US PGA Championship, day one – live | US PGA
Key events
Rebound birdie for Rory McIlroy! He plays the 11th without problem: tee shot in the middle, corner at three feet, putt in the center of the cup. That erased his first bogey, which was his first at the PGA Championship in five years. And until the 12th, there is some escape from Ludvig Åberg, who sends his second over the back and into thick rough, at the bottom of an embankment. It is also small, with the flagstick nearby, very little green to play on. But he goes out, the ball sails high but lands softly, rolling into throw-in distance. It’s an outrageous gamble, and his wide smile tells the story. He knows it was really good. But he is at +1 after a three putt for bogey at the 10th.
Stephan Jaeger continues! He scored a 25-footer from 6 to double his advantage at the top of the rankings.
-4: Jaeger (6)
-2: Hall (8), Brennan (6), C Smith (4*), Schauffele (2*)
No such problems yet for Stephan Jaeger. The 36-year-old German has managed to qualify in each of his previous PGA Championship appearances, although a tie for 50th is his best finish. But he is doing very well this morning. Birdies at 1, 4 and 5, and he is the first man to reach the -3 mark. Meanwhile, 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith makes birdies at 10 and 13, while Xander Schauffele, who won this title in 2024, opens with consecutive birdies at 10 and 11.
-3: Jaeger (5)
-2: Hall (8), Brennan (6), C Smith (4*), Schauffele (2*)
Bryson’s contact is everywhere in the store. He overcooks his 30-foot downhill putt from the fringe at the back of the 11th…and the ball hooks the slope of the green, rolling 60 feet beyond! So almost back down the fairway! This leads to an inevitable bogey. Also drops a shot: Jon Rahm on 1. His approach disappears in a channel to the right of the green, and he fails to recover his ball with his first chip. Rory also makes bogeys, the result of that errant drive and cranial wedge, and for a course that’s supposed to be there for the taking, Aronimink certainly shows his teeth.
It can happen to the best of them. Rory McIlroy’s ball, after hitting a tree to the right of 1, goes straight down and disappears into thick rough. He hits it with great force, but the ball just pops out of the cabbage, a topper that dribbles 100 yards down the fairway. We’ve all done it, Rory on fewer occasions than most. But here it is. So much for his pre-tournament assertion that “strategy on the tee is almost non-existent,” eh. And we can’t blame a blister on her little toe for that one.
It’s safe to say that Bryson hasn’t distanced himself yet. Having missed his approach at 10, he passes his corner at 11. Then asks his cadet: “Was that short?» Once he figures out where he is, he should salvage his par with a few putts from the back fringe, but it’s an uncertain start for the two-time US Open champion.
This is Rory! And immediately, the back-to-back Masters champion does his best to prove the drive-anywhere predictions are a lie, hysterically slicing his opening salvo at 10 o’clock toward a tree in the lower right. Clack clock! His ball returns to the fairway but disappears into thick rough. He walks today with Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth, the latter of whom is pursuing his own career.
Bryson DeChambeau wastes his beautiful opening drive. A very average wedge into the 10th, then a severely under-hit first putt, and he does well to put away five feet for par. No luck for his playing partner Ludvig Åberg, who made three putts until he made a first bogey.
Michael Brennan makes his PGA Championship debut this week. The 24-year-old from Virginia placed 24th at the Masters last month and won his first title on the Utah Tour last October. He’s now co-leader here, albeit with the usual fairly significant caveats going into Thursday. He’s up there at -2 with Harry Hall, who finished in the top 20 last year at Quail Hollow. A good start for the 28-year-old from Cornwall, with birdies at 5 and 6.
-2: Hall (6), Brennan (5)
-1: A Fitzpatrick (7), McCarthy (6*), N Hojgaard (6), McKibbin (3), Jaegar (3), C Smith (3*), Harman (3*), Cauley (2), Greyserman (1)
The main defenses of the course are the numerous bunkers placed around the property and the huge greens, which will require some work. But some nighttime rains lengthened the track a little. There is also some drizzle this morning and it is expected to remain cloudy for most of the day, with a chance of further showers and some wind. The forecast for the rest of the week, however, looks better: sunny with light winds for the most part. It should be a fun week.
Aronimink could prove a playground for big hitters, with accuracy off the tee not being a deciding factor. There’s plenty of opportunity to whistle drives here and there: Rory McIlroy described “strategy from the start” as “pretty non-existent,” while Scottie Scheffler said “you can hit it pretty far off the line” and still “kind of get away with it.” Good news for Bryson DeChambeau, even if, to be fair, he hits his first tee shot, at 10, in the middle of the fairway. Gary Woodland won his US Open in similar circumstances; The popular veteran, whose victory at the Houston Open a few months ago was one of the feel-good stories of the year so far, is tied on his first two holes, 10 and 11.
