The 37-year-old has been struggling this season, but he sits high on the list of the best players never to win a major.
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Day, who is tied for ninth, drove the ball well in making his performance look easy, but Walker displayed a full game.
Jimmy Walker matched his best score in a major with a 5-under 65.
“We’re in the middle of a busy season and I’ve got a lot of golf to play”.
Maybe even more impressive than Walker’s round was Martin Kaymer’s 4-under 66 in the blustery afternoon conditions.
Fisher, whose sole top-10 finish in a major to date came in the 2009 US Open, said: “Everyone is striving to become a major champion and I’m no different. That’s really solid at a major championship, let alone at Baltusrol”. He wasn’t in the thick of the hunt, sitting six shots behind leader Jimmy Walker, but he wasn’t out of it either. The PGA record for highest start by a victor is 75 by John Mahaffey in 1978 at Oakmont. “I know we do a lot of [captain’s] picks this year [four]”. But when you’re at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, an historic 121-year-old venue which has hosted 9 major golf championships, with more than 80,000 spectators in attendance and more than 30 million more tuned in on TV to watch you and over 150 of the world’s top golfers, it’s hard to believe “It’s just playing golf”. The world’s No.1 player said his son caught something and passed it along to him during the week. “Kind of makes lunch taste a little better and gives them a frown”, he said. Sanders now is his caddie.
Every player looks ahead to Baltusrol’s birdie rush. He’s still bitter about that.
“All year, it has just been real stale and stagnant”. All three players grinded all day and all three players birdied their final hole. Stenson shot a 67 on Thursday to finish 3 under par. He missed the cut at both the USA and British Opens. His ankle is taped and he is wearing a brace.
Catching his second shot horribly thin, the ball slammed into the face of the bunker just feet in front of him and trickled back down into the sand. A month later, he is down to No. 9.
Playing early in the day, Harris English, James Hahn and Englishman Andy Sullivan also shot 3 under. There are some surprises – like Rory McIlroy, nine strokes off the lead, finding himself tied with John Daly – as well as the expected – like Jason Day (-2) sitting in the top 10, just three shots off the lead. Rory McIlroy parred No. 17 despite a monstrous drive that left him a short birdie putt, then fell a touch short when he tried to reach the 18th green in two, yielding another par.
– After a wayward drive and a poor layup that almost carried into the water, Phil Mickelson found himself mostly stymied by a stone bridge for his third shot on Baltusrol Golf Club’s 18th hole. He will be paired with American Jason Kokrak, a veteran with 121 PGA tournaments of experience over the past 5 years, as well as Kristoffer Broberg, a Swedish native and 6-year veteran of the PGA European tour. 13-15, all par-4s. He made par on both.
Day played in the morning group with McIlroy and Phil Mickelson, and he was the only player without much stress. It was the first time since he won the PGA Championship previous year that Day started a major with a round under par. His 71 wasn’t bad at all, he knows he’s in it, he’s handy on poa-influenced greens and he’s won here before.
The unheralded trio topped the leaderboard in Thursday’s opening round of the 98th PGA Championship at Baltusrol, all dreaming of becoming the sport’s fifth consecutive first-time major victor.
“But after that, it’s just playing golf”.
Starting on the 10th hole for the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, it was that ugly for Mickelson in his first competition since his tremendous Sunday duel with Henrik Stenson in the British Open.
The other three members of the Met PGA here this week have work to do, as well.
By the numbers: There were 38 birdies and no eagles at the 17th hole, which played 636 yards in Round 1. That included Rickie Fowler, who is playing with Ernie Els and Zach Johnson.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -Lee Westwood opened the PGA Championship in poor form, bogeying three of the first five holes.
What will Baltusrol serve up this week at the PGA Championship? “It is good on the [practice] putting green”, the Northern Irishman said.
The 1967 U.S. Open was at Baltusrol, and Jack Nicklaus broke the scoring record with 275. Which makes his opening round at the PGA Championship all that more surprising. The 49-year-old Brown is the head pro at Tam O’Shanter Golf Club in Brookville.
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The final member of the marquee group, Open runner-up Phil Mickelson, recovered from four over par after 11 holes with three late birdies to return a 71, but US Open champion Dustin Johnson struggled to a 77.
