Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images
Birdie shortage: Aronimink puts PGA field on ice
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA — Perhaps it was Aronimink Golf Club, or perhaps it was the cold and windy conditions, but either way players struggled to make birdies and go low on the first day of the PGA Championship.
It is the first time since 2008 that the leaders at the end of round one of the PGA Championship are no more than 3-under par. However, one of those 3-under pars sitting atop the leaderboard is world number one Scottie Scheffler, which is enough to cause some anxiety for the rest of the field.
Despite this angst, the tournament is a log jam at the top all the way down. In all, 92 players are still within 5-shots of the lead with 3 rounds left to play, which is a major championship record. Seven players share the first-round lead. It is just the third time in PGA Championship history that seven or more players were tied at the end of any round. Of those seven, only Scheffler has won a major in the last 10 years. Martin Kaymer, a two-time major winner, is also at 3-under but his last victory on the PGA tour was the 2014 US Open.
The conventional wisdom going into today was that overnight showers would soften the greens thus creating low scores. But cold temperatures and 20 mph wind gusts prevented any player posting a low number throughout the day. Scheffler kept the ball out of trouble, hitting 13 of 14 fairways, on route to his first share of the lead after the first round of a major championship.
“Your scores are definitely going to be lower if you hit the ball in the fairway, but it’s still really difficult to make birdies. The golf course, especially on the green, is challenging,” explained Scheffler.
Despite some ribbing for his Dallas Cowboy allegiance, Scheffler enjoyed the Philadelphia fans.
“It’s definitely a sports town. The crowd had some great energy today and there’s some really cool spots on the golf course where the crowd can get loud. It was a lot of fun to play in front of them today,” said Scheffler. That energy will only increase as the weekend comes and Scheffler could feed off of it.
Other big names, like Xander Schauffele, Shane Lowery, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth are lurking just a stroke or two behind, but some big names find themselves in trouble going into day two.
Masters champion and current world No. 2 Rory McIlroy struggled with the driver and finished seven shots off the lead. When asked how he would describe his opening round in one word, McIlroy got straight to the point.
“Shit,” he said.
Despite missing fairways, McIlroy was even par going into his last 6 holes, but finished with 5 bogeys and a birdie to limp to 4-over par.
Another alarmingly high score came from Bryson DeChambeau who could never find any rhythm until a birdie at his finishing hole and finished with a six-over 76, his worst score to par in the PGA Championship. DeChambeau is in jeopardy of missing his second cut in a row at a major, something that hasn’t happened to him since 2017. Despite sitting at 135th place after day one, he is still within 9 shots of the lead, which is not insurmountable, it is just a lot of players to leap over.
The biggest quirk of the day came early in the morning at exactly 7:18 and 36 seconds when Garrick Higgo arrived late for his scheduled tee time.
“I was there on-time but the rule is if you’re one second late you’re late. So if you think about it I was there on time. I was there at 7:18 and 36 seconds,” Higgo elucidated.
The rule is the rule, and golf is all about rules, but a two-stroke penalty when his “lateness” didn’t affect anything seems a little harsh. To make things even more interesting Higgo finished one-under par, meaning he would have been tied for the lead had he just been on time. Will this come to bite him on Sunday? We’ll see.
Local hero, Braden Shattuck had the honor of being the first to tee off but that would be the highlight for Shattuck as he finished 11-over par and tied for last place. Making the cut will be a serious challenge for Shattuck but he remains hopeful.
“Golf’s a weird game. You can go out and shoot 80 and in the next round you shoot 65. That could happen,” he said. “So I keep that in the back of my mind, knowing that I can turn it around.”
Uncertainty and continued cold and windy conditions are the only thing we know for Friday. If players are fortunate enough to make the cut this weekend it will become a different story as the greens are expected to firm up and temperatures will soar to the high 80’s. How this will affect the players and scoring is anyone’s guess, but after day one, Aronimink has provided one of the tightest majors in ages.
