Scheffler can't conjure final-round magic in PGA Championship title defense

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler couldn't conjure up the late-round magic that has been the staple of his 2026 season Sunday at the PGA Championship.

Scheffler's title defense that started with so much promise Thursday ended quietly at Aronimink Golf Club with a 2-under 278 and a tie for 14th.

The world No. 1 was tied for the lead at 3-under 67 on Thursday, the only time in his career that he led or shared first in the opening round of a major. He posted consecutive 71s in chilly, windy conditions in the middle rounds and, at 1 under, was five strokes back at the start of warmer, calmer Sunday.

This time, however, there was nothing resembling the closing kick that carried him to a seconds at The Masters and Doral, a third in Phoenix or fourth at Pebble Beach.

Scheffler missed a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 3 and failed to convert two 3-foot par putts on the back nine.

Now, he'll try to complete the career Grand Slam at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York next month.

Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid got great payoffs with their top-five finishes at the PGA Championship: an invitation to The Masters for the first time.

The top 15 finished in the PGA earn a return trip to the championship in 2027 at PGA Fresno in Texas.

Smalley, tied for the third-round lead with Schmid, finished second with Jon Rahm, three strokes behind winner Aaron Rai of England. His long birdie putt to close out the championship delivered a big bonus.

“Thrilled to be going to Augusta next year,” the 29-year-old said. "I knew that top four and ties, I believe it is, gets you into Augusta. So I knew that was a possibility.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it honestly until I hit the green on 18, saw where I was. Was really just trying to two-putt, just trying to lag it up. That 20-footer up the hill on 18, I was just trying to get a tap-in. Fortunate enough that it went in.”

Another payoff for Smalley's 6-under total and high finish was a huge move in the world rankings. Smalley started the week 78th and will move to 42, well inside the top 60 to earn a spot in the U.S. Open next month.

Schmid picked up just one shot on par in the final round and finished in a tie for fourth with Ludvig Aberg and Justin Thomas at 5 under.

Jordan Spieth will try to complete a career Grand Slam in Frisco, in his home state of Texas in 2027.

Spieth needs a PGA Championship to complete his effort to claim all four majors. This week at Aronimink in the Philly suburbs, his 10th attempt was not good enough.

The 13-time PGA Tour winner handled the chilly, windy conditions and was in contention after the first round a couple stokes behind the leaders after an opening 3-under. He failed to make up ground in the second and third rounds with scores of 2 over and even par. He started Sunday seven strokes back and closed with a 1-under 69, finishing tied for 18th.

Spieth’s last major victory came in the 2017 British Open. His only top-10 finish in a PGA was in 2019 at Bethpage Black.

Padraig Harrington would have won the senior division of the PGA Championship at Aronimink, if one existed.

The 54-year-old Irishman, who won the title in 2008, chipped in for eagle from the greenside bunker at the par-5 16th and chipped in from 25 feet from off the green on the 72nd hole for a 69 and 1-under finish in his 26th PGA. He finished tied for 18th.

That places the PGA Tour Champions regular in some exclusive company, joining Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen as players 54 or over to finish in the top 20.

He kept pace against the younger competition by averaging 314 yards off the tee in the final round and needed 26 and 27 putts in his last two rounds after heading into the weekend at 3 over.

A six-time starter this season on the 50-and-over circuit, Harrington electrified the galleries crowding the final holes with his late-round heroics in his best finish in the event since a fourth in 2021.

Slowed by bogeys at Nos. 8 and 9 to close out his front side, Harrington reeled off five straight pars on the back before another bogey at the 15. Three shots later, he was high-fiving members of the gallery after burying his bunker shot from 15 yards for an eagle 3 on the par-5 hole that played second-easiest this week.

The 2007 and 2008 British Open champion made some more magic at the final hole, using a wedge from just off the fringe and holing out from 25 feet.

Justin Thomas kept the beers in the fridge as the leader in the clubhouse at the PGA while waiting for a potential playoff.

As the wait dragged on, Thomas had time to crush a cold one, or two, with the hope the PGA would serve up a playoff.

All Thomas got after a prolonged wait — locked in but not loaded — at Aronimink as he tried to win his third career PGA. Ultimately, he tied for fourth behind champion Aaron Rai.

Thomas shot 5-under 65 and carded one of the top scores of the day that was good enough to contend. Just not good enough to claim the Wannamaker Trophy.

“We did our part,” Thomas said.

Thomas, the PGA winner in 2017 and 2022, grabbed a share of the lead at 4 under with a birdie on the sixth hole. He followed with four straight bogeys to drop six back behind the leader and would up tied for 31st.

Thomas, still playing his way from back surgery last year for a herniated disk, finished at 5-under 275.

Thomas learned through past experience how to handle himself in the clubhouse.

Thomas had been the leader in the clubhouse before, at the Travelers Championship in 2016, and found out that perhaps sobriety was the best way to handle the wait. Assuming his score would eventually fall off the leaderboard, Thomas said he relaxed with a friend and had a few beers. His caddie went out for sandwiches at lunch.

