This is the third consecutive PGA Championship for Helminen, 41.
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For just the fourth time in his major career, Rory McIlroy failed to record a birdie Thursday at the PGA Championship.
Daly was marking the 25th anniversary of his stunning victory as an alternate in the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick.
He missed a 10-foot birdie putt on his opening hole at No. 10 on Thursday.
Jimmy Walker reacts to his putt on the third hole during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.
Playing in the Northern Ireland Open on the Challenge Tour, Ryan Fox, Lee’s Olympic teammate, was even par three holes into his first round when play was suspended due to darkness, after a rain delay earlier in the day.
That Johnson was nowhere to be seen in the brutal heat at Baltusrol.
At day’s end, there was only one player at 5-under and it was the leader, Jimmy Walker. He has a sense of urgency this week with double points at stake and a chance to become the year’s fourth first-time major victor.
“He won two majors when I was just a little kid”, Grillo said. “It’s just ebbs and flows of golf”. Just haven’t been scoring. I thought I played a very solid round.
“The PGA is the first time I’ve ever defended a major championship, so I’ll try and soak up the experience of what that entails with regards to the start of the week going to the champion dinner and having to defend that and go to the media and the press room and all that stuff”, Day said.
“I played good today”. “Especially downhill putts. You are not going to play to hit them four feet by, planning on some bounces”.
Walker mentioned being lower than usual on the FedEx Cup (No. 50), and he is No. 48 in the world. He’s also looking to improve his standing on the FedEx Cup list as well as play his way onto the Ryder Cup team again.
This unusual setup means that once the weekend starts, scores can change wildly over the final two holes. He made par on both.
Three players are at 4-under, including two-time major champion Martin Kaymer.
But as Thursday drew to a close, the leaderboard was full of names like Jimmie Walker, Emiliano Grillo, Ross Fisher, Andy Sullivan, James Hahn and Harris English.
World number one and defending champion Day, who found 17 greens in regulation, shot a two-under-par 68 and said the time away from the course might have been a blessing.
Walker, who won five times between October 2013 and March 2015 but has struggled this year, would join Willett, Johnson and Stenson as a first-time victor if he were to hold on.
The featured group of the morning wave had Day, Phil Mickelson (71), the victor the last time the PGA was held at Baltusrol Golf Club, and two-time PGA champion Rory McIlroy (74). “But once Thursday comes around, you have to go out there and execute and play good”. It was the first time this year that he has broken par in an opening round. “I am happy with my game tee to green”, McIlroy said, per Ewan Murray of the Guardian. “I had a couple chances I didn’t convert”, McIlroy said. I’ve been playing really well leading up to the tournament, so it’s just nice to keep the form and momentum going.
“I’d rather do that one week, one week and one week”, Grillo said of the compact schedule.
There’s a lot of golf left this week, and a lot remaining this season.
A birdie on the par-three ninth was the only highlight in his seven-over 77 that featured another double bogey on the 11th and a bogey on the par-five 18th after his drive landed in water.
Stenson had his struggles on the greens, too, but the British Open champion he was rolling right along at the end with three birdies over his last seven holes for a 67.
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