Key events
To illustrate just how good those tee shots were, ESPN flash up a list of the closest to the pin at 17 so far this week. Scheffler tops it with one foot and 10 inches; Fitzy is second with six foot and five inches. Then you’re looking at Max Homa (9’3”), Viktor Hovland (9’9”) and Hideki Matsuyama (9’10”). It’s a hellishly difficult tee shot – just ask Shane Lowry – so that was quite the stylish one-two. Happily both Fitzpatrick and Scheffler make their birdie putts, their first of the day, and move back to -1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile par for Justin Rose, who had previously steadied his listing ship with birdie at 16, and he’s clinging on at +4.
You can’t keep a good man down! Scottie Scheffler sends a high fade into the 214-yard par-three 17th. It toys with the water on the left, but lands dry and curls serenely to 22 inches. He’ll surely make his first birdie of the day from there. Then Matt Fitzpatrick almost replicates the stroke! His effort stops six feet short, so he’ll have some work to do for his birdie, but what magic from both players. In particular Scottie Scheffler. Of course Scottie Scheffler in particular!
Scottie Scheffler gets a drop, and his second into the par-five 16th ends up in a deep bunker guarding the front of the green. He’s shortsided, and can only whip out to 15 feet. He sends an overly excitable birdie effort five feet past, and does well to tidy up and save his par. But his card so far – 5-4-5-5-3-4-5 – is very unScheffleresque. He remains at level par, not ideal given his starting point this morning, but hardly fatal given what’s happening around him.
The co-leader Alex Smalley keeps his bogey-free round going … but only just. He finds filth down the left from the tee, and can’t reach the green in regulation. His chip isn’t all that, so he does very well to gather himself and walk in the 20-foot par saver that remains. Meanwhile his compatriot Kurt Kitayama rakes in a long putt across 6 for his second birdie in four holes. He joins the group at -2, and for the first time today, there’s a little bit of movement at the top of the leaderboard. Just a little, but that’s all we’ve got for you.
-3: Smalley (6*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Kitayama (15*), Matsuyama (12*), Reed (10), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
The 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama tickles in a downhill 15-footer on 3. That’s for his second birdie of the day, to follow one at 13, and perhaps most strikingly there’s no blemish on his card yet. A 70 yesterday, and now Japan’s first men’s major champion is just one shot off the lead … which is currently shared by young Ryo Hisatsune, hotly tipped to become the second sometime. But more of him later this evening.
Scottie Scheffler continues to flay his drives around like prime-era Seve. This latest one, at 16, is tugged into the gallery down the left. It’s so wide that it’s for the best, because instead of disappearing into the thick vegetation, it lands near a fence, and also on grass trodden down by the punters. So strange how he’s gone from feast to famine with the big stick, though, but that’s golf for you in microcosm.
A couple of birdie putts made from downtown by two players who are surely major champions in waiting. Cameron Young from the front of 16; Chris Gotterup across 17. They’re +1 and level par respectively. But Scotland’s best chance to end the old country’s long major-championship drought – since Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie in 1999 – misreads a short par putt on 17. Bob MacIntyre slips back to +2.
… and Justin Rose continues to go backwards. He can’t get up and down from greenside sand at 15, and that’s a run of 5-5-5 that has shipped four shots in three holes. He’s +5, the cut has become a real threat, and his victory here at the 2010 AT&T National seems such a long, long, long time ago right now.
Amid all this carnage, Alex Smalley is mooching along nicely. Starting at 10, the 29-year-old from golfing mecca Greensboro has gone par-par-par-par so far this morning, and remains in a share of the lead after yesterday’s 67. Meanwhile Patrick Reed hits the turn in level-par 35, while Chandler Blanchet continues with his smooth progress, having followed his birdie at 10 with pars at 11, 12 and 13. It’s not exactly earth-shattering news, but there are plenty of big stars – Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry – who would give their eye-teeth for drama-lite progress like this.
