NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — The chilly start to the PGA Championship made it feel like May. The test Aronimink provided was more like June in a U.S. Open, with no one better than 3-under 67 among the early starters and Masters champion Rory McIlroy giving a stink assessment of his 74.
Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee and Ryo Hisatsune mixed in enough birdies to offset mistakes, each of them at 67.
Xander Schauffele, who set the major championship
scoring record in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla with a 21-under 263, opened with a 68 and was pleased.
“I think really, really thick rough and wind and really difficult greens and tucked pin locations is why you’re seeing what you may feel like are higher scores,” Schauffele said.
That also was the recipe for McIlroy, a bad mix for the Masters champion. He struggled out of the damp, dense rough. He struggled on the greens. He closed with four straight bogeys and described his round in one word that translates loosely to doo-doo.
Some overnight rain only dampened the course, but did little to soften it. And the greens on this Donald Ross original design lived up to the fears with its massive undulations.
Potgieter, a big-hitting South African, put himself in a good position on the severe greens and an even better position when he finished his round. He was in the first group off the 10th tee and the first to post 67, a round with six birdies.
Hisatsune was even better with his seven birdies — four of them immediately after making bogey. Jaeger ran off three in a row on his front nine.
The damp air gave way to clearing skies by mid-morning, and then the wind arrived, enough to make a strong test even tougher. McIlroy hit one approach on the 15th that shot forward some 20 feet on its second hop.
“I think I hit it on the right spots on the golf course, especially on the greens,” Potgieter said. “I didn’t feel like I had to putt over some of these big slopes we had. So I definitely left myself in really good positions on the green.”
No one struggled quite like Bryson DeChambeau, who didn't make a birdie until he ended on the par-5 ninth. That kept him from matching his highest score in the PGA Championship. He shot 76 and now has to work toward avoiding a second straight missed cut in a major.
Garrick Higgo had the worst start imaginable — a late one. The South African was seconds late getting to the first tee when his group was announced. He was assessed a two-shot penalty before he even hit his opening drive. He still managed a 69.
“Unfortunately golf has these situations where we get penalized for things,” Higgo said. “But it is a rule and I obviously broke the rule. I would love to have 3 under. Hopefully, I can make a good story out of it.”
The main story Thursday morning was Aronimink, which hasn't hosted a major championship since Gary Player won the 1962 PGA Championship. It hosted two PGA Tour events in 2010 and 2011, and then another in 2018 after a restoration project.
But this is major — an old slogan the PGA Championship once used — and while this one is famous for creating a firm but fair test, this was everything the players could have wanted.
“There was a couple pins that were on hills and they were tough,” Lee said. “I think they did a really good job on putting them in tough positions, enough to think about it coming into the greens. It’s a course where you don’t want to leave it in bad positions just because it can bite you in the butt pretty quick.”
Among those at 69 was Jordan Spieth, who lacks only the PGA Championship for the career Grand Slam. This is his 10th shot at that feat, and he's rarely been in the mix on the weekend. For one round, he raised hopes with great control off the tee and enough good putting.
Spieth was tied for the lead late in his round until a long three-putt on the seventh, missing the green well to the right on the par-3 eighth and failing to get up-and-down for a birdie chance on the par-5 ninth. He was hoping for better.
“Just didn’t quite finish the way I wanted to the last three holes, but under par was a good score,” Spieth said. “It was blowing really hard, and it was cold this morning. The course played very, very difficult. It was a good start. I’m going to need to improve on it, I think, each day.”
Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, played in the afternoon along with Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Jon Rahm was headed for another rough start in a major until he holed out for eagle from the 11th fairway, chipped in for birdie on the tough par-3 eighth and got up-and-down for birdie on his last hole for 69.
He was told some people thought scoring would be better in the morning. This surprised him.
“People thought it would be lower?” he replied. “Have you been out there? Have you seen this course?”
Rahm said the numbers — width of fairways, for example — can be misleading. The subtle slopes can put decent shots into the rough. And that was enough to make it tough to get it close to the hole. Throw in some wind, and it was no picnic.
“So I can see how in appearance it might be easier, but it’s not,” he said. “You need to play really good golf to shoot lower than 3 under. And then on top of that, those pin locations today are good ones. I mean, they’re tucked. They’re not easy.”
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