Imagine this: before Thursday’s opening round in the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink, four-time major champion and defending PGA Champion Scottie Scheffler had never had a lead or share of the lead after the first round of a major.
“Had” being the key word — because he has now.
Scheffler fired a 3-under 67 and shares the top spot on a bunched-up leaderboard with Aldrich Potgiester, Martin Kaymer, Min Woo Lee, Stephan Jaeger, Ryo Hisatsune and Alex Smalley.
“I think the emphasis would be share of the lead,” a self-deprecating Scheffler said. “I think there's like six or seven guys up there. I mean, it's a really tight leaderboard. At this moment, it's anybody's tournament. It’s nice to get off to a good start. Get some rest tonight and wake up and do more of the same tomorrow.”
It’s worth noting that the last two defending PGA Champions to have a lead or co-lead at the PGA Championship after 18 holes both went on to successfully defend their titles. Those players? Tiger Woods at Southern Hills in 2007 and Brooks Koepka in 2019 at Bethpage Black.
Not bad company at all.
“Definitely the best start I've gotten off to this year, maybe besides American Express maybe,” said Scheffler, who won the American Expess by four shots and opened with a 63. “Yeah, I felt like, especially going into the weekend when you look at like the Masters and Hilton Head and Cadillac, finishing second was probably not all that bad from where I was starting the weekend. Definitely nice to get off to a better start this week.”
The middle of the round is where things really got cooking for Scheffler with four birdies in six holes beginning on No. 6. He holed an 8-footer for birdie there followed by a 39-footer for birdie on No. 7. After pars on 8 and 9, Scheffler got back on the birdie train at No. 10 making a 28-foot putt. On 11, he made a putt just inside 10 feet.
And guess who’s tied for the lead? 👀
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 14, 2026
The defending PGA Champion with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 10 and 11.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/vztUvPAbq2
Scheffler’s lone back-nine bogey was at the par-3 14th. He missed a par putt from about 5 feet and chuckled as it slid past the hole.
“I mean, there's a ton of slope on the greens,” he said. “That putt in particular on 14, it was like the pin was on the very highest point of the green. It was like everything around it went like this. I just watched Fitzy's putt break right to left and he missed it on the left side. So I played it what I thought was right center, and it broke pretty severely to the right. There's just not much you can do there other than laugh. That's part of the game. Sometimes you get good and bad breaks. I holed a couple of long putts today, and any time you're able to do something like that, you've got to take the good with the bad.”
He birdied the par-5 16th on a short putt to get the stroke back.
Scheffler hit 13 of 14 fairways in the first round, which was key to scoring – playing from spots where he could attack.
“It's always important to get the ball on the fairway,” he said. “I think around this golf course there's a lot of run-ups on the greens, and they put the pins on some of the high points. So your scores are definitely going to be lower if you hit the ball on the fairway, but it's still really, really difficult to make birdies. You hit some really nice iron shots in there to 10, 15 feet, and you've got putts with a ton of break on them. This golf course, especially on the greens, is quite challenging.”
It’ll be a quick turnaround for Scheffler as he tees off in his second round Friday morning of the 10th tee at 8:40.
