Which is surprising, given that it happened as recently as April.
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After all the success he had in majors past year, Spieth drew hard weather conditions Thursday during the first round of the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club. And he had enough power to make eagle on the 18th and four other birdies to offset his mistakes.
Former Masters champions Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth both settled for rounds of even-par 70, one stroke clear of Americans Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson. “I m proud that I hung in there, fought and got three back coming in”.
He believes he is driving the ball as well as ever, which goes a long way at Baltusrol. They look much quicker than they are. “It’s frustrating. I would have loved to have had a better year than I’ve had so far to this point, but I know there’s always time to play well at the end of the year”.
Johnson hasn’t missed a cut all year but he will need a sensational round on Friday if he hopes to be around on the weekend.
Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, 23, and Englishman Ross Fisher were second best among the early starters on 66. – James Hahn after opening with a 67. It was the first time since he won the PGA Championship a year ago that Day started a major with a round under par.
Two holes into the final major of the year, Rory McIlroy was starting to lose patience. The world No. 1 hit 94.4 percent of his greens in regulation but found himself on a two-putt spree.
“You feel like you’re killing yourself and you’re giving it all you’ve got and you’re just not seeing it”. “That was disappointing. I haven’t put on the greatest displays of putting over the last three weeks”. That shows in my results.
“Confidence level is pretty good”. “I like my chances”.
The same can be said of the third member of the all-star trio.
Oosthuizen aced the 16th on the final day of the Masters and celebrated another hole in one in the first round of The Open at Royal Troon, and his tee shot to the short ninth in New Jersey was agonisingly close to a remarkable hat-trick.
“One week in between here might potentially be a good thing, but it could be a bad thing”.
T5. Andy Sullivan (-3): If you’re an American golf fan, you’ll be cursing his name come September at the Ryder Cup.
“The conditions early were quite gettable, I thought”. I like jumping inside the top 30 and going to the Tour Championship. My rhythm wasn’t great. “But I feel like I’m pretty clear on what I need to do with my game, with my swing and everything”. I hit some bad shots the first 11 holes. “It took me a while but I kind of got into the flow there toward the end”.
Spieth made his lone blemish of the day on that seventh hole, where an errant drive led to a pitch-out and a double bogey. Which was understandable given his birdie-eagle finish to a round that seemed to be getting away from the nine-time Ryder Cup player amidst a run of three bogeys in five holes from the turn.
“First and foremost I just need to play a good round to get into the weekend”, said the four-times major victor. “It’s probably as well as I’ve hit it for a long time – even [caddie] Billy [Foster] was impressed”.
The two-time champion used 35 putts overall and believes he needs “something in the mid 60s” on Friday to have any hope of contending for a third Wanamaker Trophy, but at least he is better placed than Johnson after the US Open victor crashed to seven over par.
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“I’ve been hitting the ball with my feet together, which gets my shoulders turning better on the backswing and the follow-through”, said Westwood, who has a record nine top-three finishes in the four Major championships – without winning any. That may change this week, though.
