NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa.

-- Well, that didn't clear things up.

After seven players shared the first-round lead at the PGA Championship, Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley will enter the weekend narrowly ahead but in prime position to earn a career-changing win at Aronimink Golf Club.

McNealy and Smalley -- two players without a regular-season win or a major top-15 on their resume -- finished Friday's second round at 4-under-par 136 for the championship, and another 13 players are one or two shots behind, setting up an unpredictable weekend at the second major of the year.

It's just the third major in history to have 15 players within two shots of the lead after 36 holes, per Elias Sports Bureau.

Smalley posted a 69 during the morning wave to set the clubhouse lead, and McNealy was the first player all week to touch 6 under before two late bogeys set him back.

They're one in front of Chris Gotterup (5-under 65), Max Greyserman (69), Japan's Hideki Matsuyama (67), South Africa's Aldrich Potgieter (70), Australian Min Woo Lee (70) and Germany's Stephan Jaeger (70).

Of that top eight, McNealy, Smalley, Gotterup, Greyserman, Potgieter, Lee and Jaeger have a mere two top-10 finishes at majors among them.

Only Matsuyama has prevailed on this stage before, when he captured the 2021 Masters.

But the group at 2 under features heavy hitters who could apply pressure Saturday.

1 Scottie Scheffler bogeyed three of his first four holes and settled for a 71, but he's only two back along with Cameron Young (67), Justin Thomas (69), Harris English (67), Ludvig Aberg of Sweden (66), Si Woo Kim of South Korea (67) and David Puig of Spain (67).

Snatching the lead Friday was something like a curse.

Smalley, one of Thursday's seven co-leaders, was the first of three players to forge a solo lead at 5 under only to give it all back.

He played the back nine -- the more difficult half of the course -- in 2 under par but proceeded to bogey Nos.

He bounced back with a birdie at No.

4 before pitching his third shot at the par-5 ninth to 14 inches.

Smalley, a 29-year-old without a professional win, said he tried not to follow the scoring.

"But it's hard to sometimes because the leaderboards are right in your face and in a number of spots," Smalley said.

"So realizing that I was near the top and there's a lot of golf left, you just have to try and keep pushing forward and just try to hit as many greens as you can and try and get as many birdie putts as you can, because it's playing pretty difficult." It was Potgieter's turn next, as the 21-year-old birdied Nos.

3 and 9 and spent most of the back nine at 5 under.

But he stumbled on his last two holes, bogeying both to drop back to where he began.

He chose to pick out a silver lining: There's less pressure as the hunter than the hunted.

"There's....