-3: Smalley (4*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Reed (9), Blanchet (4*), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Shane Lowry led this year’s Congizant Classic by three strokes with three holes to play. Let’s not rake over the coals of his subsequent collapse too eagerly – shots whistled into the water at 16 and 17 – but we need to reference them because of what’s just happened on the 17th here. He tops his tee shot at the 214-yard par-three, the ball carving off flatly in the shape of a banana, and into the lake on the right. Nowhere near clearing it. From the drop zone, he wedges apologetically to 25 feet, then slams the cover of his putter into the grass in a mixture of frustration, anger and embarrassment. That Congizant meltdown is clearly still in his head, and it’s hard to watch. A double bogey is bad enough, but it’s the optics, as well as the picking of a fairly fresh mental scar, that will really concern Lowry. He’s +2.
Scottie Scheffler rolls the monster putt up from 79 feet to four. That’s stopped the rot. Par. He remains level. But he’s not the only one in this match struggling, and Justin Rose hasn’t recovered from that opening double-bogey. He carves his tee shot at 14 towards the gallery on the right, and hits a marshal. Where? According to Radar Riley on Sky, who made the enquiry: “Right in the handles of love.” Let’s leave that hanging, as it were, this is a family website. Rose scuffs his chip a bit, leaving himself 15 feet short, and he can’t make the par saver. Then he yips the one coming back. Another double, and he’s +4, going in the wrong direction at speed. Double bogey for Matt Fitzpatrick too – a four-putt from 67 feet, and shaken, he nearly misses the last one as well, he’s +3 now – and these lads are dragging each other down.
The wind is fair whipping around Aronimink right now. So Scottie Scheffler spends a long time working out his iron into the par-three 14th. He eventually sends a fade, encouraged by the breeze, into the front-centre portion of the green, but he’s a long way from the hole, nearly 80 feet, and he trudges up with … well, his shoulders aren’t slumped, exactly, but he’s not carrying himself with his usual authority, a bit down on himself at the moment. One putt could change everything, of course, and if anyone can pull something out of the bag, it’s Scottie. But he needs a mood-and-momentum shifter.
Chandler Blanchet was born in 1996, so there’s a fair chance he was named after the quippy character essayed by Matthew Perry in the contemporaneous sitcom Friends. Blanchet would certainly have fitted in at Central Perk, because [golf blogger picks up large crowbar and starts jemmying furiously] he’s a coffee aficionado who travels everywhere with his own brewing equipment, sourcing beans from local shops for his morning java. To good effect it would seem. This is the 30-year-old Floridian’s PGA Championship debut, and having opened with 69 yesterday, has birdied 10 to move to within a shot of the lead at -2.
Scottie Scheffler leaves his par putt at 13 out on the high side. Never breaking enough to the right. That’s a really careless three putt, and the world number one bites his lip in mild irritation and concern. It’s not taken him long to crash down the leaderboard, from the pinnacle at -3 to level par. A 5-4-5-5 start for Scottie. Golf, huh?
Scottie Scheffler misses another fairway, this time at 13. That’s four missed from four. He manages to power his second into the heart of the green, but this carry-on is surely not sustainable. All a bit odd, given how he was so accurate with the big stick yesterday: 13 hit from 14. He’s left himself a 40-footer uphill with seven feet of right-to-left break … and leaves the putt five feet short. The flat stick is malfunctioning a tad too. Big par saver coming up.
… so having just reported that, Luke Donald bogeys 18. Apologies for waking the golfing gods from their slumber, my captain. Still, a back nine of 34 is not to be sniffed at, and he’s level par for the week.
There isn’t a lot of forward momentum out there. The course is already playing harder than it did yesterday, and as the leading mark of -3 was the joint second-highest of any first round in the last 40 years, that’s saying something. Just two players at two under for their rounds today: Luke Donald, with birdies at 11 and 16, and Haotong Li, making his presence felt at the third major in a row after last year’s Open and last month’s Masters: he’s birdied 1, 3 and 7 with bogey at 2. Both men are -1 overall.
