By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk
CHARLOTTE – We’re 36 holes into the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and Jhonattan Vegas still leads. Even the guys in Vegas didn’t have that one.
With rounds of 64-70, Vegas has consecutive under-par rounds for first time in 17 major championship starts (46 rounds). This is his seventh second-round lead/co-lead on the PGA TOUR but stands only 1-for-6 to date (2011 American Express) in converting to a “Dub.” His most recent 36- hole lead came at the 2019 John Deere Classic (T37)
Vegas became the 16th player to hold the outright lead after the first and second rounds of a PGA Championship, with six of those going on to win. The most recent: Xander Schauffele/2024).
Over the many years, the PGA Championship has had only five wire-to-wire winners (outright lead after each round), with Brooks Koepka (2019) the most recent.
Vegas is the first Venezuelan to hold the lead/co-lead in a major championship.
International players have won 14 of the first 22 events this season.
Alex Smalley (T7/-4) became the last player in the field following Sahith Theegala’s WD on Wednesday b/c of a neck injury.
Notables to Miss the Cut at (+1) include: Jordan Speith, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Ludvig Åberg, Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed, Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, and Dustin Johnson, among many others.
PGA Championship Leaderboard | After 36 Holes
1 Jhonattan Vegas 64 70 134 (-8)
T2 Matthieu Pavon 71 65 136 (-6)
T2 Matt Fitzpatrick 68 68 136 (-6)
T2 Si Woo Kim 72 64 136 (-6)
T5 Max Homa 73 64 137 (-5)
T5 Scottie Scheffler 69 68 137 (-5)
Full Leaderboard: (PGATourCom)