Who is PGA leader Alex Smalley? A player with confidence he can win

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Alex Smalley lived in the Wannamaker Quad, the dorm at Duke when he blossomed into a golf star and even beat Scottie Scheffler in a key match in the NCAA Championship.

The “Wanny," as it’s called, houses sophomores and upperclassman.

He might poetically be the player hoisting the Wannamaker Trophy as the PGA Championship winner.

“My parents and I have been joking that maybe this would be a tournament that I would win just because of that kind of fact,” Smalley said. “That’s just kind of something that we’ve joked about even before I made it out here.”

Smalley graduated from Duke, loves travel to Disney World, and his mom and dad caddied extensively for him throughout his career.

Here's one more fun fact for Smalley: He leads the PGA Championship — not Rory McIlroy or Scheffler or Jon Rahm — and could close out his first career PGA Tour victory, much less his first major, on Sunday.

Smalley's recent hot streak stretched into Saturday with terrific play on the back nine at Aronimink Golf Club, with six birdies over his last 10 holes for a 2-under 68 and a two-shot lead.

The 29-year-old Smalley, out of Rochester, New York, has never finished higher in a major than a tie for 23rd. That came at Oak Hill in the 2023 PGA in his hometown. But his game has been trending upward, with seven top-25 finishes this season, including a second with teammate Hayden Springer in New Orleans and as seventh-place finish at Doral.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, I’ve had that the last couple of weeks, I’ve been fortunate to play, fortunate enough to play well the last few weeks to where that’s starting to become a norm, if you want to call it that,” Smalley said.

The norm just might earn him the Wannamaker Trophy.

Take a look at his accomplishments in just three rounds at Aronimink.

Smalley (67-69-68) is the only player in the field this week to shoot under par in each of the first three rounds and he has a 54-hole lead for the first time at a PGA Tour event.

“Anybody who wants to play golf for a living dreams of winning on the PGA Tour when they’re younger,” Smalley said. “I recognize that I have an opportunity to do that tomorrow. I recognize that it’s on a stage that’s a little bit larger than most other tour events. I’m trying to downplay that as much as I possibly can just to make it seem like any other golf tournament, because essentially that’s all it really is.”

At Duke, Smalley set the school record for the lowest career scoring average at 71.32 and the single-season scoring record of 70.35. He topped Scheffler of Texas in a 5-and-4 victory in a singles match at the 2018 NCAA Championships that might be his biggest claim to fame.

So far.

Smalley will be paired in the final group with Matti Schmid tomorrow. Neither player has a win on the PGA Tour.

Rooting on Smalley in his third career PGA will be his parents, Terry Smalley and Maria Smalley. Maria has been on the bag for her son in the past and was even dubbed a “mom-ager" for her active role inside the ropes.

“She takes videos of me when I’m out competing in a tournament. If she sees something, she might tell me later that night like, `Hey, your tempo seemed a little quick today. What did that feel like?'' Smalley said "Or she’ll send them to my golf coach as well so he can kind of see things.”

The best highlight video awaits Smalley now, if he can hang on at Aronimink for one more round.

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