By Dana O’Neil, CNN
Newton Square, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Somewhere around the 16th tee, just as Aldrich Potgieter was about to take a cut, a man in the gallery asked a pertinent question: “Is there anyone in this group worth watching?”
At the time, Potgieter, at 5-under, was atop the leaderboard at the PGA Championship. However, he now trails leaders Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley by a stroke heading into the weekend at 3-under.
In defense of the curious gentleman, it was a fair question. While five-deep crowds chased the group of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth around the course, only a few stragglers found their way to the ropes to watch Potgieter. He is more of a “who?”than a who’s who in golf.
As he continued to hold the lead during the second round, even those paid to know a thing or two about golf found themselves trying to figure just who he was on the fly. At one point, Sirius XM golf analysts debated on air how to pronounce the South African player’s first name.
Did it sound like Alrdrick? Or Aldritch? Hard K is the answer. Amusingly and in keeping with Philadelphia, the handful of fans who did find their way to the ropes crafted their own nickname.
“Let’s go Pot,” one yelled. “Way to go, Potty,’’ screeched another.
Presumably, Potgieter did not sign off on the moniker.
He wound up ceding the lead after bogeying the last two holes, but the 21-year-old still will be packaged with some far more familiar names on the Saturday of a golf major. That’s a rather large leap for a player who not only was +4300 to win here at the start of the week, but he was +55 after he posted a minus-three on Thursday to share the lead with the likes of Scottie Scheffler.
Blessed with the insouciance of youth, he seemed entirely nonplussed by what will certainly be an unaccustomed bout with stardom come Saturday. He even found a way to put a spin on his final two bogeys.
“There’s going to be a lot of people out following us,’’ he said. “But I think it will be better than the final group, maybe, or something like that. So I think there’s a lot of positives still taking into this weekend being in the position I am instead of leading by one or tied for the lead.’’
That is certainly one way to look at it, then.
The reality is, Potgieter is in that beautiful place where he has nothing to lose, a rarity for any professional athlete. If he bombs out, he can return to his entire (not to be confused with relative) anonymity; if he plays well, people will know how to pronounce his name.
But he’s had steadier results lately, making the cut in his last four events, with a high bar of a tie for 14th at the Cadillac Championship. It gave him confidence, and when he took to the Aronomink course early on Thursday — as in the really early morning, with a 6:50 a.m. ET tee time — he used the quiet to just relax and find his game. He birdied his second hole and rebounded from back-to-back bogeys to finish strong with five birdies over his final 12 holes.
“It was nice to kind of get in my own little space and get a groove on early on,” he said of the early-morning quiet.
In some ways, Potgieter has been prepping for his star turn for his entire life. Born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, where he naturally emulated Ernie Els, he was a bit of a prodigy. At eight, he left his home country for Australia to pursue his golf career.
The relocation package paid off. He won the South Australian Junior Masters by nine strokes and in 2022, became the second youngest player, at 17, to win the Amateur Championship. Two years later, he continued to add his name to the record books, this time becoming the youngest winner in Korn Ferry history (edging Jason Day by 105 days) and a year ago, at just 20, won his first PGA event.
In keeping with his theme of being first for his age, Potgieter’s Thu