Key events
Morikawa swallows a double bogey at 18. That second into water costs him two shots and he drops from -3 to -1. Thomas can’t complete the miracle par but a bogey is okay. A 2-over 73 wasn’t the aim but it looked at one stage that he was going to post in the mid-to-high 70s.
Justin Thomas is clambering into the water at 18, his left sock off and trouser leg rolled up. This could go all sorts of wrong. A rock blocks his backswing so he’ll have to chop down on his ball which is embedded in the grass just outside the wet stuff. And, wow, he executes it superbly, floating the ball onto the green and about 12 feet away. It’ll be either the par of the day or a fairly acceptable bogey on one of the course’s hardest holes.
Pumped by his birdie at 15, DeChambeau blasts a 362-yard drive down the middle of 16. But at 18, two of his Ryder Cup colleagues are having a moment. Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa both find water to the left of the green. Morikawa drops and will escape with a bogey at best. Thomas may be thinking about some sort of socks off escape.
Two big blows and Bryson is on the green in two at the par-5 16th. Surely a second birdie of the day beckons. He gets it but only thanks to holing a 12-footer after racing his eagle attempt way past. Back to even par and he’ll have another very good chance for birdie at 16.
Hatton birdies 18 and completes a fine day’s work. That’s a 3-under 68, currently good enough for tied eighth.
Perhaps there could be a late twist in the race to be first-round leader as Aaron Rai has moved one back. The Englishman completes a hat-trick of birdie-4s on Quail Hollow’s three par 5s and is now 4-under with two to play. He’s no stranger to first-round leads actually, topping the 18-hole board three times on the PGA Tour in 2023. And how about this for a fun fact: today is the 60th birthday of Brazilian footballer Rai, a 1994 World Cup winner with the Samba stars and a legend at PSG.
Unless I missed it, The TV didn’t show Tyrrell Hatton making bogey at 17. We can only imagine what happened after he missed four-foot par putt. But, like a golfing John McEnroe, Hatton is expert at turning rage into a positive and a brilliant approach at 18 gives him the chance to close with a birdie and post 3-under.
The fast finisher on the course right now is 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa. The winner at Harding Park has birdied 14, 15 and 17 to vault into the top 10 at 3-under.
Bogey finish for Cam Davis. The outright leader finds the fairway at 9 but his approach leaks right and into dense rough. He’ll need a chip and a putt to finish in front but his par attempt slides by and it’s a dropped shot. A shame but a five-under 66 to share the 18-hole lead with Gerard will surely delight him. Here’s your leaderboard which, if scrapping punctuation, makes for an enjoyable three-ball featuring a Welsh snooker player, a Kiwi RL international and an American actor – Gerard Davis, Donald Fox and Smalley Jaeger.
-5: Gerard (F), Davis (F)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
Hatton drops an f-bomb as his tee-shot at the tough par-3 17th doesn’t draw enough and misses the green right. It’s not a bad leave though and he has the short-game skills to get up and down from there. The Englishman remains in great position at 3-under, currently good enough for tied seventh.
Up at 16, Justin Thomas is fortunate that the rough is so thick long and left. He tugs his approach and it’s heading for a watery grave until the dense grass keep his ball dry. And we all know what happens next. Yep, he hoists up a chip that only just misses his nostrils and then tip-toes up the bank to watch his ball trickle into the hole for the most unlikely of birdies. That’s three in a row and he’s back to +1.
Cam Davis is still out in front at 6-under but he’s missed the chance for more birdies on two of the easiest holes, 7 and 8. He’ll need to par his final hole, a tough 531-yard par 4, to post the new clubhouse lead and one that surely won’t be matched today.
Justin Thomas was +4 after six holes and has swallowed another couple of bogeys since. But four birdies in the last nine, including back-to-back gains at 14 and 15, have returned the two-time PGA Championship winner to a more respectable +2. Can he stay there or even sniff out another birdie along the Green Mile? For now, Thomas is just one worse off than DeChambeau who chunks another greenside chip, this one at 13 rolling back into the rough and condemning him to a second bogey of the day. That’s not too bad a count but Bryson has managed just a single birdie so far.
Tyrrell Hatton plays the par-5 15th as the birdie gods intended: fairway, green in two, great lag, tap in. That nudges the Englishman to 3-under and just three of the lead. Now for the Green Mile. Keep it cool Tyrrell. Keep it cool.
