Maverick McNealy took over a share of the 2026 PGA Championship lead with Alex Smalley after a three-under 67 in Round 2 at Aronimink, and credited an unlikely source for keeping him in a good headspace through one of the toughest tests in golf.
The 30-year-old American, drawn alongside three-time major champion Padraig Harrington for the first two rounds, said the Irishman's competitive joy at age 54 had been the most useful thing in his bag on a frustrating year.
"I feel like I played four and a half really good hours of golf," McNealy said. "I didn't play my best coming in, but there's always good stretches and bad stretches. I had a lot of things go my way today. I had a good tee time, that helped. This afternoon played a lot easier than the morning, I think. I didn't take advantage of it as much as I would have liked, but that went my way. I had a couple short game shots go my way. The bunker shot going in on 16 was a good example."
It was the company more than the conditions that McNealy chose to highlight. "Honestly, it was a lot of fun playing with Padraig Harrington out there today," McNealy said. "It's kind of been a frustrating year in some ways for me on the golf course, and seeing a guy that has such a great attitude and really loves the game and loves to compete as much as he does, and a quintessential great professional golfer, that was a great example for me out there today from an attitude standpoint. And he played great today, so that was a lot of fun."
McNealy, who memorably co-led the Masters going into the weekend earlier this year before fading on the weekend, was asked whether the experience at Augusta National had given him a major-week confidence boost.
"I honestly wouldn't say they're that high," McNealy admitted. "I didn't feel like I played that great. I somehow got a lot out of my game. This is obviously new territory for me, but I am confident that it's going to go into the experience bank, and good or bad, I'm going to learn a lot from it. I'm really excited to test my game in ways it hasn't been tested before. I think this is the next step for me as a professional is competing and playing well in this type of tournament."
Like every player at Aronimink this week, McNealy struggled to disguise his frustration with hole locations placed on the crowns of greens that already feature competing ridges and slopes.
"The thing that's hardest to see is that every hole location is on a crown," he said. "From TV, everything looks kind of flat, but you get up there and everything's on a crown. If you miss the putt right, it breaks right. You miss the putt left, it breaks left. Lag putting's different and difficult because you're going through ridges. There's competing slopes. So is the hill going to win, or is the little mound going to win? It seems like every lag putt falls off behind the flag, so if you hit it just a little too hard, it's going to run out an extra couple of feet. I think that's been the most difficult part of the setup here."
McNealy's round was nearly defined by a bogey at the 15th, his third three-putt of the week, before he bounced back with a vital bunker hole-out at the par-four 16th to regain momentum.
"Bogey at 15 was one of my three three-putts this week, I think, so it hasn't exactly been really tidy," McNealy said. "That tee shot was big. It's a left-to-right sloping fairway. I knew I had enough to cover the bunker, but wind off the left, it's a hard fairway to hold. Quality swing there rewarded myself with a four-iron out of the fairway. In off the left and I knew that left bunker was better than right bunker. Didn't hit the best shot, but at least missed it in the correct bunker. Walking up, I saw it was a decent lie and thought it was makeable. It came up perfect."
McNealy will tee off Saturday alongside Smalley, with Aronimink's firmness and forecast heat pointing to a final 36 holes that could finally allow somebody to separate from a packed weekend field.
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*Originally published on [Golf News](https://golfnews.global/article/maverick-mcnealy-pga-championship-2026-round-2-67-padraig-harrington-co-lead). Visit for full coverage.*
