Aaron Rai has moved into the sole lead at five under par after a remarkable third round at the 108th PGA Championship, played out at Aronimink Golf Club under increasingly testing conditions.
Leaderboard
Rai (-5 through 15) holds a one-shot advantage over the four-man group at four under: Matti Schmid (finished), Nick Taylor (finished), Jon Rahm (finished) and Chris Gotterup (through 10). A further ten players are at three under, including Rory McIlroy (finished), Xander Schauffele (finished), Patrick Reed (finished), Ludvig Åberg (through 15), Max Greyserman (12), Maverick McNealy (10) and Alex Smalley (10).
Course challenges and the wind
The test at Aronimink, a Donald Ross design restored by Gil Hanse that measures 7,394 yards as a par 70, was defined on Saturday by its longest holes and a freshening breeze. The 15th, at 551 yards, is the longest par four in major championship history – three yards longer than the 15th at Chambers Bay used for the 2015 US Open. Rai found himself in trouble there, his drive disappearing into thick rough down the left. Forced to gouge out, he then landed his wedge from 108 yards a few feet past the hole and spun it back to 17 inches, tidying up for a par that felt like a birdie. “Don’t miss the fairway, because you’re not getting on in regulation otherwise,” summarised the Sky Sports commentary, a point reinforced when McIlroy missed the short grass by a few feet and could only hack out with a 7-iron, still 40 yards short.
The par-five 16th, at 554 yards a whopping three yards longer than the 15th, also proved pivotal. From a similar position in the rough, Rai arrowed a low runner that scampered all the way to the front of the enormous green, leaving an 80-foot eagle attempt that he failed to get close – a three-putt par from 82 feet drew “a bit of the sting”. Ludvig Åberg, meanwhile, sent a gentle fade into the same green, pin high, only for a 13-foot eagle putt to hang on the left lip. “Half a dimple to the right and that was dropping,” observed the wire service; the birdie took him to four under. The 16th is just one of 180 bunkers that dot the layout, with large, firm, and fast putting surfaces that reward disciplined ball‑striking.
The wind, which had been relatively benign for early starters, picked up noticeably as the afternoon wore on. “Flags whipping, trouser legs flapping,” one correspondent noted. Justin Rose, who signed for a 65 and moved to two under, had warned that “the wind’s back up a little bit” and that the later starters would be “cursing the good fortune of the early birds”. Rose also remarked that “less gettable as the day goes on” and that players might start doubting themselves if they did not get off to a quick start. The swirling breeze made the par-three 17th particularly treacherous: Rai found the heart of the green amid the swirl, while Chris Gotterup made the “fatal error” of plonking his approach into thick rough covering a hill behind the green, leading to a bogey from which he limited the damage to a single dropped shot.
Key player movements
The round began with Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy sharing the lead at four under, but both slipped back – Smalley bogeyed the 1st, McNealy three-putted the 8th. Jon Rahm briefly joined the leading group after birdieing the 16th, only to horseshoe out a three-footer for par on the 18th. “He gives the putt a wee bit too much welly, playing through the gentle left-to-right break,” and that bogey handed Rai the sole lead.
Rai himself had taken the lead earlier with a run of three consecutive birdies from the 9th. His 15-footer on 11 – his third on the bounce – made him the 11th different leader of the day, according to Sky Sports. He later parred the 17th from 82 feet and could not convert a 15-foot birdie on 16, but at five under he remains in front.
Matti Schmid, a 28-year-old German making his PGA Championship debut, carded a 65 to take the clubhouse lead at four under, completing half of his round in stronger wind than the early starters faced. He is attempting to become just the third male major champion from Germany, after Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer. Nick Taylor matched Schmid’s 65, birdieing the 16th to join the group at four under, though he let a 12-footer for a share of the lead slip by on 18. Taylor’s playing partner Corey Conners endured a dreadful finish: after four consecutive birdies from the 3rd he bogeyed six of the last seven holes to sign for a 72, falling to three over.
Rory McIlroy, who opened with a 74, shot a front-nine 32 and birdied the 11th and 13th to reach four under, but a “too clever” approach on the 17th – dunking his tee shot into a bunker and then getting too delicate with his splash – cost him a bogey. He finished at three under after a testing up-and-down from thick rough on 18. Xander Schauffele also posted a 66 to sit at three under, matching McIlroy. Patrick Reed birdied 13 and 16 but misread a four-footer on the last, signing for a 67 and three under.
Scottie Scheffler, the world number one and defending champion, never got going. After three-putting the 8th for bogey, he missed a short birdie putt on 1 and struggled with his flat stick throughout, eventually turning in 36 and finishing the day at two under. “The expected charge across this supposedly easier front nine simply hasn’t materialised,” noted the coverage. His friend Brooks Koepka, playing alongside McIlroy, finished with a 68 to sit at one under.
Tournament situation
The competitive depth is extraordinary. When Rai briefly dropped a shot early, there were 55 players within seven shots of the lead; had he slipped further, that number would have risen to 65. The clubhouse lead was held briefly by Kristoffer Reitan, Chris Kirk and Justin Rose, all at two under after rounds of 65 – Kirk had a chance to shoot a record-equalling 62 but three-putted the 18th from off the green for a 65. Michael Kim, who was seven over with six holes to play on Friday, birdied four of his last six to make the cut, then shot a front-nine 30 on Saturday before a double bogey on 10 derailed his momentum; he finished level par. Sam Burns made four straight birdies from the 13th to reach three under. Joaquin Niemann posted a 66, as did Martin Kaymer, the 2010 champion who was reportedly piqued by a question at the champions’ dinner asking if he still played competitive golf.
Among those who missed the cut, a list that includes Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, and Max Homa, the tournament continues without many of its biggest names. Yet the leaderboard remains dense: Aaron Rai, the Englishman with three European Tour wins and a PGA Tour victory at the 2024 Wyndham Championship, is the sole man in front. Given no English player has won this title since Jim Barnes in 1919, the pursuit of a first major for the 31-year-old from Wolverhampton – who wears two gloves and has a career-high world ranking of 20th – now becomes the central narrative.
