PGA TOUR

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – Greetings from Boston, Massachusetts where the Red Sox are on the road and struggling mightily, the Bruins were eliminated from the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the once-lowly Buffalo Sabres and the Celtics are watching Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals from their beach chairs in Cancun.

That brings us to this weekend’s PGA Championship in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, just a few miles north of Philadelphia. (Little known fact about Newtown Square, PA – not to be confused with Newton Centre, Massachusetts – is that it’s the place your favorite columnist made his Keswick Americans debut on the Dek, circa 1977). And, yes, I put a couple in centering for Holy Trinity mates Greg Pannell and Matt Feeney, but we lost to the Glenolden Gents of Philly in the semis.

I digress, although I’d love to be in Philadelphia.

The PGA Championship is run by the PGA of America, not to be confused with the PGA TOUR. The PGA of America is the governing body for all the club professionals working the thousands of golf courses in the USA, teaching and caring for the game. The PGA of America is also responsible for fielding the USA Ryder Cup teams and organizing the tournament when it’s staged in America. The President’s Cup comes in there, too, but we’ll leave that for another Presidency.

This year’s PGA Championship, the 108th, is being played at Aronimink Golf Club, a former PGA Tour venue for the BMW Championship.

The Thursday and Friday opening rounds were beyond challenging as a 1/2 inch of rain Wednesday night made for very soft, wet conditions in the deep rough. Morning round golfers paid the price, as did their counterparts on Friday when cold, blustery (14-20 mph winds) weather took its toll on the scorecards of even the very best – like Scottie Scheffler who bogeyed three of his first four holes (started on the Back 9) before grinding out a (+1) score of (71) after shooting (67) the previous afternoon.

As tough as the course and the rough played, it was the difficult pin placements which caused the most grief amongst the field. “You see it, you’re like, oh, wow, they’re pushing these things as far as they can,” Scheffler said of the pin locations. “Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd,” Scheffler added. “They were just so far into the areas where we thought the pins were going to be. This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on Tour,” he said, “and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont.”

Each of golf’s Majors had their signature attributes, but the PGA Championship was sort of lost in the shuffle without any single identity. Yes, the Wanamaker Trophy has its place amongst the great trophies in all of sports, but the fact the PGA moved around so much, and then was shifted from August to May in the PGA Tour schedule made it less important.

The Masters has the glory of Augusta National and its positioning in April is a sure sign of Spring. The players adore the course and the acceptance of the corny Green Jacket.

The U.S. Open (organized by the United States Golf Association or USGA) has been the most difficult and the courses utilized have become known as the hardest, or even “unfair” by some players.

The Open (a.k.a. British Open) is organized by the The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and is known as the R & A. The Open has the all the great golf courses, it has the history and the prestige associated with winning The Open is second-to-none. It’s golf’s version of Wimbledon. Whether it’s the Old Course at St. Andrew’s (host 30 times) to Prestwick (24 times) or the prestige of Muirfield (16 times), or Royal St. George’s Golf Club (15), or Royal Liverpool (12 times), The Open is the most distinguished of all tournament and it has the Claret Jug Trophy, The Open has cemented its place – not only in golf – but in all of sport.

That leaves The PGA Championship as “the fourth Major,” which is quite alright. The PGA of America’s hierarchy is proud of their tournament and its 107-year past history. This weekend, the Aronimink Golf Club is shining brightly, although you’d never know it from the Thursday and Friday weather. The 2026 edition of the PGA is shaping up to be two different tournaments, the first to get through the qualifier in the winds, then the weekend of great weather, some breeze, but overall – paradise on the golf course.

This week, 98 of the top 100 players in the World Golf Rankings teed-it-up. Only Lucas Herbert (#89) and Shaun Norris (#95) are missing.

Thirty-six hole leader Maverick McNealy faltered on Moving Day and shot (+1) but his co-leader, Alex Smalley, kept up his pace (-2) and it’s Smalley who leads the PGA by two strokes over five golfers tied for second. Saturday saw the big names jump up the leaderboard, a la Rory McIlroy who shot a (-4) to fight his way into contention after an opening round (74).

Five players shot (65) and six joined McIlroy in shooting a (66).

