36 holes in 14 prior major starts, fired a three-under par 67 to match Smalley on four-under 136 at the midway mark.
“This is unfamiliar territory to me,” McNealy said. “I was surprised to be that high on the leaderboard.”
McNealy, a back-nine starter whose best major finish was 18th at last month’s Masters, holed out a 54-foot bunker shot for eagle at the par-five 16th, then made birdie putts from 12 and 18 feet on the first two holes.
The world number 33 squandered the solo lead, however, with three-putt bogeys at the sixth and par-three eighth holes.
“My putter is going to have to be my best club,” McNealy said. “That’s the reason I still have a job out here.”
Smalley fell out of the solo lead with three bogeys in a row but a closing birdie put him on 69.
“It was difficult, it was chilly this morning, the wind was up,” Smalley said. “Some of the hole locations are very difficult. They’re right on the top of a crown.”
Sharing third with Potgieter on 137 were Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, plus Americans Chris Gotterup and Max Greyserman, Australian Min Woo Lee and German Stephan Jaeger, who made 18 pars.
Gotterup closed with three birdies to shoot 65.
“Just really battled all day,” Gotterup said. “It was very hard out there. It was cold. There were some pins it didn’t even look like were on the green.”
Joining Scheffler in ninth on 138 were fellow Americans Cameron Young, Justin Thomas and Harris English plus Spain’s David Puig, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg and South Korean Kim Si-woo.
Scheffler tumbled from a share of the lead with three bogeys in his first four holes but closed with a birdie at nine to shoot 71.
The four-time major winner missed seven fairways after hitting 13 of 14 on Thursday but complained most about hole positions.
“Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd,” Scheffler said. “You’ve just got to try to continue to hit good shots.”
Second-round scores on Friday in the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club (par-70):
136 – Maverick McNealy (USA) 69-67, Alex Smalley (USA) 67-69
137 – Max Greyserman (USA) 68-69, Christopher Gotterup (USA) 72-65, Min Woo Lee (AUS) 67-70, Stephan Jäger (GER) 67-70, Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 70-67, Aldrich Potgieter (RSA) 67-70
138 – Kim Si-Woo (KOR) 71-67, David Puig (ESP) 71-67, Ludvig Aberg (SWE) 72-66, Justin Thomas (USA) 69-69, Harris English (USA) 71-67, Scottie Scheffler (USA) 67-71, Cameron Young (USA) 71-67
139 – Patrick Cantlay (USA) 70-69, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 70-69, Andrew Novak (USA) 69-70, Jon Rahm (ESP) 69-70, Jason Day (AUS) 69-70, Aaron Rai (ENG) 70-69
140 – Li Haotong (CHN) 71-69, Ryo Hisatsune (JPN) 67-73, Rico Hoey (PHI) 70-70, Ryan Fox (NZL) 70-70, Daniel Hillier (NZL) 71-69, Andrew Putnam (USA) 69-71, Patrick Reed (USA) 68-72, Cameron Smith (AUS) 69-71
141 – Rickie Fowler (USA) 70-71, Bud Cauley (USA) 69-72, Jordan Spieth (USA) 69-72, Brooks Koepka (USA) 69-72, Xander Schauffele (USA) 68-73, Collin Morikawa (USA) 69-72, Sahith Theegala (USA) 68-73, Ben Kern (USA) 74-67, Ben Griffin (USA) 71-70, Ryan Gerard (USA) 69-72, Matthias Schmid (GER) 69-72, Nick Taylor (CAN) 69-72, Corey Conners (CAN) 68-73, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 74-67
142 – Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 70-72, Matt Wallace (ENG) 71-71, Alex Fitzpatrick (ENG) 72-70, Joaquin Niemann (CHI) 69-73, Martin Kaymer (GER) 67-75, Kazuki Higa (JPN) 71-71, Casey Jarvis (RSA) 70-72, Dustin Johnson (USA) 72-70, Tom Hoge (USA) 72-70, Sam Burns (USA) 70-72, Denny McCarthy (USA) 71-71, Keith Mitchell (USA) 73-69, Sam Stevens (USA) 69-73, Chandler Blanchet (USA) 69-73, Mikael Lindberg (SWE) 71-71
143 – Brian Harman (USA) 70-73, Chris Kirk (USA) 73-70, Michael Kim (USA) 73-70, Kristoffer Reitan (NOR) 71-72, Padraig Harrington (IRL) 74-69, Rasmus Hœjgaard (DEN) 72-71, Sami Välimäki (FIN) 73-70, Justin Rose (ENG) 70-73, Daniel Brown (ENG) 68-75
144 – Jhonattan Vegas (VEN) 73-71, Luke Donald (ENG) 71-73, John Parry (ENG) 73-71, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (DEN) 72-72, Nicolai Hœjgaard (DEN) 69-75, Taylor Pendrith (CAN) 72-72, Elvis Smylie (AUS) 72-72, Shane Lowry (IRL) 68-76, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA) 72-72, Daniel Berger (USA) 74-70, Brian Campbell (USA) 72-72, Michael Brennan (USA) 72-72, William Mouw (USA) 74-70, John Keefer (USA) 72-72, Alexander Norén (SWE) 71-73
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