
Day one of the US PGA Championship is underway at Aronimink Golf Club, with players facing challenging conditions due to rain and cloudy skies. Early leader Alex Fitzpatrick has reached -2, while big hitters like Bryson DeChambeau are expected to thrive on the course.
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The course’s main defences are the many bunkers potted around the property, and the huge greens, which will take some working out. But some overnight rain has lengthened the track a wee bit. It’s a bit drizzly this morning, too, and it’s expected to stay cloudy for most of the day, with a chance of more showers and a little wind. The forecast for the rest of the week looks better, though: sunny with light winds for the most part. Should be a fun week.
Aronimink could prove a playground for the big hitters, with accuracy off the tee not a deal-breaker. There’s plenty of scope to whistle drives hither and yon: Rory McIlroy has described “strategy off the tee” as “pretty non-existent”, while Scottie Scheffler says “you can hit it pretty far offline” and still “kind of get away with it”. Good news for the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, then, though to be fair he blasts his opening tee shot, at 10, down the middle of the fairway. Gary Woodland won his US Open in similar circumstances; the popular veteran, whose win at the Houston Open a couple of months back was one of the feelgood stories of the year so far, is level par through his first two holes, 10 and 11.
Here we go, then, and let’s begin with the aforementioned “on-song Matt Alex Fitzpatrick”. He only got his PGA Tour card last month, courtesy of winning the Zurich Classic with his older brother Matt. That gave him a two-year exemption Stateside, plus secured his invite to this tournament. Since then he’s made the top ten at the Cadillac Championship and threatened to win last week at the Truist. Now he’s become the first player this week to reach the -2 mark, opening with birdies at 1 and 2. Admittedly he went out in the very first group, and he’s since dropped a stroke at 5. But he did do that, and he’s currently one of several players under par. Early days and quite a bit of golf yet to play, of course.
-1: A Fitzpatrick (5), McCarthy (5*), Hall (5), Hoge (3*), Brennan (3), Glover (2), McKibbin (1), Jaeger (1), Smith (1*), Brown (1)
Welcome to our coverage of the 108th PGA Championship. It’s only the second time the tournament has been held at Aronimink Golf Club, about 30 minutes west of Philly; the first time was in 1962, when Gary Player won the first of his two PGA Championships. The world number one Scottie Scheffler defends, the Masters champion Rory McIlroy goes for stage two of the calendar grand slam, the in-form Cameron Young looks to make it 11 wins in a row for the USA, and the equally on-song Matt Fitzpatrick attempts to become the first English winner since 1919 (!). Many other narratives are available, and will pan out over the next four days. So let’s waste no more time, because the early starters are already out there. It’s on!
The weather is drizzly with cloudy skies and a chance of more showers, but the forecast for the week looks sunnier with light winds.
Alex Fitzpatrick is currently leading at -2 after making birdies on the first two holes.
The course features many bunkers and large greens, making it challenging, especially with the added length from overnight rain.
Notable competitors include defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Matt Fitzpatrick.
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The tee times (BST). Starting on the 1st …
1715 Andrew Novak, John Parry, Jordan Gumberg
1726 Ben Polland, Kurt Kitayama, Nico Echavarria
1737 Akshay Bhatia, Ricky Castillo, Michael Thorbjornsen
1748 Luke Donald, Jesse Droemer, Stewart Cink
1759 Hideki Matsuyama, JJ Spaun, Max Homa
1810 Ben Kern, JT Poston, Russell Henley
1821 Adam Scott, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger
1832 Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry
1843 Chris Gotterup, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood
1854 Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas
1905 Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose
1916 Zach Haynes, Alex Smalley, Chandler Blanchet
1927 Bernd Wiesberger, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Andy Sullivan*
… and starting on the 10th …
1710 Michael Block, Rasmus Hojgaard, Dustin Johnson
1721 Mark Geddes, Steven Fisk, David Lipsky
1732 Sungjae Im, Austin Hurt, Casey Jarvis
1743 Andrew Putnam, Michael Kartrude, Matt Wallace
1754 Martin Kaymer, Elvis Smylie, Davis Riley
1805 Jason Dufner, Haotong Li, Jimmy Walker
1816 Nick Taylor, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Jordan Smith
1827 Emiliano Grillo, Patrick Reed, Pierceson Coody
1838 Brian Campbell, Adam Schenk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1849 Marco Penge, Sepp Straka, Patrick Rodgers
1900 Aaron Rai, Travis Smyth, Sami Valimaki
1911 Sam Stevens, Jayden Schaper, Garrett Sapp
1922 Timothy Wiseman, Matti Schmid, Austin Smotherman*
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