Ludvig Aberg is going nicely at -1. And his score should get even better soon as he’s just driven the short par-4 14th. The Swede has played in just five majors but already has second and seventh at Augusta along with 12th in last year’s US Open. Back at 12, it’s a second straight bogey for Hovland, who falls back to -1 while Bryson two-putts from a whopping 85 feet to remain at even par.
Rory went 11 years without a major and Adam Scott has gone 12 since his memorable Masters win in 2013. But the veteran Aussie, still one of the sweetest swingers in the game at age 44, is up to tied third thanks to a birdie at 14. That clean card (four birdies and ten pars) puts him just two behind compatriot Cam Davis, who has to two-putt from 49 feet to make his par 5 at 7. Two holes to play for the leader.
DeChambeau and Hovland face tree trouble at 12. Bryson smashes his tee-shot down the right, the ball stopping near a cheery spectator who probably thought he was extremely unlikely to be featured on camera. There’s no clear path to the green from there. Viktor double crosses and will have nature in his way down the left. Breaking news before I save this post: Hovland finds a gap but his approach bounds through the springy 12th green so an up and down will be tough. DeChambeau sends one sky high over a tree and finds the front edge.
What of Grand Slam chaser Jordan Spieth? His hopes of completing the set of all four majors are fading by the hole. He’s bogeyed 9, 11 and 12 to drop to +3 and outside the top 100.
This is how the top 10 in the betting pre-tournament are currently faring. Mixed bag seems generous.
19th Scottie Scheffler -2 (F)
108th Rory McIlroy +3 (F)
51st Bryson DeChambeau Evs (10)
125th Justin Thomas +4 (12)
29th Jon Rahm -1 (F)
67th Xander Schauffele +1 (F)
51st Collin Morikawa Evs (12)
29th Ludvig Aberg -1 (12)
125th Joaquin Niemann +4 (14)
29th Tommy Fleetwood -1 (F)
New outright leader alert! Cam Davis curls in a breaking left-to-righter from 22 feet at the par-3 6th, his 15th, to hit top spot on his own at 6-under. As he’s playing the course the other way round, the Aussie doesn’t have the brutal Green Mile (16-18) to contend with. Instead, there are obvious birdie chances to come at 7 (533-yard par 5) and 8 (342-yard par 4). Davis was tied fourth in this tournament at Oak Hill in 2023 thanks to a closing 65 so he has some PGA pedigree.
-6: Davis (15*)
-5: Gerard (F)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
Fair play to DeChambeau as he holes his 12-footer for birdie at 10. Vital he got something from the par-5 to keep spirits up. And, wouldn’t you know it, from half the distance Hovland shoves his own birdie attempt wide and has to hole a tickly one for par to stay at -3. Up at 12, every time Justin Thomas hints at climbing back out of trouble he finds a snake again. After a birdie at 10, Thomas flubs his greenside chip and makes a bogey that drops him back to +4.
DeChambeau finds a bunker left off the par-5 10th tee so can only lay up. He wedges his third from 68 yards but there’s still work to do. From very similar distance, Viktor Hovland makes a far better fist of it and should make birdie. Maybe that’s why Hovland is -3 today while Bryson is lumbering around at +1.
Bryson gets more views by larruping a ball over a house and whooping a lot but golf’s real star on social media has to be Michael Kim. The American offers some brilliant insights and he’s just posted this after a solid even-par 71.
– MUD BALLS (had 5 nasty ones)
-Played the par 5s 2 over… one bogey because of a poor tee shot and let’s not talk about 10…
– Back is improving but still can’t quite swing it the way I want and leading to some pull draws as I go over the top to protect my back.
– I don’t quite understand why they didn’t shave the rough left of 14,15,7 even. Easy changes to make certain holes more challenging since it’s a “major”
– Rough left of 14, helped me make a birdie as the rough stopped my ball and chipped in from there.
– Did I mention mud balls? It’s prob going to get worse tomorrow
– I know quail has been getting lots of heat but it’s a good course. It really hurts that we see it every yr as a signature event and literally nothing is different to separate itself this yr as the PGA champ. You’re going to get a good finish. It can’t be that easy when the world 1-2-3 finished over par as a group.
Movement at the very top as Cam Davis holes for birdie to tie with clubhouse leader Ryan Gerard. The Aussie makes his latest birdie at 4, the hole where Eric Cole just drained his tee shot. Time for a leaderboard upate:
-5: Gerard (F), Davis (13*)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
Eric Cole makes a hole-in-one
Eric Cole makes an ace at the 186-yard par-3 4th hole! Beautiful stuff from the American and that eagle, courtesy of a swish of his 7-iron, returns him to even par. Cole’s bar bill is getting a bit much these days as he also had a hole-in-one at the Zurich Classic pairs event a few weeks ago.
