Near-perfect greens and an advantageous tee time did not help Tiger Woods’ cause at the PGA Championship on Thursday as the former world number one struggled to a three-over-par 75 in the opening round. He made four birdies and three bogeys, including one at the last.
Advertisement
Dustin Johnson has led or co-led the last three major championships after round one.
Four-times champion Tiger Woods, who won the most recent of his 14 majors at the 2008 U.S. Open, did not benefit from his early tee time as he mixed two birdies with five bogeys on the way to a 75.
The South Carolina native leads David Lingmerth by one shot after the Swede missed an easy par putt with two holes remaining to fluff any chance of sharing the overnight lead. And we need not even mention what happened at Whistling Straits in 2010 (only because it has been mentioned 900,000 times). “It’s only the first round”.
IT IS customary for Tour professionals to autograph a golf ball for the walking scorers and marker but Texas-based Scot Steven Young gave each a sleeve of brand-new Callaways after the first round in his maiden USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
And what was his opinion about who’s the best?
Round 1 was a draw. And, as we all know, he’s just chillin’.
He pulled his third shot on the par-5 fifth hole into the water, and a double bogey looked likely.
McIlroy eventually decided to roll up one pant leg and make his way down into the hazard. “My shoe got a little bit wet but thankfully they’re good and waterproof so it didn’t get through to the sock, so it was fine”. “Hopefully I can hit the ball as well as I did today, tomorrow and make some putts”. “And I was very fortunate to escape with a par there”. Woods’ own coaches, plenty of self-appointed coaches watching on TV and more than a few pros have offered advice on how Woods could, or should, re-locate the stroke that made him almost unbeatable once.
“If you were to go by this year, you would have to say Jordan”, McIlroy said when asked to name the best golfer in the world.
“It was bugging the living daylights out of me”, Kite said then.
And then he started to press, and it almost cost him.
4th – After splitting the fairway, McIlroy hits a superb approach to 10 feet but again fails to convert the birdie putt. While that is a sizeable deficit on paper, Spieth has been the ultimate reference point in this season of youthful wonder, giving McIlroy hope that a title defence is not beyond him at Whistling Straits should he remain at his shoulder come Sunday. Spieth said he was pleading it for it to hit the pin, if nothing else to keep it near the hole. And Adam Scott has opened with two straight birdies.
“The wind picked up more than I thought it would on the incoming holes”. But I hit it good today, so that’s about it.
And the world No 278 repeatedly swore as he showed his frustration on the greens as he made five bogeys.
“I’m not looking at it like that at all”, Woods said.
With the afternoon starters still on the course, Johnson was two strokes in front of a big group sharing second on four-under-par 68.
Johnson took three putts from 12 feet on the final hole at the U.S. Open to swiftly and shockingly go from a chance to win to a runner-up finish behind Spieth.
It’s worth noting, however, that a similar scenario was envisioned at St. Andrews, and it never manifested.
Advertisement
None of that appeared to be on his mind on Thursday.