There goes Patrick Reed’s bogey-free status. He three-putts from the fringe at the back of 6. Slightly clumsy, given the lucky break of avoiding the fescue, and the subsequent controlled muscle onto the green.
-3: Smalley (2*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Reed (6), Blanchet (2*), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler’s travails from the tee box continue. His drive at 12 disappears into thick stuff down the left. He can only chop out, and is fortunate his ball skips over a fairway bunker. Then his wedge in is distinctly average by his absurdly high standards. He overhits a downhill par putt, and does pretty well to make the one coming back to limit the damage to bogey. But that’s two dropped shots in his first three holes, and he’s slipped down the standings to -1.
Garrick Higgo, who rocked up for work late yesterday but still shot 69 despite the two-shot penalty his tardiness cost him, arrives on the property in plenty of time. He’s got just over three hours to get to the 10th. “Scottie Scheffler made his tee time after getting arrested, so there’s no excuse really,” deadpans Mel Reid, who has been a wonderfully entertaining addition to Sky’s commentary team.
Patrick Reed gets up and down from the rough at the back of 5 to maintain his status as the only bogey-free player in the field. But he’s getting a bit ragged, and carves his drive at 6 towards the fescue on the right. “Don’t go in the fescue! Don’t go in the fescue! [resigned] Oh alright then, go in the fescue! [utterly defeated] Aw fuck-ing hell!” Apologies for the effing and jeffing, but that was some top-notch comic delivery. But he catches a break, the ball stopping just short of the tall grass … and he’s able to gouge out his ball all the way to the green. He should scramble another par from there.
There were a couple of hole-outs for eagle yesterday: Dan Brown from 101 yards on 11, Jon Rahm from similar distance at 2. Now David Lipsky repeats the feat from 43 yards on 9. He’s +2, and that’s the first hole-out of his major career. He’s +2.
Scottie being Scottie, he nearly makes the downhill 20-foot right-to-left birdie putt on 11. One more turn and it was in. But he’d have surely settled for par when watching that drive hysterically carve off to the right. Meanwhile back on 4, Patrick Reed joins the leaders by creaming his approach from 160 yards to five feet, and mopping up what’s left for birdie.
-3: Reed (4), Smalley (1*), Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Scheffler (2*), Blanchet (1*), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler likes a soft-shoe shuffle around the ball on his downswing, we’ve long known this. On 11, however, he takes it up a notch by performing the Tippy Toes, all over the place as he sends his tee shot into a bunker down the right. Scottie’s not easily flustered, of course, and finds the centre of the green with his second, giving himself an outside change of birdie, the sort he so often makes to sicken the rest of the pack. But if his opening two tee shots are anything to go by, a Scheffler procession is by no means a certain thing.
The two-time winner Justin Thomas played the front nine in 32 strokes yesterday. The back nine wasn’t so kind – two bogeys on the way home – and he’s not enjoying this stretch today, either. From the centre of 11, wedge in hand, he lands his ball on the false front of the green, and it’s dispatched back into a bunker. His splash out finds the same false front, and this time the ball u-turns back into greenside rough. He does very well to chip to six feet and make the bogey putt, but he’s back to level par for the tournament now, having yesterday reached the giddy heights of -3.
Scottie Scheffler’s third at 10, from 44 yards, is no good. It’s 20 feet shy of the flag. He can’t make the par saver, and that’s an immediate backwards step for the world number one and tournament favourite. Matt Fitzpatrick bogeys too, and it’s a double for Justin Rose. They’re -2, +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile on Sky, Laura Davies asks Wayne Riley what he thinks the leader will be on at the end of the day. Five under, he answers, without a beat of hesitation. In other words, good luck trying to go low, gentlemen. It’s going to be another hugely entertaining day!
Rose gathers himself and sends a decent wedge into 10, from 77 yards to 16 feet. He’ll have a look at a damage-limiting bogey. Meanwhile Scottie’s lie in the rough on the left isn’t great, and he’s forced to take his medicine, punching back out onto the fairway. Even the strongest hitters in the business aren’t of a mind to take liberties with this rough. To think everyone was talking about bringing Aronimink to its knees with some bomb and gouge at the start of the week! A textbook study in hubris, and that’s before we get around to the subjects of Rory and Bryson.