The take-away message channels the great line from the great Houston Rockets and Team USA coach Rudy Tomjanovich and that is to “never underestimate a major or a major champion.”

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: WWYIs believes it’s important to keep an eye on minor league baseball. Last week, there was some “investment advice” for the Oakland Ballers of the Pioneeer League. This weekend? It’s an update on the American Association. The sound of “Play Ball!” will be heard across the Midwest this week, as the American Association of Professional Baseball (@AA_Baseball) opened the 2026 regular season. There’s quite a newsworthy item of note to start the season; The Kane County Cougars will adopt an “alternate identity, the “Swedish Meatballs,” celebrating the strong Swedish population in Geneva, Illinois for games on June 13, July 31 and August 20.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced announced the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic will return to the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield on Sunday, December 6. The games will feature UMass vs. Wake Forest and Brown vs. Central Connecticut State (CCSU). The event is made possible in partnership with Explore Western Mass, Springfield Business Improvement District, UMass, and the MassMutual Center.

This year’s Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies will be held August 14 (Mohegan Sun festivities) and August 15 (Springfield, Mass.).

Teams of 1×1 hoopsters representing the great basketball cities of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, and Washington, D.C. advanced at “OBL: Battle of the Cities,” the first of three Championship events for Tracy McGrady’s Ones Basketball League.

The six teams advance to the next phase of the championship, “Standing 6,” set for June 12. From there, four will move on to “For the Throne,” the July 1 finals. All the games are being staged at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: Here’s a new one. On Saturday, the National Hockey League issued a very stiff penalty in regard to the leaague’s media relations rules. In a statement, the NHL notes, “As a result of flagrant violations of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs media regulations following Game 6 of their second round series against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, May 14, the Vegas Golden Knights will forfeit a second-round pick in the 2026 (Upper Deck) NHL Draft. In addition, Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella has been fined $100,000.”

The statement continued, “The imposition of these penalties comes after previous warnings were issued to the club regarding their compliance with the media regulations and other associated policies. Vegas has been offered the opportunity to appeal these penalties to the Commissioner’s Office. That appeal would be held in person next week in New York.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Napoleon Solo took honors in the Preakness on Saturday. The horse came into the race known for his impressive win in the 2025 Grade 1 Champagne Stakes. but with a questionable results in the Wood Memorial and in the Fountain of Youth Stakes when he finished 11 lengths and change off the lead. Mr Solo is trained by Chad Summers and was ridden to victory by Paco Lopez. The Preakness was run at Laurel in Maryland as Pimlico is undergoing renovations much like Belmont Park which shifts the third leg of the Triple Crown to Saratoga. Of course, thre was no intrigue for a Triple Crown winner this year as Derby winner, Golden Tempo, trained by Cherie DeVaux and ridden by José Ortiz, was not entered at Laurel Park. The 158th Belmont Stakes takes place on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

Second-seeded Notre Dame outscored Johns Hopkins 9-3 in the second half to break from a 6-6 tie and the Fighting Irish advanced to NCAA Lacrosse Championship Weekend for the third time in four years, topping the Blue Jays, 15-9, in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Hofstra. Syracuse advanced as well.

THIS JEST IN: According to the Associated Press, St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol believes in a “no shirt, no problem” mantra. His club was boosted to a win over the Royals Friday night and again on Saturday by a group of college players in the right-field seats who took off and waved their shirts as they sang, chanted and drew others into the fray. Marmol loved it so much that he bought tickets for shirtless revelers this weekend.

“Last night’s atmosphere was electric. Let’s run it back this weekend,” Marmol said in a social media post. “I’ll buy tickets for fans who want to sit in the right field Loge and bring the energy.”

It all began when the Stephen F. Austin club baseball team, known as the Lumberjacks, was in nearby Alton, Illinois, for the National Club Baseball Division II World Series. The Cardinals offered tickets to the team, and 17 players attended. The college players were back Saturday, when they shouted Marmol’s name numerous times along with “M-V-P!” when Jordan Walker came to bat. Other fans in the stadium joined in on the fun.

“I heard it pretty clearly,” Marmol said. “Welcome back to Busch. It was cool to see them back. The environment was awesome. We feed off that.”

Will he keep buying tickets?

“I’ll go broke,” Marmol quipped.