Home favourites Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley will share a one-shot lead heading into the weekend at the US PGA Championship but they have a bunched chasing pack breathing down their necks at Aronimink Golf Club.
With a seven-way logjam after day one, it was expected the field could get spread in round two but with tough, windy conditions in Pennsylvania, that did not transpire.
McNealy briefly had some breathing room at six under but two late bogeys saw him fall back to four under with a 67, a target that had earlier been set by Smalley after a 69.
Two more Americans in Chris Gotterup and Max Greyserman were a shot off the lead alongside Australian Min Woo Lee, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, South African Aldrich Potgieter and German Stephan Jaeger.
There were a total of 43 players within five shots of the lead, with the cut just eight back.
Smalley started the day as part of the seven-strong leading contingent and birdies on the 16th and 18th sent him clear before a hat-trick of bogeys after the turn stalled his momentum.
Gains on the fourth and ninth then had him back on top after a 69 as he searches for a first professional win.
McNealy only has a single professional win on his CV at the 2024 RSM Classic and at one point it looked like he would be in a commanding position to claim a second on the biggest stage as an eagle on the 16th and birdies on the first, second and fifth moved him to six under.
But he surrendered bogeys on the sixth and eighth to come back to the pack after a 67.
Starting at the tenth, it was a hot putter that initially got the job done for Gotterup as he holed from 27 feet at the 11th and 23 feet at the 17th before dropping his only shot of the day on the second.
The PGA Championship is wide open with 82 players making the cut after Round 2. @ROLEX | #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/uzwbnoR0VT
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 16, 2026
He bounced straight back from 20 feet on the next before some smart iron play gave him a birdie-birdie-birdie finish and the low round of the week with a 65.
"I feel like, if I'm playing well, I can compete anywhere,” he said.
"I feel like you've got to keep putting yourself in position and you hope that one day it breaks through and it was your time. But as long as you can keep putting yourself there, I think that's all you can do."
Lee started the day in a share of the lead and birdied the fourth but then went tumbling in the wrong direction with dropped shots on the fifth, ninth and tenth.
A stunning approach on the 11th helped get a shot back and he then went birdie-birdie on the 15th and 16th before dropping a shot on the 17th in a 70.
“Not as in control as yesterday, I would say,” he said. “But happy with the grind.
“I did lose it a little bit out there just in the middle part. There's some tough holes out there.
“But it's very easy to get your mind spiralling, but you can't do that at a Major Championship. So made sure me and Shane, my caddie, had to regroup and thought I played the last seven, eight holes pretty good.
“But, yeah, the scores are showing that it's a very tough course.”
Matsuyama made four birdies with a single dropped in a 67 early in the day, while Potgieter led for a long time after birdies on the third and ninth but fell back with a bogey-bogey finish in a 70.
Jaeger remarkably made 18 pars in his round, with Greyserman eagling the ninth and birdieing the 14th but giving shots back on the third and tenth in his 69.
Swede Ludvig Åberg birdied four of his last seven holes in a 66 to sit at two under alongside fellow DP World Tour members David Puig, Justin Thomas and Si Woo Kim, defending champion and World Number One Scottie Scheffler and two more Americans in Cameron Young and Harris English.