Bryson’s length advantage is shown by him reaching the green at the 531-yard par-4 9th with a drive and a flick of a 9-iron. Madness. But those extra yards aren’t translating into a lower score so far and he’ll have to hole at 25-footer for birdie to turn in even par.
The Datagolf rankings are seen as truer reflection of golf’s pecking order these days as, unlike the OWGR, they award points for performances on the breakaway LIV Tour. And that means due to a flurry of LIV wins, Joaquin Niemann is ranked the ninth best golfer on the planet. But the 26-year-old Chilean just can’t bring his game to the majors. He’s played in 23 but has never managed anything better than tied 16th. How about this week, then? He’s a big hitter; Quail Hollow should suit. Once more, it doesn’t seem to be happening. He’s had a double bogey 7 on his card already and is +2 after 11 and in tied 91st. What’s Spanish for baffling?
Viktor Hovland has improved his chipping in the last couple of years and he flops a lovely effort over a bunker and onto the green at 8 and that’s tap-in birdie territory. When he does the necessary, it will take the Norwegian to -3 and into the top 10. No birdie for Bryson at the same hole though. His chip from the gnarly stuff only just clears the sandtrap and he two-putts from the fringe to remain at +1.
No PGA Championship winner this century has been worse than 44th after the opening round. If you’re in North Carolina and see Rory, you better whisper that stat: he’s currently tied 116th. Note that anyone at even par or worse is currently outside that magic top 44 zone.
Bryson could only make a par 5 at 7 and at the drivable par-4 8th he’s leaked one short and right of the green. Tough to make a birdie from there but he’ll need a red circle to get back to even par for the tournament. Justin Thomas was out in a miserable 4-over 39 but looks all set to get one back at 10.
What happens to a PGA Championship leader? Is it a moment in the sun or the foundation for a title win? Here are the finishing positions of the last 11 players to have had a piece of the lead after 18 holes in this tournament.
1-4-8-17-4-17-1-6-7-44-1
The three players to have gone on to lift the giant Wanamaker trophy after holding the 18-hole lead are Xander Schauffele last year, Brooks Koepka in 2019 and Jimmy Walker in 2016. In fact, all of them went wire-to-wire. Hard to see Ryan Gerard doing that to be fair. If you’re wondering who the R1 leader was that finished in 44th, that was Thorbjorn Olesen at this very course in 2017.
Bryson has to move some cables before playing his second from behind a tree trunk at 7. He bunts one out into the fairway and could still make a birdie-4 from the fairway at the first of the course’s three par 5s.
Meanwhile, Aaron Rai comes within whisker of joining Gerard in the lead but his putt from 16 feet at the 17th horseshoes out. Perhaps after chipping in the last, he won’t be too upset by that.
Breaking down this Quail Hollow course, it falls into three sections. Holes 1-6 are downright tough. Holes 7-15 feature three par 5s and two short par 4s at 8 and 14 and is the stretch to make your score. And then it’s a case of hanging on down the Green Mile (16-18). Bryson DeChambeau has had to dig deep in that first section, holing a good par putt at 6 to stay at +1, so can he now get his scoring boots on as he starts the favourable run of holes? We join him behind a tree at 7. Oh.
We’ve made mention of the Green Mile plenty of times so far. That’s the tough closing stretch from 16-18 and the numbers back it up. Sky Sports splash a graphic showing that the morning wave played the Green Mile in a collective +92 and the rest of the course (1-15) in +32.
So, it’s quite funny that as soon as the graphic disappears off screen, Aaron Rai makes a mockery of it by chipping in from deep rough at 16 for his third straight birdie! The man from Wolverhampton was staring at bogey there but flashes the widest of smiles as his flop shot over a bunker tracks towards the cup and drops to take him to tied second and just one off the lead.
The Strokes Gained stats make some interesting reading. Luke Donald is ranked 1st for SG: Putting so far while Scottie Scheffler is 105th and Rory 144th in the same category. McIlroy ranks only 70th for Approach and 76th Off The Tee so the putter wasn’t the only culprit in his 3-over 74 today.
