NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler entered Friday at the PGA Championship as one of seven tied for the lead after shooting a 3-under 67 in Thursday’s first round at Aronimink Golf Club. Given the rest of that group was made up of long shots and unproven players, Scheffler was the massive favorite and many wondered if he might run away and hide heading into the weekend.
We quickly learned that would not be the case when Scheffler got off to a terrible start, bogeying three of his first four holes to slip not just out of the lead but out of red figures entirely. Scheffler was lost early with his driver, missing the first six fairways on the back nine after starting on No. 10 — a shocking change after he hit 13-of-14 fairways in his first round. With the challenging greens and pin positions, the penalty for missing the fairway was severe, and the World No. 1 proved he isn’t immune from that punishment either.
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Scheffler would eventually claw his way back to 2 under by the time his round ended, kickstarting his run with the shot of the day on the 214-yard par-3 17th, hitting it to 1-feet, 10 inches from the cup.
A birdie at the last got him in the clubhouse with a 1-over 71 and kept him in the top 10 on the leaderboard, two back of clubhouse leader Alex Smalley from the morning wave. It wasn’t the round Scheffler hoped for when he began the day with a chance to grab the lead alone and apply massive amounts of pressure to the field, but as he walked off the course, he wasn’t beating himself up for a 1 over round.
The pin positions on Thursday were difficult, particularly with stiff winds presenting an additional challenge, but the PGA didn’t give the players any sort of reprieve in Friday’s second round. If anything, they ramped up the difficulty, with Scheffler calling them the hardest set of pins he’s ever played professionally.
“This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on Tour, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I asked [Justin Rose’s caddie Mark Fulcher], he’s been around a long time — and I asked Ted [Scott] too — ‘have you seen anything like this before?’ They said maybe Shinnecock is the only place they have seen that has pins that could compare to this.”
He explained that what made them so challenging was that they weren’t just perched on shelves, but that they were pushed to the extremes in those locations.
“Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd,” Scheffler said. “They were just so far into the areas where we thought the pins were going to be, and then they just — like the one on 14 was probably the hardest pin that I’ve seen in a long time just because, I mean, there’s literally just like a spine and they’re like, ‘oh, we’ll just put the pin right on top of it.’ And you’re like, ‘all right, well, I’ll see what I can do.’ Just challenging.”
Scheffler noted later that he didn’t feel like anything about the setup was unfair, just that it was extremely challenging and players were going to spend much of the day playing to the fat part of the green and trying to make pars and get down in two.
Scheffler was far from alone in his commentary on the setup. Nearly every player who walked off the course on Friday was talking about the pin positions, which were tucked away, perched on ridges and brought danger into play for anyone who dared attack them.
Some players were more frustrated with the pin positions than others — unsurprisingly it was often based on whether they played well or not — but even those who had strong rounds were stunned by some of the pins out there on Friday. Chris Gotterup, who posted the best round of the tournament with a 5-under 65, also highlighted the pin on the 14th hole, noting that it was “probably aggressive.”
The golf course has been the star of the 2026 PGA Championship thus far, as Aronimink has more than answered the questions of whether it could hold up against the world’s best. It’s gotten help from the weather as cooler temperatures and gusty winds have accentuated the challenges it presents, but the green complexes have provided an intense challenge and the PGA hasn’t pulled any punches with their pin positions.
Scheffler noted that because of the severity of the greens, the PGA can effectively pick the number they want the winning score to be as the weekend goes on, even with warmer weather and lighter winds.
“It’s funny sometimes, I feel like the thing in our game right now, which I do enjoy, I love hard tests of golf, but it’s also the hardest game in the world and we’re trying to make it harder, and there’s different ways you can do that,” Scheffler said. “You can do that on a golf course like this — I mean, I truly believe they could have the winning score be whatever they want it to be. It could be over par if they want it to be, just based purely upon pin locations.”
Jon Rahm posited on Thursday that someone at the PGA saw all the chatter about the winning score ending up at 16 under or lower and decided to ratchet up the difficulty. Perhaps after proving a point on the first two days, they’ll open up the scoring with some more friendly pin positions on Moving Day.
In either case, Scheffler knows his challenge is to continue playing smart golf and attacking when the opportunity presents itself. That will require being sharper off the tee, because as his two rounds proved, there’s a world of difference between playing out of the fairway regularly and having to play defense from the rough.