“Aww-wwwah!” Justin Rose yelps in anguish. He’s found a big fairway bunker down the right of 10. There’s a huge face which rises to the right, and water on the left, so he tries to bite off more than he can chew. The ball slaps apologetically into that face, nowhere near clearing it. He escapes with his second attempt but from 77 yards out, will now be doing well to limit the damage to bogey. Rose walked off 18 last night with a huge smile on his face, rolling in a long par saver; he’ll need to draw from those street-fighting reserves again now.
Scottie Scheffler barely missed a fairway yesterday, arguably the main reason he’s started this tournament fast, a rare feat for him this season on the PGA Tour. (On average, he’s been nearly three shots worse for his first round when compared to his cards on days two, three and four.) So the rest of the field can be forgiven for taking a collective gulp. However, golf being golf, he sends his opening tee shot today into the rough down the left of 10. That only just crept in, so it probably won’t stop him taking a shy for the green, but let’s assume nothing until he gets to the ball and discovers the lie he’s copped. Meanwhile up ahead, Robert MacIntyre bogeys the hole after finding a fairway bunker with his tee shot. He’s immediately back to +1.
It’s another dropped shot for Martin Kaymer, the result of a wayward drive. It was a bit of a surprise to see Kaymer, now 41, at the top of the leaderboard yesterday evening. The German reached number one in the world for a wee while back in 2011, won the 2010 PGA and the 2014 US Open, the 2014 Players, and sunk the decisive putt at the Miracle of Medinah. It’s a hell of a CV. But he’s done absolutely nothing in the majors since a tie for seventh at the 2016 PGA, an absolutely dismal record for a player so good, and has since disappeared on the LIV tour. Injuries have taken their toll, to be fair, so you can perhaps understand how he bristled at the champion’s dinner earlier this week when a PGA official asked him if he was still playing. “I’m not flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys,” he fumed, and that righteous anger fuelled yesterday’s excellent 67. But that’ll only propel you around Aronimink for so long, and he’s started out struggling today. He’s back to -1 in short order.
Shane Lowry duked out a steely 68 yesterday. Birdie at the 18th sent him away with a cheery look on his face. But he’s handed that shot back immediately with a careless three-putt on his first hole of the day, the 10th. Back to -1 for the 2019 Open winner. Also heading in the wrong direction early doors: the 2010 champion Martin Kaymer, who bogeys 2 to fall out of the big leading group. Speaking of which, Scottie Scheffler will be on the scene in less than ten minutes.
-3: Scheffler, Smalley, Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune
-2: Kaymer (3), Reed (1), Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele
Only one player went bogey-free yesterday: Patrick Reed. The 2018 Masters champion has already won twice on the DP World Tour this year, as well as contending a play-off in another tournament. And he competed hard at Augusta last month. He’s in form, and with his talent for and enjoyment of battling through things, might be a good shout this week. His opening drive today is wayward, and he’s forced to chop out from the cabbage, but he wedges his third from 50 yards to eight feet and calmly tidies up to keep his blemish-free record in tact. A 68 yesterday, and he’s -2 overall.
Block party. It’s happening again. He’s happening again. Michael Block, the club pro who lit up the 2023 tournament with three rounds of 70 and a 71 that included an ace with Rory McIlroy in attendance, is doing it again. A round of 70 yesterday, and now a 20-foot putt for birdie at the par-three 5th. He’s -1 overall and already beginning to dream of making the cut. It’d be an early birthday present: he’s 50 next month. Good luck finding a single punter at Aronimink who won’t be cheering him on.
About the weather. It shouldn’t be too different to the first day. A little bit warmer, but with the wind expected to occasionally pick up again. It’s blowing pretty briskly right now. There’s not much chance of rain, and the course didn’t get a soaking tonight, so it’ll be a little bit firmer and the ball should scuttle further. Which, given so many of the fairways at Aronimink tilt towards penal rough, may not necessarily be a good thing. But it’s a great day for golf!
