The Latest on the 99th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club (all times local) :
CHARLOTTE, N. C. (AP) – The Latest on the 99th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club (all times local) :
6: 50 p.m.
Phil Mickelson has never had a round quite this bad at a PGA Championship.
Mickelson shot a 79 on Thursday – the worst round of his 25 appearances at the final major of the season – with eight bogeys. The most recent of Lefty’s 78s came in 2013 at Oak Hill.
He was at 6 over entering the treacherous final three holes at Quail Hollow known as the Green Mile, and had bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 before closing his round with a par.
That left him tied for 131st place, 12 strokes behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen.
Mickelson’s struggles come on a course he performed well at for years and considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour. Quail Hollow typically hosts the Wells Fargo Championship.
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5: 50 p.m.
Phil Mickelson’s streak of not missing the cut at the PGA Championship since 1995 could be in danger.
Mickelson is 6 over entering the treacherous final three holes at Quail Hollow known as the Green Mile, leaving him tied for 115th place.
Lefty’s struggles come on a course he performed well at for years and considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour. Quail Hollow typically hosts the Wells Fargo Championship.
But on Thursday, it has been a struggle since the opening tee shot for Mickelson, who has six bogeys and no birdies.
As bad as Mickelson has been, playing partner and defending PGA Champion Jimmy Walker has been even worse at 7 over through 15.
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5: 10 p.m.
The first hole-in-one at the PGA Championship belongs to Joost Luiten.
He aced the par-3 No. 4 on Thursday during the opening round. Luiten’s tee shot on the 184-yard hole bounced once on the green before plunking into the cup.
It came after he bogeyed his two previous holes and moved him to 5 over – nine strokes behind clubhouse leader Thorbjorn Olesen.
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5 p.m.
Thorbjorn Olesen is the early first-round leader at the PGA Championship after shooting a 4-under 67. Or is he?
It turns out Thorbjorn isn’t actually his first name. It’s Jacob.
Olesen says that when he started school in Demark, there were three boys named Jacob in his class, so everyone started calling him by his middle name, Thorbjorn, to avoid confusion. The name stuck, and he’s been known to the golf world as Thorbjorn Olesen ever since.
“I thought, why not, I’ll still use it as a professional golfer, ” said Olesen, who has won four times in the European Tour but never on American soil. “I think it’s only really my mom that calls me Jacob. But everybody else calls me Thorbjorn.”
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4: 30 p.m.
Rickie Fowler ran off four birdies on the front nine of the PGA Championship to help overcome a triple bogey.
The star attraction for the afternoon has Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Fowler, and all three have made the turn under par. Rahm made dropped only one shot, at the par-3 fourth hole, and was at 2 under. McIlroy bogeyed both par 3s and followed with back-to-back birdies. He was at 1 under. Fowler birdied the ninth hole and was 1 under
Thorbjorn Olesen has the lead. He shot a 4-under 67 in the morning. If it stands, it will be the highest score to lead the PGA Championship after the opening round since Matt Kuchar shot a 67 at Whistling Straits in 2010.
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3: 10 p.m.
As John Daly played his final hole Thursday, maybe he needed Hootie to hold his hand.
Daly went from contender to curmudgeon after a triple bogey on No. 18 capped an eventful 24-hour period that included singing onstage with Darius Rucker.
Daly tweeted a video taken Wednesday night showing himself and the Hootie & the Blowfish frontman-turned-country soloist singing Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
The good times kept rolling through Daly’s 8: 20 a.m. tee time; he was at even par through 17 holes.
Then came the meltdown on No. 18. He struggled with his chipping, then three-putted for a seven.
Daly left Quail Hollow without speaking to reporters but did tell his fiancee that he wanted to “get out of here, ” using a profanity to express his frustration with the course.
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2: 45 p.m.
Jordan Spieth says he didn’t feel as “free rolling” as he thought he would be on Thursday. He still managed a 72 for a reasonable start to the PGA Championship and his quest for the career Grand Slam.
The greens were rolling just fine.
The putting surfaces at Quail Hollow are so firm and fast that players had a hard time holing putts early in the opening round. Spieth says he was putting defensively. U. S. Open champion Brooks Koepka missed a half-dozen putts from 12 feet or closer and still shot 68. He was happy with his round because it was hard to make putts.
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Noon
Sergio Garcia is the first big name tripped up by Quail Hollow Club’s “Green Mile.”
The Masters champion struggled on the course’s challenging three-hole finishing stretch during his opening round Thursday.
Garcia, who started his round on No. 10, made the turn after double bogeys on a pair of par-4 holes – Nos. 16 and 18 – sandwiched around a bogey on the par-3 17th.
By noon, nobody shot better than par on the 16th. Charley Hoffman had the lone birdie on the 18th, and the only two birdies on the 17th belonged to Ernie Els and Tommy Fleetwood.
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11: 30 a.m.
The “Green Mile” at Quail Hollow Club has been tough on everyone at the PGA Championship – even a course marshal.
A briefly scary moment unfolded during Thursday’s early rounds when Brooks Koepka’s drive on No. 16 hit the marshal. The shot sailed wide right and struck the marshal near the ropes.
Video posted on the PGA of America’s Twitter feed showed Koepka checking on the marshal and signing a glove for him as he laid on the ground. The man smiled and appeared to thank the U. S. Open champion for the gesture.
The ball wound up in the fairway, and Koepka went on to bogey the par-4 hole – the first of the course’s challenging “Green Mile” finishing stretch of three holes.
A PGA of America official said later that the course marshal was fine but went home for the day.
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10: 40 a.m.
South Africa’s Ernie Els was hoping to make a splash in his 100th major championship, but the “Big Easy” is off to a rocky start at the PGA Championship.
