Logjam at Aronimink

Scheffler among seven sharing lead after first round of 108th PGA

Scottie Scheffler’s 2026 first-round scoring average of 70.33 entering the 108^th PGA Championship certainly doesn’t make him a “chopper,” a description that Sam Snead, a three-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy, preferred for poor golfers. But Scheffler, who has been No. 1 in the world for 191 weeks, has been notably slow out of the starting blocks this season. He is ranked 77^th in first-round scoring, in stark contrast to his ranks of seventh, first and first for the following three rounds, with only two of nine opening rounds in the 60s. His off-key beginnings have produced visible frustration. Scheffler has run hot at times before playing his way back into contention over the last 54 holes.

There wasn’t any cause for Scheffler—won the 2025 PGA at Quail Hollow and is trying to become the first player to successfully defend since Brooks Koepka in 2019—to boil over on Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia. Playing on a cool and breezy afternoon when a couple of the demanding par 3s played particularly stout, Scheffler was well in control of his formidable skills. He hit 13 of 14 fairways, 13 of 18 greens and had 28 putts, gaining more than three strokes on the greens, sixth-best on the day.

Scheffler’s solid overall performance resulted in a three-under 67, giving him a share of the first-round lead for the first time in 27 major appearances and the first time in any official event since the 2025 Travelers Championship.

But the four-time major champion has a lot of company—half a dozen others also shot 67—which makes the top of the leaderboard about as crowded as it has ever been after any round at a PGA Championship. Scheffler shares first place with Aldrich Potgieter, Min Woo Lee, Stephan Jaeger, Ryo Hisatsune, Martin Kaymer and Alex Smalley.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only the first rounds of the 1959 and 1969 PGAs, occasions when nine golfers were on top, featured more names tied for the lead. Raymond Floyd, the 1969 champion, held a share of the first-round lead that year in what could be a harbinger for Scheffler, who has been in good shape after 18 holes in each of his major victories.

His starts: tied for third at the 2022 Masters, second at the 2024 Masters, tied for 20^th at the 2025 PGA (a 69 to leader Jhonattan Vegas’ 64) and tied for sixth at the 2025 Open Championship (a 68 to trail six co-leaders by one stroke).

Those who shot 67 at Aronimink have a majors-record number of players in close pursuit: 33 within two strokes, 48 within three; 66 within four.

A big name who isn’t idling nearby is six-time major champion Rory McIlroy, who summed up his 74, which was marred by bogeys on five of his last six holes, as “s - - t.” He sprayed his tee shots, finding only five fairways, and had 34 putts. Bryson DeChambeau struggled even more, shooting 76.

McIlroy wasn’t the only multiple major winner laboring on the greens. Brooks Koepka is in excellent shape with a 69 (matching, among others at that number, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa) but he lost nearly two strokes on the greens to rank 138^th in the field as he took 32 putts. At the other end of the putting spectrum was Potgieter, who has struggled on the greens in 2026 but gained 5.263 strokes putting to lead the field Thursday.

Potgieter’s putting turnaround on Aronimink’s treacherous greens might not have been the biggest surprise on the day-one leaderboard. Kaymer’s presence as a co-leader sure wasn’t expected. The two-time major champion from Germany, 41, who plays on LIV Golf, hasn’t won since his 2014 U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst and hasn’t finished in the top 10 of a major since tying for seventh in the 2016 PGA.

The 2010 PGA champion, Kaymer teed it up Thursday with a chip on his shoulder after an interaction at the Champions Dinner earlier in the week. “There was a gentleman sitting next to me from the PGA of America, and he asked me if I still play,” Kaymer said. “And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, are you playing this week? And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m not flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys. Of course I’m playing.’ And that really motivated me.”

For Scheffler, Kaymer and the other co-leaders, their 67s were tasty small plates at a crowded table, main course to come.

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