Andy Sullivan, who reached five under, dropped away with six bogeys in nine holes through the middle of his round before finishing birdie-eagle on the two par-five finishing holes to post 71 and a two-under total that matched Paul Casey (69).
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Johnson’s playing partners – and fellow 2016 major champions – fared much better in the opening round. Mark O’Meara in 1998 and Jack Nicklaus won two majors in their 40s in the same year but not consecutively.
With Dustin Johnson (+9) missing the cut for the first time in 25 tournaments, Watson is now the PGA Tour active cuts leader with 21 consecutive cuts made.
Nothing worked. Not his prodigious driving skills; he was all over the place and hit only seven of 14 fairways. He drilled a bunker shot into the lip on No. 11 for a double bogey.
But it’s not where he needs it to be, especially on the greens, and occasionally off the tee.
His black attire seemed appropriate for such a round.
“I’m going to go home and play with the kids and get them to bed”.
Lee fell a stroke short of the LPGA Tour major record of 61 set by Hyo Joo Kim in the first round of the 2014 Evian Championship. “It’s a tough course”.
He smiled and added, “Just keep it rolling”. We all know what he’s capable of doing with a golf ball and on a golf course. “The people helped to really kind of pick me back up”.
That’s hardly where Johnson could have envisioned he’d stand when he spoke on Wednesday. “You can get pretty drained pretty quickly”.
Just in front of them are England’s Justin Rose, American Patrick Reed and South African Louis Oosthuizen.
“To be able to go out there and hit it exactly where I’m going and see the shot and what I need to do and actually execute it was exciting for me”.
The focus was gone Thursday, and with it likely went Johnson’s chances to win a second major.
Grillo, the young Argentine coming off a tie for 12th at the British Open, was at 4 under with the two par 5s at the end to play.
Birdie putts from 10 feet at 15 and 17 were followed by a tap-in birdie at the par-5 18th, a 21-foot birdie putt at the first and, after a bogey at two when he missed the green with his approach, a 12-foot birdie putt at the third.
“The start wasn’t great, and yeah, things weren’t looking great after four or five holes”, Stenson said. His third shot was over the green and he had to make a 7-foot putt just for par.
Day was enough under the weather after playing in Canada last week that he didn’t practice here for the 98th PGA Championship until Wednesday.
When his opening round ended, McIlroy had 35 putts and no birdies.
“You give yourself chances the first couple of holes, you don’t convert”, he said.
“I think in the history of the PGA Championship, that’s the worst start of any player’s round”.
“I can hit driver off the tee and from there, if I drive it well, I feel like I have a big advantage”.
Instead, it kept sliding in the wrong direction.
“I just can’t get a putt to go in outside 10 feet”, he said.
“I’ve never been in this situation, and I’m not afraid of it”, Grillo said. His game didn’t look much better when he had to scramble for par on the par-5 17th. “I enjoy having my family on the road”, he said.
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Day has work to do if he wants to collect a title this weekend despite finishing with a 2-under 68. Hasn’t been like that lately. “Really positive stuff going into the next three rounds”. He made par on both.
