Eight golfers posted 2-under 68s including defending champion Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and K.J. Choi. “It’s great playing good anywhere. and to bring that momentum into a major, it’s very good”.
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Martin Kaymer was within one stroke of the lead in the PGA Championship with three holes to play.
“Tee to green is not the problem, but when I get to the greens it’s a different story”, said McIlroy, who had 35 putts for the round.
Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson weren’t so fortunate.
Starting on the 10th hole at Baltusrol Golf Club, Fowler had four birdies and a bogey in his front nine.
American Johnson, ranked second in the world, had a terrible opening, with a double bogey and three bogeys in his first seven holes. Aside from his emphatic victory at Oakmont for his first major, Johnson followed with a victory at Firestone and a ninth at the British Open.
Day closed with three solid pars to remain three off the pace, while Mickelson looked to be heading for a score in the same region as McIlroy after he opened with a bogey and dropped three shots in five holes around the turn. McIlroy didn’t make a birdie all day and came in with a 74. “I had a couple of chances early on that I could not convert and then missed a couple of greens and did not get up and down and I was always chasing it from there”. That’s really it. I try to create my own feelings. “They are all good players and it was just a matter of time”.
Day’s preparation was disrupted by a bug he caught from his children and an emergency trip to the hospital with his wife, who had a bad allergic reaction on Tuesday night (Wednesday NZT).
But when the PGA Championship was played here in 2005, Phil Mickelson won at 4-under 276.
“It’s not going to be the last time”.
The U.S. team’s scoring system awards double points based on money won in major championships, so a good week will shoot Walker up the standings and his first major title could get him near that top eight, depending upon on how others fare this week. “Come out and execute”.
If someone like Walker were to win the PGA Championship, it would be only the fifth time dating to 1934 that the four majors were swept by first-timers. I played well last week (Canadian Open), and you know, I’m carrying that into this week, which is very important.
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. “I’m happy with my game from tee-to-green, driving the ball as well as I have ever, iron play feels good”. “Winning a major would be huge but there’s three days to go”.
“It’s been a stale and stagnant year. I haven’t been making the 18-footers you need to make to start running up the leaderboard and to have high finishes”.
Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and Englishman Ross Fisher were second best among the early starters on 66. I remember walking off of No. 3 and a guy said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a lot of golf left, you’re not out of this, let’s get going.’ He’s right.
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Fellow Englishmen Chris Wood, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood – who finished with a birdie and an eagle on the final two holes, both par fives – opened with one-under-par 69s, the same score as Welsh duo Bradley Dredge and Jamie Donaldson. His American team beat the world in South Korea last fall, but his Presidents Cup experience wasn’t as fulfilling as the Ryder Cup a year before.
