PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 17, 2026

Alex Smalley

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Alex Smalley is with us here at the 108th PGA Championship.

Q. Alex, how would you describe how the day went? Obviously this is a new experience for you in the final pairing on a Sunday at a major.

ALEX SMALLEY: I was thrilled to be on the fairway at 1 with where I was yesterday. That was a big improvement for me. When I was handing my club back to my caddie, I was like, well, that was a little better than yesterday.

Look, I knew it was going to be a difficult round mentally and just because the golf course was drying out, it was warm, ball was bouncing a lot, rolling a lot.

Hung in there. Kind of gave myself some stress on the first few holes again. Made a couple of back-to-back mistakes on No. 6 and paid for it. 8's just a tough hole.

Played the par-5 tough again as well today. Able to hit the fairway on 9. It was kind of a tricky tee shot with the wind down off the left and those bunkers. I know those bunkers are a long way away but the ball is rolling so far. 350 doesn't seem like it's out of the question. So to get that ball on the fairway was big and to get the second shot on the green was big.

Just trying to hang in there. I feel like I played the difficult holes on the back nine today, felt pretty proud with how I played on the back nine. Had a few putts that just barely missed but had a couple that went in late in the round too.

Overall, very happy with even-par given the situation and final group in a major.

Q. With your finish, you punched a ticket to Augusta next year. Obviously you come into the day wanting to go for the win, but what does it mean to accomplish that this week, and how do you think you'll look back on this week and what it means for your career?

ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, thrilled to be going to Augusta next year. I knew that top 4 and ties, I believe it is, gets you into Augusta. So I knew that was a possibility. I wasn't really thinking about it honestly until I hit the green on 18, saw where I was. Was really just trying to two-putt, just trying to lag it up. That 20-footer up the hill on 18, I was just trying to get a tap-in. Fortunate enough that it went in.

This week was special. It was a lot of fun. I had a great amount of support out there. I tried not to get caught up in it a whole lot. I tried to just look where my feet were going, but I heard a huge amount of support, and I'm incredibly grateful to state of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding area for rooting me on these last four days.

As far as this tournament, in terms of my career, who knows? Maybe it's a springboard. It gives me a lot of confidence coming away from this week to know that I can compete on the PGA TOUR and even some of the major championships. So yeah, I think this week will do a lot for me.

Q. How difficult was the lie on 6, and what were you trying to -- what went wrong there?

ALEX SMALLEY: The first lie wasn't too bad. My second shot, it was -- some of the grass was laying towards the green. I think we had somewhere in the range of 85 yards, maybe 88 was the number that was coming to mind.

All I was really trying to do was land it 10 yards short of the green and let it trundle up. Obviously I didn't swing hard enough at it given the thickness of the rough and the lie and it just didn't come out.

Then my third shot was the worst lie I'd seen all week. It was really bad. Probably in hindsight should have just played it a little more left. If it was short of the green and left, it would have been fine, but with where the third shot ended up, I was pretty much dead. I knew I probably would have had to have made a 10 or 15-footer at best for bogey.

Tried to hit, I guess, a hero shot and kind of bladed it a bit. Just a few errors back to back that costs you in tournaments like this.

Q. I know it's kind of fresh now, but if you think maybe ten years from now, what do you think you'll remember about this week?

ALEX SMALLEY: Just trying to take care of my business and trying to just put one foot in front of the other.

There's a lot of noise at tournaments like this from what people are saying on TV to what people are saying to you on the golf course, whether it be fans or anyone like that. So there's a lot of outside noise, but I just try to think of it as another golf tournament.

I hope to come back here again. I'm not sure if Aronimink is on the rota for the PGA Championship or the BMW again any time soon, but I'll definitely have some great memories from this week.