Shane Lowry pleased with steady start at PGA Championship
The first-round forecast everyone fretted about arrived fashionably late Thursday at TPC Harding Park.
That was good and bad news for Ireland’s finest.
While Shane Lowry wasn’t complaining about 2-under 68 that has him tied for 20th at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy staggered to an even-par 70 on a morning when many of the notable names made the most of benign conditions.
In the windier afternoon wave, Graeme McDowell fought his way to a 2-over 72.
“I was going out there expecting it to be quite difficult,” said Lowry, who was steeled to face conditions similar to Royal Portrush when he won the last major 382 days ago in the Open Championship.
“I was probably a bit negative for the first few holes, but it was quite easy out there this morning. There was not much wind, a little bit warmer… It was quite gettable this morning, and you can see, that from the leaderboard.
“It was nice to play the last three holes in 1-under and shoot 68. I'm pretty happy. I don't feel like I drove the ball well at all.
"I'm going to go to the range and hit a few now, but other than that I feel like my game was good today and I'm pretty happy with my score.”
Jason Day, the 2015 PGA champion, set the morning pace with a 5-under 65 and was joined in the afternoon by Brendon Todd. Nine golfers, all from the morning wave, are right on their heels at 4-under including back-to-back reigning champion Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Zach Johnson and Xander Schauffele.
Eleven players shooting 66 or better is a record for the opening round of a major championship.
McIlroy, however, was conspicuously absent from the 38 golfers who finished the morning in red figures. After an opening birdie, he made three successive bogeys to fall behind.
Despite getting back to 1-under with three birdies in a four-hole stretch around at the turn, he scrambled the rest of the way making one more bogey on his 15th hole of the day to leave himself closer to the cut line than the lead in 48th place to start the second round.
“It was there for the taking today,” McIlroy lamented. “I mean, I feel like I definitely could have been a few shots lower, but you know, I sort of grinded it out and with how I hit it on the back nine, even par actually wasn't too bad.
“The way the conditions were, if you hit it well today, every hole was nearly a birdie chance. Didn't quite materialize like that for me but it was good to get it back to even par. Yeah, just got to go work on it and tidy up for (Friday).
The overcast but mild morning brought the best of the marque players. Day, who had slipped to No. 63 in the world before recently relocating his form, went bogey-free to separate from the peloton lined up behind him.
Three consecutive top-10 finishes leading into the week restored his faltering confidence.
“I finally had enough of feeling sorry for myself, and it's easy to do that in this game because it is so mentally tough,” Day said.
“You can start blaming everything else but yourself. Sometimes you've just got to pull your pants up and just move on, you know.”
Todd shot three strokes better than anyone else in the afternoon, burying a 10-footer to save par on the ninth hole to join Day and carry his momentum into Friday monring.
He finished the day with a field-best seven birdies and two bogeys.
Todd fell from inside the top 50 in 2014 to outside the top 2,000 – tied for last – in the world golf ranking at the end of 2018 only to fight his way back into the top 50 with consistent play since winning in consecutive weeks at the end of 2019.
“I would say that's very satisfying to be in my first major in five years and play well and be comfortable in the moment and the situation,” said Todd, who bounced right back from blowing the lead Sunday in last week’s WGC.
Brendan Todd is one off the lead with four holes to play. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/P3CMEKSJrL
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 7, 2020
“I'm just going to try and try to take this momentum into the rest of the week and have some fun.” Day and Todd will need to keep their pace up with the cast stacked within a few shots of the lead.
Koepka is keen to become the only living golfer to win the same major in three consecutive years, an accomplishment that barely eluded him last year at the US Open when he was runner-up to Gary Woodland.
“I wasn't able to do it at the US Open; I think that drove me nuts a little bit,” Koepka said.
“I feel good. I feel confident. I'm excited for the next three days. I think I can definitely play a lot better, and just need to tidy a few things up, and we'll be there come Sunday on the back nine.”
Day wasn’t the only major champion to rekindle a spark Thursday. Veterans Rose, Johnson and Kaymer all took advantage of the morning to get themselves back in a major hunt.
“Today was one of those guys day where I got all of it out,” said Rose, who birdied three of his last six holes to join the 4-under crowd.
PGA Tour rookie Scottie Scheffler and Bud Cauley, who got in field as an alternate, also shot 66.
The group at 3-under includes Woodland, Tony Finau and Alex Noren, who got into the field Wednesday as the last alternate.
Add it to the list👆#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/xO9G9kRLJL
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 7, 2020
Tiger Woods, playing with McIlroy and world No. 1 Justin Thomas, broke out a new longer putter and outclassed his younger challengers with a 2-under 68, which he classified as “a solid round.”
It was Woods’ best start in a major since the 2012 Open Championship. Thomas was 2-under with seven holes to play before stumbling with a pair of doubles to shoot 1-over 71.
Adam Scott, playing his first round since golf shut down in March, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Paul Casey and PGA Championship rookie Viktor Hovland shot 68s as the winds picked up late in the afternoon to get in the mix with a chance to make a move Friday morning.
Casey was 4-under until he finished with a double on the 18th hole.
“I flat-out don’t like it,” Casey said of playing golf with no crowds.
“I was getting it going a little bit and I felt excited about my round of golf until I messed it up on 18.
"But yeah, I almost feel like if I had more energy out there, I probably would have finished it off different.”
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