NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — It ended on the walk from the 15th green to the 16th tee box. Another hole came and went with Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid having nothing to show for it. A par from Smalley kept him three shots out of the lead; a bogey from Schmid dropped him to four back. No one particularly cared.
Volunteers lining the 16th began folding up chairs. The day was long, and the crowd was gone. Smalley and Schmid represented the PGA Championship’s final pairing, even if there was no finish line ahead.
A little after 6:30 p.m. Sunday, an engraver was already etching Aaron Rai’s name on the Wanamaker Trophy. The inscription felt aggressive, maybe even a touch presumptuous, but one of the most unexpected runaways in recent major championship memory was clearly drawing near. Then Rai poured in a 67-foot birdie putt on Aronimink’s long, daunting par-3 17th hole to make it abundantly clear.
The cheer it set off rolled across the land, finding Smalley and Schmid a few hundred yards away.
They knew it was over. But there was still golf to be played.
Three holes to go. Smalley and Schmid began the day atop the tournament leaderboard and were now ending as also-rans. Out there in the long shadows of a missed opportunity, two men few people ever heard of before this week played out the day on an ever-emptying golf course, attempting to square the thoughts racing in their heads with the remaining shots in front of them.
This is the other side of Rai’s Cinderella victory at Aronimink. This is one of golf’s cruelest dynamics. This is how Sunday went for two players who went from being on the verge of making history for themselves to realizing how rare these chances truly are.
”Earlier today, I tried not to think about it,” Schmid said late Sunday afternoon, leaning against a locker in Aronimink’s locker room, a sprawling space of steel lockers and wooden benches lined diagonally underneath exposed eaves of a perched ceiling. “If I thought about it for more than a few seconds, the thought was — this is the biggest day I’ve ever had on the course.”
Schmid is a 28-year-old from Regensburg, Germany. Four career major starts before this year produced two missed cuts, a 59th-place finish at the 2021 Open, and 69th in the 2025 Open. His career? Solid and self-sustaining. He’s a member of the PGA Tour and earned $3.8 million combined over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He is, however, solidly obscure.
Schmid ended Saturday’s third round two shots behind Smalley and, while tied with four others at 4 under par, landed in Sunday’s final pairing because he posted his score before anyone else. He awoke around 7 a.m. Sunday, after sleeping better than he thought he might. Having found a decent breakfast place in nearby Wayne earlier this week, he went back for a bagel and coffee. Other than his being a tall man covered in golf brand logos, it’s unlikely anyone there considered he might be playing in the final group of the 2026 PGA Championship.
Nora Noelke is Schmid’s girlfriend. They’ve been together for nearly nine years and walked side by side to the first tee. Nora cut through the tension and asked Matti (short for Matthias) if he was nervous.
”He usually doesn’t get nervous at all, but he turned to me and just said, ‘Yes, I am nervous,’” Noelke said.
Well before his 2:40 p.m. tee time, Schmid watched early-round coverage at his rental house, thinking he might pick up some tidbits. He heard a broadcaster mention players were repeatedly ending up behind the pin on Aronimink’s first green and leaving putts short. Wouldn’t you know, Schmid found himself in that exact spot and figured he would be the one to get it right. Then he blew his first putt of the day 7 feet past on the low side. He began his day with a three-putt bogey and seemed destined to vanish.
But here’s where credit is due. Schmid followed with a birdie on No. 2. Then a birdie on No. 4. Then a birdie on No. 6. Out of nowhere, Schmid stood alone as solo leader. If you’re curious, Cinderella in German is “Aschenputtel.”
Schmid held at least a share of the lead for nearly an hour until bogeying the 10th. He came into Sunday wanting to see what shots in his arsenal could hold up against the pressure of a major championship. Even if it was for only nine holes, he got an answer — “A lot of them did.”