“Next thing you know, it’s 2 1/2 hours later, and I’m still the leader in the clubhouse,” Thomas said with a laugh. “The wind picked up 15, 20 miles an hour, and the leaders were on like 15. (My caddie), he’s at a Subway like an hour and a half away. He’s like what do we do?

“I’ve never not wanted to be in a playoff before, but I kind of didn’t want to be in a playoff then. That wouldn’t have been a good situation. So I’m not going to do that, I promise you that.”

No post-round beers at Aronimink for Thomas during the wait.

Ben Kern of Hickory Hills Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio, was the low PGA professional for the second time in three championship appearances.

He had four birdies, including a chip-in at the par-3 fifth hole, in a fourth-round 72 and was 80th on the 82 finishers at 10 over.

Kern earned his first low pro honors at Bellerive in 2018 and is the third person to claim that honor twice.

“It’s very special,” Kern said. “Once I got into the business, it was a goal to get out here and play in this championship. It’s very special to be in this field and then to walk away with low PGA pro, it’s everything.”

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Justin Thomas reacts on the 18th 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/Carolyn Kaster)

Matti Schmid, of Germany, hits from the 10th 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)

Alex Smalley hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Jordan Spieth hits from the first fairway during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Newtown Square, PA. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Scottie Scheffler lines up his shot 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/Carolyn Kaster)

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in northeastern Congo banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more 50 people Friday in an effort to curb a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak in a region where medical workers have struggled with a lack of resources and pushback from angry residents.

The World Health Organization said that the outbreak now poses a “very high" risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger."

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo's Ituri Province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.

“We are trying to catch up,” Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner told the AP. “It is a race against the clock."

Supplies were being rushed to Ituri in the northeastern corner of the country, where nearly a million people have been displaced by armed conflicts over mineral resources. Ramping up contact tracing is a priority, Kayikwamba Wagner said.

In the provincial capital of Bunia, AP reporters saw empty emergency treatment centers, and doctors in the nearby town of Bambu using expired medical masks while tending to suspected Ebola patients.

The provincial government said Friday it was temporarily banning wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people. It said funerals must be conducted in strict compliance with health protocols. The authorities also required journalists to obtain a permit to report on the outbreak, impeding their work.

The illness also has been reported in two Congolese provinces to the south of Ituri — North Kivu and South Kivu, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu, where the rebels reported two cases.

The group said Friday it was creating a crisis team to fight the outbreak.

Kayikwamba Wagner said having the illness in rebel-held areas was alarming because “M23 is, despite whatever ambitions they may have, thoroughly ill equipped" to fight the disease.

She said the Congo government and rebels were not communicating on the outbreak.

The efforts of health officials and aid groups have met with pushback from communities due to misinformation or situations where medical policy has clashed with local customs such as burial rites.

On Thursday, an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara was set on fire by youths who were angered when they were blocked from retrieving the body of a friend who apparently had died of Ebola, according to witnesses and police.

The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, because the bodies can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when they are prepared for burial or when people gather for funerals.

Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, a local aid group, said the population’s anger is mostly due to misinformation. “We have lived through years and years of conflict and hardship so rumors spread easily,” she said.

She said some churches have told their congregations the outbreak is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.

In the Ituri province mining town of Mongbwalu where the outbreak is believed to have originated, Lokana Moro Faustin lost his 16-year-old daughter to the disease and bemoaned the fact that he was not able to give her a proper goodbye because of Ebola restrictions.

“At first, we thought it was malaria. But then came vomiting, a high fever, nosebleeds, and bloody diarrhea,” he said, grief-stricken.

The teenager died on May 15 and her body was taken from the hospital by specialized teams and taken directly to the cemetery for a secure burial. Faustin was not able to say goodbye because he was in self-isolation, and it pained him to have his daughter buried by people who were not family.

The United Nations said Friday it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region.

The U.S. has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions.

Lusenge said her group’s small hospital near in Bunia lacks basic protective equipment, exposing nurses and doctors to possible infection, she said. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses, but we need much more than that," Lusenge said.

Both the WHO and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the outbreak is larger than the cases reported so far.

The region’s already-weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say. The International Rescue Committee said it had to stop its surveillance activities in three out of five areas in Ituri over the last year because of funding cuts.

Armed conflict in the region further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. To get from Bunia to Mongbwalu, aid groups have to brace for potential attacks from armed groups.

“The outbreak can still be contained but the window for action is narrow,” Gabriela Arenas from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday.

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Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Mark Banchereau and Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Charred hospital beds stand in smoldering Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026, after it was set fire by people angry at being stopped from retrieving a body, according to a witness and police. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)

Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)

Medical staff carry an Ebola patient to a treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A person is wearing a protective face mask in front of the WHO logo, during the media regarding the epidemic of Ebola disease, during a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)