Five top storylines from first round of 2026 PGA Championship

Scottie Scheffler (YouTube)

It was a remarkable day on Thursday at the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia. Normally I would focus on the leaderboard in my post with the tournament being a major. However, due to the fact there are 48 golfers within three strokes of the lead, I will forward you to canadiansportscene.com to get the full list of layers in contention. Here are the top five headlines from the opening round.

1) Six-way tie for the lead.

Those at -3 and in the lead are Germans Martin Kaymer and Stephan Jaeger, South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter, Australia’s Min Woo Lee, and Americans Scottie Scheffler and Alex Smalley. Of the six in first place are two major champions. They are Kaymer, who won the 2010 PGA Championship and 2014 United States Open, and Scheffler, who won the 2022 and 2024 Masters, 2025 PGA Championship and 2025 British Open.

There are a couple of interesting statistics regarding Scheffler. This is the first time he is in the lead after the first round of a major. Scheffler is also only the third defending champion ever to lead the PGA Championship after the first round according to ESPN. The other two were Tiger Woods (2000), and Brooks Koepka (2019). Woods and Koepka successfully defended their titles.

2) Course played tough.

Remember this is not the U.S. Open. PGA Championship courses are not supposed to be this tough. However, it is fair to say that Aronimink played very difficult on Thursday, as nobody shot a score better than 67.

3) Important to be on time.

The biggest story of the day happened very early. That is when Garrick Higgo was one minute late for his tee-time. As a result, he was given a two stroke penalty. Higgo is among the group tied for 15th place at -1.

4) Who are the Australians in contention?

It was a great day for Min Woo Lee of Perth, who are among the six in the lead. On Thursday, Lee had five birdies and two bogeys. Meanwhile, major champions Jason Day of Beaudesert and Cameron Smith of Logan City, are two strokes back at -1. Day won the PGA Championship and Smith won the 2022 British Open.

5) Terrible day for McIlroy.

After winning the Masters last month, you would have expected the world number two to be in contention again this weekend. Wrong! Instead, McIlroy had four straight bogeys to finish his round, and is in 105th place at +4.