After making a surge and joining the leaders on three-under after day one, many had expected Scottie Scheffler to push ahead on day two at the PGA Championship.
That wasn't the case at all, though. The World No. 1 actually went backwards slightly, recording a score of +1 on Friday to drop to a tie for seventh as things stand.
Scheffler shot bogey on the 10th (his first hole of the day), and would go on to hit another three bogeys on 12, 13, and the sixth on his way back to the clubhouse.
Much has been made of the tricky course setup at Aronimink already, and Scheffler has added his voice to that particular chorus.
In fact, the 29-year-old insists he has never seen pin positions as intentionally difficult as this in his whole career.
Speaking to the media after his round on Friday, Scheffler highlighted a number of holes around the course where the pin positions were particularly challenging, and how he tried to deal with them.
"The par I made on 14 was extremely good. That was one of the craziest pins that I've seen," he said.
"Your ball wasn't going to roll off 50 yards away, but they put the pin on this high point. I hadn't seen anything like it."
He also wasn't keen on the setup for hole 10, adding: "I'm sitting there, the wind's blowing 20-25 miles an hour right-to-left, and I got a green that goes down right-to-left into a valley, up left-to-right, back right-to-left.
"Then the pin is quite literally, if I hit that chip shot and the pin's here and it goes to there, it goes all the way over the back of the green, and now I have a very, very difficult up-and-down for bogey.
"So you just have to play smart and patient and understand that, I hit good shots on the 10th hole, but there's sometimes, especially around a golf course like this, where you're going to hit some good shots that aren't quite good enough and you get punished pretty severely.
Scheffler claimed these were the "hardest set of pin locations" he's ever seen on the Tour. He even asked Justin Rose's caddie and his own if they had seen anything similar, and they both admitted the only course that comes close is next month's US Open veue Shinnecock Hills.
Scottie Scheffler called Friday's pin locations at the PGA Championship "kind of absurd.""This is the hardest set of pin locations that I've seen since I've been on Tour, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I did ask, I asked Fooch, who caddies for Justin Rose.… pic.twitter.com/dazlbF8roKMay 15, 2026
Scheffler did, rather rationally, admit that sometimes on the golf course, things are simply out of your control. However, he did go on to describe the pin positions at Aronimink as "absurd," too.
He's not the only one who's been criticizing the decisions, though. Justin Thomas, who saw his playing group put on the clock for purported slow play, said: "How can time par on this course be the same, when it's blowing 25 and the pins are tough?"
Meanwhile, Chris Gotterup recorded the lowest score of the week so far, but even he had some complaints.
"I don’t think it’s unfair, but I do think for pace of play and certain aspects, 14 today is probably aggressive," he said.
"You’re hitting a four iron to a 10-foot circle, and if it doesn’t go there, it’s off the green, and if you hit it 40 feet left, you have a very hard two-putt."
Still, all three golfers are comfortably within the projected cut at the PGA Championship. Now, we have to wait and see if adjustments are made tomorrow in light of the critique of the pin positions.
