McIlroy has angry exchange with fan at PGA. Rahm, Smith, Schauffele also fade

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Rory McIlroy's frustrating final round at the PGA Championship on Sunday boiled over with an angry exchange with a fan after a “U-S-A!” shout from the gallery at Aronimink Golf Club.

An errant shot out of heavy rough at the scoreable 16th hole derailed McIlroy's come-from-behind bid, and he appeared to respond to the shout by using an expletive while telling the fan to "shut up."

The exchange summarized the two-time Masters champion's confounding final round. He was not alone, as Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and Xander Schauffele had their chances and failed to catch Aaron Rai.

McIlroy said earlier in the week that the outlandish and abusive fan behavior he endures — like at the Ryder Cup last year — is usually limited to one week every four years, when the matches are contested in the U.S.

Sunday's interaction, far less severe than what he heard at Bethpage in New York, seemingly just came at a bad time.

McIlroy was three strokes behind Rai on the par-5 16th hole when his second shot out of rough from 37 yard was short and bounded into a bunker. The two-time Masters champion spun, glared at the spectator, grumbled under his breath and seemed to point out the person to security.

McIlroy started the final round three strokes behind the leaders and struggled to make up ground while others were finding the Donald Ross layout scoreable. He managed just one birdie on the front nine, and after a bogey 5 at the drivable par-4 13th, managed one more birdie coming in, settling for a 69 to tie for seventh at 4 under.

McIlroy didn't comment on the fan interaction, but admitted he left some strokes on the course.

“I think not birdieing the two par-5s and making the bogey at the drivable par-4 13th,” he said. “To me, I felt like I played the golf I needed to play the rest of the way. If I birdied the two par 5s and turned that 5 into a 3 on 13, the day looks very different.”

Rahm, who started two strokes back, took the steam out of his three birdies on the front nine with two bogeys for a 1-under 34 at the turn. Still in contention on the back, the Spaniard reeled off six pars before making a birdie at the 16, getting to 6 under, but by that point Rai was three strokes ahead.

“Just wish I’d have done better with the speed of the greens,” said Rahm, who needed 33 putts in the final round. “Just couldn’t seem to get it to the hole, and that’s the reason why I didn’t hole any more putts.”

The captain of LIV Golf's Legion XIII team found the good in his four rounds after barely making the cut at the Masters and finishing 38th.

“As far as I’m concerned, to be in the mix again and hit it as good as I did and perform as well as I did this weekend, it’s been a great week,” he said. “Four rounds and a par, even par, can’t really ask too much more of myself. Just maybe obviously hole in a few more putts, which is not an easy task over here on these greens.”

Smith, who reached the weekend after missing the cut in six straight majors, bolted to 5 under with birdies at Nos. 2, 4, and 9. But his round flattened out with seven straight pars on the back before dropping another stroke at the 17th.

The LIV player had weekend rounds of 68. Smith found early success when he moved to LIV with a victory in 2022 and two wins in 2023. He's winless since.

“It feels great to play nice,” Smith said. "You don’t work hard to play crap, and it’s frustrating, and the last couple of years have been frustrating. I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and not really getting anything out of it.

“Out there today, under the pressure I felt like I was able to trust it already. So lots of positive signs.”

Schauffele failed to gain on the leaders with pars on the first eight holes before a birdie at the ninth. Trouble struck with bogeys at Nos. 11 and 13th, and two late birdies were not enough for the 2024 PGA and British Open winner.

“You really had to kind of hang tough all day and really capitalize on some small spots,” he said. “For me to bogey a drivable hole there that got away from me, I was trying to be aggressive. I figured I needed to make birdie and tried to be aggressive and ended up making bogey. That’s just what this course can do to you.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Xander Schauffele waves after his shot on the first green during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Cameron Smith, of Australia, hits from the 18th fairway during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Jon Rahm, of Spain, looks at his club on the third fairway during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, reacts to a missed putt on the seventh green during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — He’s the best player on the best team. And the voters say he’s the best player in the league, too.

Again.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player on Sunday for the second consecutive year. He became the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion.

“Who he is has never changed,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think he’s touched up the edges on his game and on his leadership and on his perspective, just like anybody else that’s coming of age.”

The win for Gilgeous-Alexander, who is Canadian, marks the eighth consecutive time that the NBA’s MVP was born outside the U.S. The run started with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a U.S. citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024.

And in 2025 and 2026, SGA is the MVP.

“Shai’s so good at creating separation when he’s able to play 1-on-1,” Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He’s just really hard to stop, for any defender.”

International players finished 1-2-3 in the MVP balloting for the fifth consecutive season, with Jokic and San Antonio’s star French center Victor Wembanyama the other finalists this year.

— Last season the order was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo.

— In 2024, it was Jokic, then Gilgeous-Alexander and then-Dallas guard, now Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic of Slovenia.

— In 2023, it was Embiid, then Jokic, then Antetokounmpo.

— In 2022, it was Jokic, then Embiid, then Antetokounmpo.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama will face off Monday night when the Thunder and Spurs open Game 1 of the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is expected at Monday’s game to formally present Gilgeous-Alexander with a trophy for the third time in 12 months — the MVP award last May, the NBA Finals MVP award last June, and now this.

The MVP win is Gilgeous-Alexander’s second major individual award this season; he was also voted the league’s Clutch Player of the Year by an overwhelming margin — he got 96 of 100 first-place votes in that balloting, paying tribute to how great his performances tend to be in the final five minutes of close games.

Then again, he’s pretty good no matter how much time is on the clock.

Gilgeous-Alexander was second in the league with 31.1 points per game, second only to Doncic and his 33.5-point average. He also extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140 and counting; it’ll carry into next season as well.

He’s delightfully boring — one of the few mid-range specialists in the game, someone who excels at drawing fouls, isn’t a look-at-me type and gives some of the most thoughtful answers of anyone in the league. Emotions aren’t worth his time; staying calm is always his preferred move.

“It just gives me the best chance to make the right decision on the next play, which is what’s most important,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’ve noticed throughout my career and through personal experiences that emotions only get in the way of critical and smart thinking — especially in those moments when I want to get the job done the most. I try to put my emotions aside and stay locked in on what’s present and what matters most.”

Jokic not winning the award continues an odd trend: those who average a triple-double, often thought of as the holy grail of in-game accomplishment, almost never win MVP.

Jokic had the seventh instance of a player finishing a season averaging a triple-double — at least 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game — by putting up 27.7 points, a league-best 12.9 rebounds and a league-best 10.7 assists per game.

It wasn’t good enough for MVP. Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double four times and won MVP only once in those years. Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double in 1961-62; he didn’t win MVP that season. And now, Jokic has done it twice — with no MVPs to show for it, though he has won the award on three other occasions.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry was the last player born in the U.S. to be in the top three of the MVP balloting; he was third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. The last U.S. winner of the award was James Harden, then of Houston, in 2018. Harden has played for four different franchises since then.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander celebrates late in the second half of Game 2 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)