How a Playoff Would Work at the 2026 PGA Championship

The leaderboard at Aronimink Golf Club is packed this Sunday, with nine players within three strokes of the lead heading into the final round of the PGA Championship.

The stage is set for a fantastic finish, with leader Alex Smalley teeing off at 2:35 p.m. ET and plenty of potential chasers hitting the course right before him.

Given how bunched up the leaderboard has been thus far in the tournament, there is real potential for a playoff, and because it’s a major week, that playoff comes with some extra fireworks.

How a playoff will work at the 2026 PGA Championship

At the PGA Championship, a playoff is contested over three holes based on aggregate scoring. This means that rather than the sudden death playoff we saw last year at the Masters, all players involved in the playoff would play three holes, with the lowest score to par at the end winning the tournament.

At Aronimink Golf Club, the three-hole playoff would be contested at Nos. 10, 17 and 18. Should any players remain tied following the three-hole playoff, the tournament would then move to sudden death, with players repeating the 18th hole until a winner could be determined.

All players tied for the playoff would play in the same group, regardless of how many players are tied at the top after 72 holes.

Previous playoffs at the PGA Championship

Justin Thomas poses with the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. | Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

The last time we saw the PGA Championship decided by a playoff was in 2022, when Justin Thomas bested Will Zalatoris to lift the Wanamaker trophy.

Both Thomas and Zalatoris birdied the first hole of the playoff, but on the second, Thomas was able to drive the green and two-putt for birdie, while Zalatoris had to settle for par. Thomas would par the last to win the PGA Championship for the second time in his career.

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