Smalley is 29 and, having turned pro in 2019 after some standout amateur playing days, has spent years looking for his big breakthrough. His resume is dotted with top-five PGA Tour finishes, including a few runners-up. This is perhaps why, after finishing Saturday with a two-stroke lead, he did everything possible to avoid thinking about what it would take to win a major against a stacked leaderboard. Saturday’s finish was so crowded that Jon Rahm wrapped up his news conference, eyeballed the number of players within striking distance of the lead — a group including himself, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and other alphas — and said to a small group of writers, “That’s crazy. I want to know how many of you have ever seen a leaderboard like that.”
Smalley spent Saturday night watching the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres in the NHL Eastern Conference semifinals. He stayed distracted. He didn’t let himself imagine how Sunday might change all the contours of his career.
Then he tried to go to bed.
“Once you’re lying in bed, your mind kind of goes places,” Smalley said late Sunday. “It’s difficult not to think forward and what the next day could hold.”
Recounting his restless night, Smalley pulled out his phone and opened a health app.
“A lot of light sleep, not very much REM or deep sleep,” he said, allowing a laugh. “It looks like my heart rate was pretty elevated.”
Massive galleries awaited the start of Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid’s final round. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Like Schmid, Smalley watched the early action. He heard his name a few times.
“Followed by, ‘He has four hours till he tees off.’”
Smalley arrived at Aronomink close to noon, had lunch in the clubhouse, then met with a physiotherapist. Putting his spikes on in the locker room before heading to the practice area, he took a few deep breaths and reminded himself he was “going to have a lot of eyeballs on me today” and to “stay present.”
Five straight opening pars were followed by a double bogey on No. 6, a bogey on No. 8, and a birdie on the ninth to make the turn at 2-over on the day and a few shots out of the lead.
Thus began the long walk home for Smalley and Schmid.
With no one behind them, and the crowd moving on without them, the back nine felt like a futile attempt to catch a receding shoreline, all while being accompanied by Dottie Pepper.
“It was weird,” said Michael Burns, Smalley’s caddie. “The whole feeling. It was really weird. That’s the only word for it.”
On 16, Schmid pumped a drive well right of the fairway. Arriving at his ball, caddie Chris Selfridge asked whether the shot hit anyone. The volunteer said no one was there, and it actually hit an empty chair. Shortly after, Smalley rolled in an eagle to rouse a cheer from fans who didn’t seem totally sure which player was which.
On 17 green, the massive grandstand next to the spectacular par-3, which the PGA of America surely envisioned being a thumping stage at day’s end, was occupied by exactly 14 people. Attendance on their second-to-last hole was bolstered by a single reporter and a turtle atop a rock next to the bridge crossing the pond fronting the 17th.
After their final tee shots of the week, Schmid and Smalley walked side by side down 18 and chatted, sharing a laugh. As they did, a fan yelled, “Be proud of yourselves, guys!” as if boosting the spirits of a grade school soccer team.
Matti Schmid congratulates Aaron Rai after Rai’s win. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images
A solid crowd remained around 18 for Rai’s trophy presentation, and it’s a good thing they did because here’s what was missed by those who forgot Schmid and Smalley were on the course. As the day went on without them, two pros were toiling over one shot after another, everyone carrying enough weight to change their careers and shape everything that comes next. A top-four finish in the PGA comes with an invite to the next year’s Masters Tournament. Every spot on the leaderboard of a major represents a few vital FedEx Cup points that might not mean a whole lot to you or me or Rory or Scottie, but sure means a whole hell of a lot to Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid. This was high drama, if you looked for it.
“Everything was so, like, hyped in the beginning — the crowd, the feeling inside,” Schmid said. “And then it really flattened a little bit at the end. But obviously, you have to still grind. My nerves were still there.”
Even without a win, Sunday might still stand as the big day of Schmid’s and Smalley’s careers.
Smalley rolled in a birdie on 18 to shoot even par in his final round and secure a runner-up finish with Rahm. He’s going to Augusta.
Schmid finished the day at 1-under, tied for fourth with Ludvig Åberg and Justin Thomas. He is confident he doesn’t need to worry too much about retaining his PGA Tour membership in 2027.
“Remember,” Schmid said later. “Unless you’re a top player, you are still out here trying to keep your card every year. It’s work.”
