NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA — Scottie Scheffler shot a 1-over 71 in the second round of the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, leaving him two shots behind clubhouse leader Alex Smalley. Scheffler had opened the tournament with a 3-under 67 that placed him in a seven-way tie for the first-round lead.

The world number one bogeyed three of his first four holes in the second round and missed the first six fairways on the back nine. He hit his tee shot to 1 foot, 10 inches from the cup on the par-3 17th hole. Scheffler pointed to the course setup as the central challenge of the day, saying it featured the hardest pin locations he had seen in his time on Tour.

"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." Scheffler also described the pin placement on the 14th hole, saying it was situated on a spine and ranked among the hardest individual pins he had encountered. "Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd. 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 said.

Scheffler has not won a tournament since January 2026. He welcomed the birth of his second child, Remy, ahead of the 2026 Masters, and addressed how his routine has shifted since adding a second child and taking on more responsibilities at tournaments. "I can't spend as much time at the golf course as I did when I was younger, early in my career, and that's for a variety of reasons. It's more important for me to get home in a timely manner now. A lot of it is just schedule adjustments. You just adjust your day and prioritize the things I need to prioritize. Yeah, just doing the best I can is really all I can describe it as," he said.

Scheffler has won 20 times on the PGA Tour since February 2022, including four major championships.