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Rory McIlroy birdied six of the archetypal 13 holes to prehend a stock of the pb successful Saturday’s (May 16, 2026) 3rd circular of the PGA Championship astatine abruptly susceptible Aronimink.
Midway co-leaders Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley were preparing to tee disconnected erstwhile McIlroy joined them atop the leaderboard astatine four-under par with a five-foot birdie putt astatine the 13th aft blasting retired of a bunker.
All the frontrunners were targets for the pursuing stars connected a breakout time astatine the 7,934-yard layout aft 2 days of brisk winds and hard pin placements connected sloped greens kept leaders bunched.
World fig 2 McIlroy opened with a birdie and answered a bogey astatine the 4th with birdies astatine the fifth, sixth and par-five ninth, pitching 53 yards from the fairway to 3 feet and acceptable up a birdie to ascent wrong 2 shots astatine the turn.
McIlroy, who captured his sixth large rubric astatine past month’s Masters, sank a 10-foot birdie putt astatine the 11th earlier matching the leaders astatine 13.
Not since Jordan Spieth successful 2015 has a subordinate won the archetypal 2 majors successful a year.
Not since Jack Nicklaus successful 1975 has a subordinate won the Masters and PGA Championship successful the aforesaid year.
McIlroy could go the archetypal PGA Championship victor to sprout 74 successful the opening circular since Payne Stewart successful 1989, having closed with 4 bogeys Thursday (May 14, 2026) past spending hours astatine the driving scope to lick tee woes.
American Xander Schauffele, a two-time large winner, birdied the sixth and seventh, followed a bogey astatine 8 with birdies astatine 9 and 11 to scope three-under, 1 adrift.
Spain’s Jon Rahm birdied the archetypal and par-three 5th holes to scope three-under, with England’s Aaron Rai and American Patrick Cantlay determination arsenic good aft 2 aboriginal birdies.
Chris Kirk, who birdied 5 of the archetypal 7 holes, concisely shared the pb by sinking an 18-foot birdie putt astatine the par-three 17th, needing a closing birdie to instrumentality the pb and lucifer the large grounds debased circular astatine 62.
But the 41-year-old American made a three-putt double-bogey astatine 18 and settled for shooting five-under par 65 to stock the clubhouse pb connected two-under 208.
“Finishing with a treble connected 18 stings a small bit, but played immoderate truly large golf, and bully to spot immoderate putts spell in,” Kirk said.
England’s 45-year-old Justin Rose, the 2013 US Open victor astatine adjacent Merion, and Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan, who won past week astatine Quail Hollow, besides fired 65s to basal connected 208.
Rose birdied the 3rd done sixth holes and closed the beforehand 9 with different portion Reitan followed back-to-back birdies astatine 11 and 12 with eagles astatine the driveable par-four 13th and par-five 16th.
“Got it rolling a small spot connected the backmost nine, truthful that felt good. Two eagles helped for sure,” said Reitan. “Changed my putter going into this round, conscionable to get a antithetic feel. That worked retired a bit.”
American Michael Kim became lone the 3rd subordinate successful the past 30 years to birdie six of the archetypal 7 holes.
Also ripe for the taking was a grounds $20.5 cardinal prize purse announced Saturday (May 16, 2026) by the PGA of America, $1.5 cardinal much than past year.
The victor volition cod $3.69 million, $270,000 much than top-ranked defending champion Scottie Scheffler made past year, with $2.214 cardinal to the runner-up.
Scheffler opened with 2 pars to stay connected two-under.
Three-time large victor Spieth, who would implicit a vocation Grand Slam with a triumph and drawback a nine-year large triumph drought, was level for the time and 1 implicit overall.
