Aldrich Potgieter grabbed the early lead at the PGA Championship on Friday, reaching five-under during the second round at Aronimink and putting himself on the verge of a place in the record book. The 21-year-old birdied the third hole with a five-foot putt and then rolled in a three-footer at the par-five ninth to move to five-under.
If Potgieter holds on through the rest of the round, he could become the youngest 36-hole leader at a major since Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters. The South Africa-born golfer spent nearly a decade of his childhood in Perth before his family returned to South Africa when he was 17, a path that has made his rise feel as international as it is rapid.
Potgieter’s move came on a day when the leaderboard kept shifting. Alex Smalley birdied 16 and 18 to seize the solo lead in the morning field, then bogeyed the first three holes on the front nine before closing with a birdie at nine for a 69 that left him at four-under 136 in the clubhouse. Hideki Matsuyama added a 67 and finished on 137, while Chris Gotterup closed with three birdies to shoot 65 and also reached 137.
Jason Day also pushed into the mix, opening with back-to-back birdies at the first two holes and reaching the turn in 34 to join Min Woo Lee at two-under. Lee had started the day tied for the lead but reached the turn in one-over par 36 and slipped back to two-under. Cameron Smith played the front nine in 36 and stood at even par for the tournament, on track to snap a streak of six straight missed cuts in majors.
The scoring reflected the conditions more than any one player’s form. Cold, windy weather made the 7,394-yard layout difficult to tame, and the sloped greens kept no one from pulling away. The projected cut line stood at three-over, a reminder that just making the weekend was turning into work. Smalley called it “a lot of really good moments, some not so great moments, and then a lot of just trying to keep moving forward in between,” and added that the morning was “difficult,” “chilly” and windy, with hole locations perched on top of crowns. Gotterup said he “just really battled all day,” calling the conditions very hard and the pins so severe that some “didn’t even look like were on the green.”
That leaves Potgieter with the headline and a field still close enough to turn quickly. On a day when one hot stretch could change the round and one bad run could undo it, the next few holes should decide whether the young leader keeps the pressure on the field or gets swallowed by it.