Preamble
There are seven players tied for the lead, and another 42 within three shots of them. The day before Moving Day is going to feature a lot of jostling for position.
Here’s what the top of the leaderboard looked like at the end of the first day …
-3: Potgieter, Jaeger, Lee, Hisatsune, Kaymer, Scheffler, Smalley
-2: Brown, Theegala, Greyserman, Schauffele, Conners, Reed, Lowry
… and here are today’s tee times (BST). Starting on the 1st …
1145 Michael Block, Rasmus Højgaard, Dustin Johnson
1156 Mark Geddes, Steven Fisk, David Lipsky
1207 Sungjae Im, Austin Hurt, Casey Jarvis
1218 Andrew Putnam, Michael Kartrude, Matt Wallace
1229 Martin Kaymer, Elvis Smylie, Davis Riley
1240 Jason Dufner, Haotong Li, Jimmy Walker
1251 Nick Taylor, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Jordan Smith
1302 Emiliano Grillo, Patrick Reed, Pierceson Coody
1313 Brian Campbell, Adam Schenk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1324 Marco Penge, Sepp Straka, Patrick Rodgers
1335 Aaron Rai, Travis Smyth, Sami Valimaki
1346 Sam Stevens, Jayden Schaper, Garrett Sapp
1357 Timothy Wiseman, Matti Schmid, Austin Smotherman
1715 Aldrich Potgieter, David Puig, Denny McCarthy
1726 William Mouw, Chris Gabriele, Taylor Pendrith
1737 Tom Hoge, Bryce Fisher, Joaquin Niemann
1748 Keith Mitchell, Billy Horschel, Ian Holt
1759 Gary Woodland, Jason Day, Sam Burns
1810 Wyndham Clark, Cameron Smith, Brian Harman
1821 Patrick Cantlay, Min Woo Lee, Sahith Theegala
1832 Si Woo Kim, Derek Berg, Joe Highsmith
1843 Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Rickie Fowler
1854 Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton
1905 Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm
1916 Daniel Hillier, Ryan Vermeer, Max McGreevy
1927 Paul McClure, Mikael Lindberg, Angel Ayora
… and starting on the 10th …
1150 Andrew Novak, John Parry, Jordan Gumberg
1201 Ben Polland, Kurt Kitayama, Nico Echavarria
1212 Akshay Bhatia, Ricky Castillo, Michael Thorbjornsen
1223 Luke Donald, Jesse Droemer, Stewart Cink
1234 Hideki Matsuyama, J.J. Spaun, Max Homa
1245 Ben Kern, J.T. Poston, Russell Henley
1256 Adam Scott, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger
1307 Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry
1318 Chris Gotterup, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood
1329 Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas
1340 Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose
1351 Zach Haynes, Alex Smalley, Chandler Blanchet
1402 Bernd Wiesberger, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Andy Sullivan
1710 Braden Shattuck, Alex Fitzpatrick, Ben Griffin
1721 Francisco Bide, Harry Hall, Ryan Gerard
1732 Johnny Keefer, Rico Hoey, Nicolai Højgaard
1743 Shaun Micheel, Michael Brennan, Garrick Higgo
1754 YE Yang, Jhonattan Vegas, Matt McCarty
1805 Lucas Glover, Tom McKibbin, Stephan Jaeger
1816 Daniel Brown, Adrien Saddier, Harris English
1827 Jacob Bridgeman, Bud Cauley, Alex Noren
1838 Chris Kirk, Max Greyserman, Kristoffer Reitan
1849 Maverick McNealy, Thomas Detry, Padraig Harrington
1900 Ryan Lenahan, Ryan Fox, Kazuki Higa
1911 Jared Jones, Michael Kim, Ryo Hisatsune
1922 Tyler Collet, Kota Kaneko, Brandt Snedeker
