NC native Alex Smalley goes from alternate to contender at PGA Championship
The most famous alternate in PGA Championship history was the ninth reserve, forced into a mad dash that required a last-minute, late-night drive from Memphis to Carmel, Indiana, with no guarantee he’d actually tee off.
And then, four days later, John Daly won the whole darn thing.
That is not to say Alex Smalley is going to win the PGA Championship this week at Quail Hollow, but there is precedent. And precedent paired with an opening-round 4-under 71 is more than enough fuel to let your mind conjure images of another underdog champion.
Fifteen hours after finding out he was in the field, the Duke grad turned Quail Hollow into his own little putt-putt course, knocking down over 171 feet of putts — including five from beyond 9 feet.
The highlight came on the seventh hole, when the North Carolina native drilled a 71-foot, 5-inch eagle putt to get himself back in red numbers.
Not bad for a guy who spent much of this week as the tournament’s first alternate — waiting, hoping, for someone to pull out. The news came around 4:15 p.m. Wednesday that Sahith Theegala was withdrawing because of neck pain and, all of a sudden, Smalley was in the field.
That’s about where the Daly comparisons end. Smalley did not need to make a 500-mile drive in the middle of the night to make his tee time. His family did not need to catch a red-eye flight.
He resides in Greensboro, just under two hours away from Quail Hollow, and has been in Charlotte all week, knowing there were favorable odds that one of the 156 players in the field would drop out.
“I prepared just like I could any other tournament,” Smalley said. “Played the front nine on Tuesday after the hour-and-a-half or two-hour delay we had, and I played the back nine yesterday morning.”
He’s been the first alternate before, getting congratulatory calls for Riviera and the Houston Open just past 5 a.m. on Thursday morning in the past. Those, though, weren’t majors — and they especially weren’t majors right down the road from where he grew up.
Born in upstate New York, the Smalleys moved to Wake Forest when Alex was 2. At 4, his grandmother gifted him a plastic club and rubber ball and he began hacking away. When he got to Wake Forest High, his junior career took off, he began winning and landed a scholarship to Duke.
He turned pro in 2019, made it onto the PGA Tour three years later and has been trying ever since to elevate himself into a mainstay at signature events.
Nothing aids that more than great finishes in majors — which, of course, require playing in majors. So as Tuesday turned to Wednesday this week — with rumors of ailments and potential dropouts funneling to Smalley — one could imagine the stress.
“I was losing hope after every passing hour,” Smalley said.
When the good news came, there were about 15 hours until his tee time — which for an alternate might as well be a month.
“I think knowing last night just put me in a good space that I could go out and do my typical routine,” Smalley said.
The plan for Thursday night? “Not a lot,” he said with a smile.
That’s OK. He’s got a weekend to rest up for.
