{"id":965642,"date":"2026-05-17T01:27:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965642\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:27:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:27:29","slug":"alex-smalley-seeks-us-pga-upset-with-rory-mcilroy-among-chasing-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965642\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Smalley seeks US PGA upset with Rory McIlroy among chasing pack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 eRQajs\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p>Alex Smalley is ready to pull off an upset as he bids to hold off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/rory-mcilroy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rory McIlroy<\/a> and the chasing pack at the US PGA Championship.<\/p>\n<p>The American birdied four of the last six holes to pull two shots clear of the pack at Aronimink Golf Club.<\/p>\n<p>Heavyweight names including Ryder Cup stars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/jon-rahm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jon Rahm<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ludvig-aberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ludvig Aberg<\/a> were gathered at the top of the leaderboard, one clear of six-time major champion McIlroy and fellow major winners <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/xander-schauffele\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Xander Schauffele<\/a> and Patrick Reed.<\/p>\n<p>But Philadelphia, city of Rocky Balboa charging up its Museum of Art steps, loves an underdog story.<\/p>\n<p>Cast in that role is 29-year-old Smalley, in just his fifth major championship and without a PGA Tour win to his name.<\/p>\n<p>Having held the overnight lead, he bogeyed three of his first four holes on Saturday as it appeared his race may be run.<\/p>\n<p>But back he came and a birdie at the last took him to six under par and makes him the man to chase down \u2013 with a staggering 21 players within four shots of his lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody who wants to play golf for a living dreams of winning on the PGA Tour when they\u2019re younger,\u201d Smalley said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI recognise that I have an opportunity to do that tomorrow. I recognise that it\u2019s on a stage that\u2019s a little bit larger than most other tour events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to downplay that as much as I possibly can just to make it seem like any other golf tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The leaderboard has been tightly packed throughout the first three days, as low-scoring proved tough, with nobody prior to Smalley able to pull clear.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy, bidding to win back-to-back majors and a seventh overall, clawed his way back into the fight by shooting 66 to stand one off the lead when he signed his card.<\/p>\n<p>Rahm joined the five-strong group at four under, alongside England\u2019s Aaron Rai, Swede Aberg, Canadian Nick Taylor and German Matti Schmid.<\/p>\n<p>As he wrapped up his media interviews, Rahm looked at the leaderboard and asked if anyone had ever seen anything like it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well,\u201d Rahm said of the course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up and it\u2019s going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow. So in that sense, showmanship-wise, they\u2019ve done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justin Rose had earlier fought his way back into the tournament, matching the best round of the week with 65 and will start Sunday four shots off the lead.<\/p>\n<p>A shot further back is world number one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/scottie-scheffler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scottie Scheffler<\/a>, who struggled to a one-over round of 71.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing into tomorrow, it\u2019s quite literally anybody\u2019s tournament,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of guys that have a chance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomebody is going to have a great round and I\u2019m going to make sure to do my best to give myself my the best shot at being the one who has a great round.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Selected round four tee times<\/p>\n<p>5.05pm (all times BST) \u2013 Scottie Scheffler and David Puig6.25pm \u2013 Justin Rose and Joaquin Niemann7.05pm \u2013 Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele7.15pm \u2013 Aaron Rai and Ludvig Aberg7.25pm \u2013 Nick Taylor and Jon Rahm7.35pm \u2013 Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-965642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116587321515891637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}