PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026

Alex Smalley

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Alex Smalley is with us now at the the 108th PGA Championship. Alex, a 69 for you today. What can you tell us about your second round?

ALEX SMALLEY: A lot of really good moments, some not so great moments, and then a lot of just trying to keep moving forward in between. It was difficult, it was chilly this morning, the wind was up.

Some of the hole locations are very difficult. They're right on the top of a crown. So you might have a putt that goes uphill, but once it gets to the hole, it starts going downhill. So I had a couple 15- or 20-footers up the hill today that I was really just trying to lag up near around the hole and trying not to let it get away from me. It was difficult. I definitely would have taken a 1-under today before I teed off.

THE MODERATOR: That's great. Questions?

Q. Your caddie mentioned that you guys got put on the clock on 1. Can you talk about the emotions after that hit? And then also just looking up and maybe seeing your name at the top of the leaderboard, like what was the mixture of emotions when all that was happening?

ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, we had, I mean the last, 17 and 18 are two very difficult holes. And Chandler got a bad break on 18 that hit the tree and kind of went sideways. So I knew we were a little behind. We had already been warned, I think, before that. So I was aware we were probably going to get timed. It's not my first time being timed, so I wasn't too caught up in the moment with it. But it is what it is.

What was the second part?

Q. Just about maybe do you look at the leaderboards out there, and seeing your name kind of floating at the top, what goes through your mind when you see that?

ALEX SMALLEY: I try not to, but it's hard to sometimes because the leaderboards are right in your face and in a number of spots. So I was aware of where I was on the leaderboard. I try not to think about it a whole lot just because at that point in time the golf tournament wasn't even halfway over yet.

So realizing that I was near the top and there's a lot of golf left, you just have to try and keep pushing forward and just try to hit as many greens as you can and try and get as many birdie putts as you can, because it's playing pretty difficult.

Q. Looking at you from the outside not knowing much about you, it can be easy to say he seems quiet or he seems unassuming, but talking to your caddie and I spoke with Jamie Green, they say that's not the case at all. There's a lot of intensity there. So I wanted to put it to you, how do you see yourself in terms of your attitude on the course in terms of your personality among other golfers?

ALEX SMALLEY: I'm certainly not one that's super loud or boisterous or, you know, I try to stay laid back. I don't like being in the spotlight a whole lot, so I'm still trying to get used to playing in front of large groups of people like there are at tournaments like this one. Starting to get better.

But my first couple years on TOUR, I kind of struggled with that. It's a different feeling when you have hundreds or thousands of eyeballs on you at once. It can be a little overwhelming. So I just try to go about my business as best as I can and realize that there's probably people that don't know who I am, and that's fine, and I just try to keep going from there.

Q. You might have just answered this, but what do you think explains how consistent and successful you've been this year? Are you 29? Is that right?

ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah.

Q. So, yeah, I mean what is it that's kind of kicked into gear and clicked for you?

ALEX SMALLEY: I think tempo and rhythm are big parts of my golf swing. If I can keep my tempo and rhythm in check, I'm typically pretty good off the tee and into the green. So I've really just tried to dive into that and focus on that this year. I think it's served me pretty well.

My caddie Michael and I, we just started at the beginning part of this year, but he's very easy to get along with. So we try to keep the mood and atmosphere light in between shots. Obviously you want to focus when you get up to your ball, but in between shots when we're walking around, it's you can kind of let your mind go a little bit, because it's very, very difficult to focus for five or five and a half hours consecutively.

So try to focus pretty intently for 20 or 30 seconds at a time and then get out of it.

Q. How big coming off bogey, bogey, bogey, how big was the second shot you hit on 4, and did you kind of know how it would react out of the rough?

ALEX SMALLEY: Well, any shot was big. I think the tee shot was bigger. I thought my ball was going to be in the fairway on 4, so I was a little surprised when I got up there to not see a ball in the fairway. The lie was good, I got lucky on that one. There wasn't a whole lot of grass around my ball, so I didn't really have to worry about how it was going to come out of the rough. The lie was really good.

When I hit it, I landed it a little further into the green than what we were trying to. I guess it was close to going in the hole because some of the crowd and the grandstand behind the green went a little crazy. But I was just hoping it stayed on the green. I wasn't sure if it had gone just over the green into the rough. That would have been a very difficult chip because you were kind of chipping back uphill, and then two or three feet before the hole, it kind of went back downhill away from the pin.

So I find that I was pretty fortunate for my ball to stay on the green and then hit a really good putt. It wasn't an easy eight or nine-footer at all just because you had an uphill part and then a downhill part. So I was pretty pleased to see that one go in.

Q. What has your recent success done for your confidence?

ALEX SMALLEY: It's been a lot. You know, you can have the self confidence in yourself before you play a tournament and know that, yes, I'm good enough, I'm good enough to compete out here. But when you have results to back it up, I think that gives you that little extra mojo or that little extra confidence as well.

So I know I'm a good player that can compete out here on the PGA TOUR, but having some finishes that have been able to back up that success the last maybe two or three weeks has allowed me to kind of realize like, oh, okay, well I don't even, you know, I can't just compete out here, I can compete for a title.

Q. How did being put on the clock affect you today?

ALEX SMALLEY: I don't know if it really affected me a whole lot. Like I told her, this isn't my first time being on the clock. 17 and 18 are tough holes, we had a couple bad breaks on 18, so I probably knew that we were going to be timed because we had been warned earlier in the round.

It's always a little disconcerting when you feel like you kind of have to rush a little bit. So I tried not to feel like I was rushed. But I just misjudged the putt from over the green on 1, didn't catch my bunker shot on 2, and then hit a really poor wedge shot on 3.

So I really don't attribute those things to being on the clock. Just kind of comes with playing out here. There's going to be times where you're timed, and it's just going to happen.

Q. Do you have a sense of how good it is to be 4-under after two days in these conditions and this golf course, and was there any time during your round where you felt like you were getting away from the mix?

ALEX SMALLEY: Getting away from --

Q. From contention?

ALEX SMALLEY: From contention, okay. Yeah I'm very pleased with 4-under. It played really difficult the first couple of days with the wind. There's a couple fairways out here where I'm just not really sure how you're supposed to hit the fairway, No. 10 and No. 15 are two of those examples. I mean, the wind was going the same direction as the contour of the fairway, so you almost had to slice it up into the wind on 10 and 15 to be able to keep it in the fairway. And the fairways are running out, so I'm just, you know, I'm kind of perplexed on how you're supposed to hit either of those fairways.

But, yeah, I mean I'm very happy with 4-under. We'll see what the afternoon holds. I don't know what the lead's going to be, but we'll see. I don't know if there was ever a point where I felt it kind of slipping way.

I had a rough stretch on 1, 2 and 3. I don't know if I was just happy with getting away from some of the tougher holes on the back nine, like getting through 17, getting through 18. I don't know if I kind of let my foot off the gas pedal a little bit. I don't ever think I was feeling like it was slipping way, but I just had to get back to what I was doing before, just try to hit as many greens as I can and see if a putt would fall.