Matt Cooper | PGA Championship halfway update: Fox and MacIntyre can defy the mud

Matt Cooper takes a look at the 36-hole position in the second major championship of the year.

It’s a rum business when a major championship hits the halfway point and the most significant action has been centred around the swear box. Yes, it’s ******* fair to say that the first two days of the 2025 PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club have been something of a damp squib. (Sky Sports’ Andrew Coltart: “Apologies if you read any bad language just now.”)

True, we’ve got a leader called Vegas, but he’s not exactly A list. The supposed star of the show, Rory McIlroy, turned up in a bright new green jacket (metaphorically, at least) and has only played well enough to put himself bottom of the bill heading into the weekend. The players are whining about the conditions, Shane Lowry was completely shafted by the soft fairways when his ball settled deep in someone else’s pitch mark, other players have had tantrums, and the on-course atmosphere towards to end of the second round was distinctly flat.

If the first major of the year was an undoubted classic, the second has spluttered along looking for second gear. From the Masters to mud balls, from green jackets to straight jackets, from roars to bores, from saving Rory McIlroy’s sanity to Tyrrell Hatton’s profanities.

The state of play

The leader is Jhonattan Vegas who’s carded 64-70 to sit on 8-under 134 through 36 holes. A four-time winner on the PGA Tour, most recently last July, he’s also been a six-time halfway leader and, not only did he only convert just the first of those, the last four times he’s been in this position he didn’t break 72 in the third round and three times found himself eight shots off the lead after 54 holes. The 40-year-old from Venezuela has one top 40 finish in the majors (T22nd in the 2016 PGA Championship) so this is the biggest weekend of his golfing life and the pressure will be enormous.

Sharing second, two shots back of the pacesetter, are Si Woo Kim (who made a hole-in-one yesterday), Matthew Fitzpatrick and Matthieu Pavon. The Korean is looking for his first top 10 in his 29th major (although he has won the “fifth major” – the Players Championship) while the Englishman and the Frenchman have both failed to record a top 10 anywhere in the world since June last year (against that, Fitzpatrick was the 2022 US Open champion and Pavon’s top 10 11 months ago was fifth place in last year’s US Open).

As top fours go it would be hard to imagine a more vulnerable quartet. Statistically, however, they are in a strong position.

The halfway numbers

In all, 27 of the last 30 winners of the PGA Championship were in the top 10 at halfway and 21 of them were tied third or better. 26 of those winners were within four shots of the lead and none was further than six back at this stage.

In 20 events held at the Quail Hollow Club 16 winners were tied seventh or better at halfway. 18 of those winners were within five strokes of the 36-hole lead. The significant outlier was Rory McIlroy in 2010 who was T48th before craving his way through the field with weekend laps of 66-62 to turn a nine-shot deficit into a four-shot victory. Guess what? He’s currently nine back again.

The chasers

Scottie Scheffler does not have the demeanour of a bird of prey but, sitting in a share of fifth on 5-under, he is the golfing equivalent of a raptor while the top four are mere dormice and water voles. Against that, he is 1-for-8 at winning from three back after 36 holes, he missed a tiddler on 17 last night, and he is a short price favourite now at 2/1.

Max Homa, who sits alongside the World No. 1, admitted last night that his recent swing problems left him “broken” and that his T12th finish at the Masters last month had been “smoke and mirrors”. He added that working with a new coach had helped: “All of a sudden, a lot of things clicked.” He’s a course winner who has also finished eighth there in both 2023 and 2024.

No less than 10 players are tied seventh and only one of them isn’t 50/1 or bigger. The market much prefers the claims of Bryson DeChambeau on 3-under (our pre-tournament pick is now second favourite behind Scheffler), Jon Rahm on 2-under and even McIlroy on 1-over.

The weekend should see the event move through those gears. Saturday’s action will be all about the hunters and the hunted. How low can the elite chasers go? Who among the surprise packages can remain involved? Who will be filling up that swear box?!

Ryan Fox each-way at 50/1

Of the pre-event selections we’ve got DeChambeau still chasing the win and Corey Conners could yet place. Regular readers of the column will know that I value recent experience of contending in a major and the Kiwi Ryan Fox lacks that but he has the next best thing: he was a winner last week. He also spent the first 36 holes of the Masters in the top 10 so he’s not entirely new to the idea of going to bed wondering what might happen tomorrow in the events that truly define a career. He’s playing nicely tee-to-green, has length when he needs it, and his putter is behaving.

Robert MacIntyre each-way at 33/1

The Scotsman was eighth in this championship last year after which he said: “The first time I feel like I’ve really been contending in a major going into a final round. Emotionally it worked. I stayed patient and got my reward.” He used that energy to win the Canadian and Scottish Opens in the next two months, and he’s revived the spirit through 36 holes. With four wins McIlroy is the Quail Hollow expert but MacIntyre tends to play well in the same spots as Europe’s finest player. He’s done well at Emirates, Jumeirah, Portrush, Royal County Down and his Canadian Open win was at Hamilton where McIlroy has also won.