Tyrrell Hatton’s first top 10 in an American major came at this event in 2016. He’s had a solid majors career since then but tied fifth remains the best of his six top 10s at this level. The fiery Englishman has the class to win one though and maybe this is the week. He’s started well: -2 after 8.
J.J. Spaun was runner-up at The Players Championship in March and also second at another Florida event, the Cognizant Classic, two starts before that. He’s the hottest player on the course at this moment after four birdies in his first seven holes but the second hole of The Green Mile (16-18), the lengthy par 3 17th, gives him a bit of a reality check and the bogey drops him back to -3 and out of the top five.
-5: Gerard (F)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
Some wholesome words from our leader Ryan Gerard. Here’s the first question from his press conference.
Q. Your first PGA Championship, your home state and you went to school and college in this state. What does it mean to you? To me it reads like a Hollywood script. Tell me about it. It must be amazing for you.
Ryan Gerard: “It’s a lot of fun. It’s really cool. Obviously it’s nice being where I came from. You know, I feel very comfortable here. There’s a lot of people here that I know and I’ve been fortunate enough to play this golf course a few times. And all of that is fantastic, and it’s definitely helped in the preparation. But overall I just feel really comfortable. I love being here. It’s a fantastic place. North Carolina in general, they show out for their guys in light blue. I heard so many “Go Heels” Today and just appreciate everyone that’s supporting.
“It’s nice when everyone is cheering you on. But it is kind of cool. I’ve seen so many people that I know this week that I know is going to be here and just a lot of people that are wearing the light blue, UNC logo shirts and everything out there. It’s a big family of UNC Tar Heels where we all root for each other and support our own and I’m appreciative of all.”
“Bit of a ropey start for DeeeChambeau,” says Laura Davies, putting emphasis on the first syllable for enjoyable effect. Indeeeed, it is. Bryson is +1 after 4 and has just duffed a chip at 5. Another bogey? No. The current US Open champion can roll his rock as well as smash drives and drains a 12-footer to save par. But the Justin Thomas horrow show continues and he’s found water at 7. He’s having a great season, with a win and a second in his last two starts, but he’s had some bizzarely bad rounds this season. One came in the opening round of The Players Championship although he followed that disastrous 78 with a 10-under 62!
It’s been a great start for Ryder Cup captains Luke Donald (67) and Keegan Bradley (68) and now ‘Captain America’ is on the move. That would be Patrick Reed, who earned that moniker after his exploits for the USA in their heated battles against Europe. Reed finished solo third in The Masters last month and he’s just made back-to-back birdies at 4 and 5 (18-foot birdie putt) to move to -1. But another American Ryder Cup star, Justin Thomas, is falling apart. He had to hole a testing par putt at 5 but another one’s gone at 6 and the two-time winner of this event is now +4 after 6. Lots of time to repair the damage, of course, but that’s a horror start.
Defending champion Xander Schauffele had to settle for a 1-over 72 and, again, mud balls was a hot topic.
“Had a ridiculous mud ball there on 16 with Scottie. We were in the middle of the fairway, and I don’t know, we had to aim right of the grandstands probably. I’m not sure. I aimed right of the bunker and it whipped in the water and Scottie whipped it in the water, as well.
“It is what it is, and a lot of guys are dealing with it, but it’s just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It’s kind of stupid.
“I wouldn’t want to go in the locker room because I’m sure a lot of guys aren’t super happy with sort of the conditions there. I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway. The course is completely tipped out. It sucks that you’re kind of 50/50 once you hit the fairway.”
Surely as the course dries, it should get easier. Schauffele isn’t having it.
“The mud balls are going to get worse. They’re going to get worse as the place dries up. They’re going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it’s kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through. I mean, you just keep – I don’t know, maybe it hit it a little bit lower off the tee, but then unfortunately the problem with hitting it low off the tee is the ball doesn’t carry or roll anywhere, so then you sacrifice distance. It’s a bit of a crapshoot.”
Can’t see any Rory quotes yet but here’s what Scottie Scheffler said after a nice recovery game him a 2-under 69. Right now, your World No.1 is in a tie for 15th.
“Today I feel like I did some good things out there and did some things I could improve on. I had a couple sloppy bogeys, I felt, early in the round. You know, I had the early bogey there on 11, which was a little sloppy, and then I had one on like maybe the third short hole that was sloppy as well.
“Overall I did a good job battling and keeping a level head out there during a day which there was definitely some challenging aspects to the course and did a good job posting a number on a day where I didn’t have my best stuff.
