PGA Championship Round 2: Jhonattan Vegas Holds On as Scottie Scheffler Moves Into Range

Jhonattan Vegas spent Friday at Quail Hollow getting help from a rake and then giving it right back on the last green. He still goes to bed with the lead at the PGA Championship, and Scottie Scheffler is now close enough to see it.

Vegas shot a 1-under 70 to reach 8-under 134, two clear of Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick and Si Woo Kim at 6-under 136. Scheffler and Max Homa share fifth at 5-under 137. A 10-player group sits at 4 under, which means 15 players are within four shots with 36 holes to play.

A Rake, Then a Lip-Out

Vegas had the kind of round that tests a 36-hole leader's nerve. On the par-3 17th, his tee shot struck a rake and kicked onto the green, and he walked off with a par. One hole later, he lipped out a 3-footer and made double bogey. That miss is the difference between a two-shot lead and a four-shot cushion.

Still, Vegas has 13 birdies through two rounds, and the 40-year-old became the first Venezuelan to hold the lead in a major, per CNN.

"Every chance you get to lead a major and play with the lead is never easy," Vegas said. "So I feel proud of a solid round today."

Kim Makes History on the Sixth

The shot of the day belonged to Kim, whose 5-wood on the 252-yard par-3 sixth found the bottom of the cup, the longest ace in major championship history according to the PGA of America. It topped the record Kim set himself at Royal Troon a year earlier, per CNN. Six birdies came with the ace in a 64 that vaulted Kim into a share of second.

Pavon got there more quietly. The Frenchman shot a bogey-free 65 in the morning wave and posted a number that held up all day. Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, matched his opening 68 with another one and is the only major winner in that tie for second.

Scheffler Starts to Lurk

Scheffler was tied for 20th and five back after Thursday. He climbed 15 spots on Friday with a 3-under 68, and he did it without his best swing. He birdied the third and eighth, gave one back at the 13th, then answered with birdies on 14 and 15. The only real miss coming home was a 4-foot birdie chance on the 17th.

"I didn't really feel like I made very many good swings today until probably the 14th hole," Scheffler said, per the PGA TOUR.

That is the uncomfortable part for the rest of the field. The world No. 1 has top-10 finishes in four of five PGA Championship starts, and on a day when he was searching, he still gained two shots on the leader.

Homa, a winner at Quail Hollow in 2019, was the other big mover. His 7-under 64 was built around a birdie-eagle-birdie run from 13 to 15, highlighted by a drive on the reachable 14th that stopped about a foot from the cup. Homa has spent 2025 rebuilding plenty around his game, and this was the first round in a while that looked like the old version.

Two Stars Sweat the Number

The cut fell at 1-over 143, with 74 players advancing, and two of the three highest-ranked players in the world needed every shot.

Rory McIlroy made four birdies in his first 10 holes, then gave much of it away with four bogeys, including the last two, for a 69. He has hit 10 of 28 fairways. SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio reported that his driver had been deemed nonconforming in testing earlier in the week, forcing a switch to a backup. McIlroy declined to speak with the media for a second straight day.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele was two over the cut line with seven holes to play. A birdie on 15 and three pars coming home got Schauffele in on the number with a 71, extending a made-cut streak to 64 events on the PGA TOUR, the longest since Tiger Woods ran off 142 in a row from 1998 to 2005, per the AP.

"The cuts, it's still a thing," Schauffele said, per the AP.

Bryson DeChambeau quietly moved to 3 under with a 68, and Jon Rahm is 2 under after a 70. Both are within six shots.

The Weekend Goes On Without Them

The list of players heading home is long and loud. Jordan Spieth shot 68 but missed by one at 2 over, so the career Grand Slam waits at least another year. Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose are all out. Matsuyama's streak of 19 straight made cuts in majors ended. Ludvig Åberg played his final three holes bogey, double, double to fall out.

Phil Mickelson made seven birdies on Friday and still could not make the weekend, because a bunker on the 12th took four swings to escape and produced an 8. And former champion Shaun Micheel had a snake slither past his ball on the 10th fairway, waited it out and then made birdie anyway.

What Saturday Asks

Vegas has the lead and the experience of carrying it through a messy Friday. The trio at 6 under has a ball-striker, a record-setter and a past major champion. Behind them, the best player in the world is three back and was not even swinging well. With 15 players inside four shots, moving day will sort out who gets a real look on Sunday.

Catch up on Thursday in our Round 1 recap. For more detail, see the PGA TOUR's Round 2 recap (opens in a new tab) and the PGA of America's report (opens in a new tab).

Sources: PGA TOUR, PGA of America (pgachampionship.com), AP, CNN. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.