Here we go, then, and let’s start with the aforementioned “on the song” Mast Alex Fitzpatrick. He only earned his PGA Tour card last month, thanks to his victory at the Zurich Classic with his older brother Matt. This gave him a two-year exemption to the United States and secured his invitation to this tournament. Since then, he has placed in the top ten at the Cadillac Championship and threatened to win last week at Truist. He has now this week become the first player to reach the -2 mark, starting with birdies at 1 and 2. Granted, he came out in the very first group, and he has since lost a stroke to 5. But he did it, and he is currently one of several players under par. The first few days and a lot of golf to play, of course.
-1: A Fitzpatrick (5), McCarthy (5*), Hall (5), Hoge (3*), Brennan (3), Glover (2), McKibbin (1), Jaeger (1), Smith (1*), Brown (1)
Preamble
Welcome to our coverage of the 108th PGA Championship. This is only the second time the tournament has been held at Aronimink Golf Club, about 30 minutes west of Philadelphia; the first time was in 1962, when Gary Player won the first of his two PGA Championships. World number one Scottie Scheffler defends, Masters champion Rory McIlroy launches into the second leg of the calendar grand slam, the in-form Cameron Young looks to make it 11 straight wins for the United States and the equally in-form Matt Fitzpatrick attempts to become the first English winner since 1919 (!). Many more stories are available and will unfold over the next four days. So let’s not waste any more time, because the first starters are already here. Here we go!
Departure times (BST). From the 1st…
1145 Braden Shattuck, Alex Fitzpatrick, Ben Griffin
1156 Francisco Bide, Harry Hall, Ryan Gérard
1207 John Keefer, Rico Hoey, Nicolai Hojgaard
1218 Shaun Michael, Michael Brennan, Garrick Higgo
1229 YE Yang, Jhonattan Vegas, Matt McCarty
1240 Lucas Glover, Tom McKibbin, Stephan Jaeger
1251 Daniel Brown, Adrien Saddier, Harris English
1302 Jacob Bridgeman, Bud Cauley, Alex Noren
1313 Chris Kirk, Max Greyserman, Kristoffer Reitan
1324 Maverick McNealy, Thomas Detry, Padraig Harrington
1335 Ryan Lenahan, Ryan Fox, Kazuki Higa
1346 Jared Jones, Michael Kim, Ryo Hisatsune
1357 Tyler Collet, Kota Kaneko, Brandt Snedeker
—
1715 Andrew Novak, John Parry, Jordan Gumberg
1726 Ben Polland, Kurt Kitayama, Nico Echavarria
1737 Akshay Bhatia, Ricky Castillo, Michael Thorbjornsen
1748 Luke Donald, Jesse Droemer, Stewart Cink
1759 Hideki Matsuyama, JJ Spaun, Max Homa
1810 Ben Kern, JT Poston, Russell Henley
1821 Adam Scott, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger
1832 Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry
1843 Chris Gotterup, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood
1854 Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas
1905: Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose
1916 Zach Haynes, Alex Smalley, Chandler Blanchet
1927 Bernd Wiesberger, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Andy Sullivan
…and from the 10th…
1150 Aldrich Potgieter, David Puig, Denny McCarthy
1201 William Mouw, Chris Gabriele, Taylor Pendrith
1212 Tom Hoge, Bryce Fisher, Joaquin Niemann
1223 Keith Mitchell, Billy Horschel, Ian Holt
1234 Gary Woodland, Jason Day, Sam Burns
1245 Wyndham Clark, Cameron Smith, Brian Harman
1256 Patrick Cantlay, Min Woo Lee, Sahith Theegala
1307 Si Woo Kim, Derek Berg, Joe Highsmith
1318 Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Rickie Fowler
1329 Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton
1340 Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm
1351 Daniel Hillier, Ryan Vermeer, Max McGreevy
1402 Paul McClure, Mikael Lindberg, Angel Ayora
—
1710 Michael Block, Rasmus Hojgaard, Dustin Johnson
1721 Mark Geddes, Steven Fisk, David Lipsky
1732 Sungjae Im, Austin injured, Casey Jarvis
1743 Andrew Putnam, Michael Kartrude, Matt Wallace
1754 Martin Kaymer, Elvis Smylie, Davis Riley
1805 Jason Dufner, Haotong Li, Jimmy Walker
1816 Nick Taylor, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Jordan Smith
1827 Emiliano Grillo, Patrick Reed, Pierceson Coody
1838 Brian Campbell, Adam Schenk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1849 Marco Penge, Sepp Straka, Patrick Rodgers
1900 Aaron Rai, Travis Smyth, Sami Valimaki
1911: Sam Stevens, Jayden Schaper, Garrett Sapp
1922 Timothy Wiseman, Matti Schmid, Austin Smotherman