He also talked about mud balls which played a big part in his double bogey at 16.
“It’s one of those deals where it’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go. I understand it’s part of the game, but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player. You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision (no preferred lies) all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.
“But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules. I did a good job of battling back today and not letting a bad break like that, which cost me a couple shots, get to me. Did a good job battling after that and posting a decent score.”
Pressed again, he added: “When you have overseeded fairways that are not sand capped, there’s going to be a lot of mud on the ball. I don’t personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.”
Thanks Scott. It’s quite a Liverpool leaderboard isn’t it. Gerard (okay, what’s a single ‘r’ between friends), Bradley and even a Hall, Harry not Brian of course, in the top 20. Where are all the Arsenal and Man City players? Not good enough.
Ryan Gerard shoots 66
Ryan Gerard’s par effort never looks like breaking right, as he thought it should, and rolls a couple of feet past the hole. But he tidies up thereafter, and despite a bogey-bogey finish, that’s a very fine start for the young local hero. He leads the way at -5, and with the wind picking up a bit, and the greens further hardening, he may still be there at the end of the day … but you can see how that pans out with David Tindall. See you tomorrow.
-5: Gerard (F)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
Ryan Gerard wedges over the flag, his ball screeching to a halt, 14 feet past the flag. He’ll have a gentle left-to-right slider coming back. This will have a big bearing on the taste of his lunch.
Ryan Gerard is in danger of shipping another shot or two here, a fantastic round in danger of becoming simply very good. There are worse problems, admittedly. But on 18, he finds a fairway bunker down the right, then thins his iron straight into the face of the trap. He’s fortunate that it still escapes, pinging up and out and rolling 100 yards up the fairway. But he’ll now need to get up and down from 89 yards if he’s to save his par.
Ryan Gerard gives a shot back with a three-putt bogey on 17. Just 23 putts so far for his round, so that’s a bit of an outlier. See also: Keegan Bradley, who had gone round blemish-free until dropping his first stroke of the day at his last hole, the 9th. But the US Ryder Cup captain will be pleased with his opening round of 68, just the one shot more than his European counterpart Luke Donald. You’d have got a good price on those lads posting those numbers today.
-6: Gerard (17)
-4: Donald (F), Fox (F), Smalley (F), Jaeger (F)
-3: Noren (F), Poston (F), Hisatsune (F), Echavarria (F), Fitzpatrick (F), MacIntyre (F), R Højgaard (F), Bradley (F), Lower (16*)
-2: Scheffler (F), Hall (17), Bhatia (17*), McCarthy (17*), Mitchell (6*), Spaun (4*), Young (2*)
It was a difficult morning for several former champions. We’ve already reported the travails of Rory McIlroy; the three-time winner Brooks Koepka shot 75, 2010 champion Martin Kaymer carded 78, and fiftysomething barrier-breaker Phil Mickelson slumped to 79. By comparison, the 2008 winner Padraig Harrington and 2015 champ Jason Day will be relatively OK with their two-over rounds of 73.
Cameron Young – who tied for third at Southern Hills in 2022 – has made the most outrageous of starts. First up, he rakes in a 63-foot monster on 10. Then he follows that up with another birdie putt from 27 feet on 11. That’s two greens, two putts, and he’s already his putt totaliser reads 90 feet and four inches.
Robert MacIntyre nearly makes a putt from the fringe at the back of 18. That would have been a bonus. But he’s happy enough to tap in for par, and sign for a fine opening round of 68. Just the one bogey, and that early on at 2. Also back in the house: Matt Fitzpatrick, also highly content with his opening salvo of 68.
Bryson DeChambeau has the big-hitting game to win here all right … and he announces his intention by crashing a monster drive down 1. But some bad news for another of the pre-tournament favourites as Justin Thomas double-bogeys 2, having always been out of position after flaying his tee shot into the woods down the left of the fairway. He’s +2 in short order.
Another wayward drive by Rory McIlroy; another bogey, this time on 9. He signs for an extremely underwhelming 74. Already out of it? Very possibly. Ah well, he’ll always have Augusta. His playing partner Scottie Scheffler certainly isn’t done, though: he launches his approach from 215 yards to two-and-a-half feet, and knocks in his second birdie putt in three holes. Despite being woefully off his game for long periods, the world number one has demonstrated exactly why he’s got that status, fighting his way back to post 69. He’s -2. Par for the third member of the marquee group, Xander Schauffele, and the defending champ signs for a one-over 72.