PGA Championship: Dustin Johnson: Taking route 66 was easy

Dustin Johnson admitted an opening 66 in the US PGA Championship was as easy as he made it look, but the hard part will be converting that into an overdue first major title after numerous near misses.

Johnson carded an eagle, five birdies and a solitary bogey to set a testing clubhouse target as a strengthening wind made conditions difficult for the later starters.

At six under par, Johnson held a two-shot lead over a seven-strong group which included playing partner Jason Day, with English pair Justin Rose and James Morrison another shot back on three under.

The last time the US PGA was held at Whistling Straits in 2010, Johnson was one shot ahead with one to play and thought his bogey on the 18th meant he would be heading into a play-off with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson.

However, the 31-year-old was then penalised two strokes after it was ruled he had grounded his club in a fairway bunker before hitting his second shot, even though spectators had been trampling all over the hazard.

Johnson had also squandered a three-shot lead in the final round of the US Open two months earlier and he three-putted the 72nd hole at Chambers Bay this year to finish a shot behind Jordan Spieth.

The world number eight, who led after the first and second rounds of the Open before fading badly at St Andrews, started on the back nine and made birdies on the 10th and 11th before holing from 30 feet for an eagle on the 16th. Further birdies on the first and second were followed by a bogey on the third, where playing partner Rickie Fowler needed four shots to escape a bunker and took seven, but Johnson bounced straight back with a birdie on the fourth.

“Today was pretty easy, I would have to say,” Johnson said. “I was swinging well and I was hitting the shots where I was looking and I really felt like I was just super patient, stayed focused all day.

“I played pretty well at the US Open on the weekend. At the British Open I didn’t play well on the weekend, but even the first two days I didn’t feel like I was playing that good golf. I wasn’t too comfortable with my swing. I wasn’t hitting the shots that I wanted to hit. I didn’t feel like I was too much in control.

“Today, I really felt like I had my ball under control a lot like I did at the US Open. We’ll just have to see what happens. It’s only the first round, we’ve still got a lot of golf to play.”

Defending champion Rory McIlroy and world number two Jordan Spieth were among the later starters and McIlroy got off to an adventurous start in his first competitive round since June 21 after a seven-week injury lay-off. Looking to become only the second player in the modern era to successfully defend the US PGA title, McIlroy three-putted the first from long distance before bouncing back immediately with a birdie on the par-five second.

A second bogey of the day looked certain on the fifth when McIlroy found sand off the tee and the edge of a water hazard with his third shot to the 603-yard par five, but the 26-year-old simply rolled up his right trouser leg, splashed the ball out to 12 feet and holed for par.

Spieth was also level par after five more orthodox pars, but the third member of the group – Open champion Zach Johnson – was two over after three bogeys and one birdie.

Jason Day’s rich vein of form continued unabated as his presence among a group of wannabe first-time major winners brought out the best in the Australian.

World number five Day opened his PGA Championship account with an opening four-under-par 68 to maintain the momentum of recent weeks in which he has finished tied ninth at the US Open, tied fourth in The Open, won the Canadian Open and finished tied for 12th at last weekend’s WGC- Bridgestone Invitational.

That leaves the 27-year-old two shots off the pace of playing partner and early clubhouse leader Dustin Johnson, while Rickie Fowler, the third member of the trio of best players not to have won a major, carded a one-over 73.

It was a slow-burner of a round for Day, who parred his first four holes having started at the 10th hole while both Johnson and Fowler opened birdie-birdie. The Australian made the first of three birdies at the par-four 14th and an eagle came at the par-five second while his final birdie at the par-five fifth moved him to five under, only for his lone bogey of the day to follow at the sixth.

“I missed two greens with a wedge today in my hand. It was a little sloppy on 11, which is my second hole of the day. But it’s the start of the week. Can’t really panic too much. Plenty of golf left,” Day said. “So if I made a mistake early, I knew that there was opportunities coming in, of what the scores were actually being posted at that time.

“Early, those two, three, even four-unders early in the rounds showed me that there was birdies out there to be taken. So, I just kind of hung in there and then once I got my first birdie that got my game going and I started driving the ball a lot better, hit a lot of good greens and felt like I putted pretty solid today.” As for Johnson, Day’s verdict on the American’s opening 66 was that it was “solid”.

“I mean, he’s driving it longer than everyone else right now and driving it very straight, gave himself a lot of opportunities on the greens, just some of the putts he had, he hit good putts, they just didn’t go in for him. So it was very close from shooting a six-under-par round to eight or nine-under-par round. And that’s how it falls sometimes.So, there’s plenty of golf to be played, everyone’s trying to win, and I’m trying to win my first, he’s trying to win his first, so we’ll see how it goes.”