Late birdie cements Olesen’s 1-shot lead

Tames slick greens at PGA Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. • Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot lead among early starters in a PGA Championship that was making it hard for Jordan Spieth and just about everyone else at Quail Hollow.

Not since 2010 at Whistling Straits has a score as high as 67 led the opening round of the PGA Championship.

Spieth was happy to get through with a 72 in his quest to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka fared much better with a 68 and was among those one shot behind.

But even Koepka had a hard time making putts on new Bermuda greens that were firm and so fast that players had to be defensive.

“Anything under par on this golf course is a good score,” Olesen said.

Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., got to the clubhouse at 1-under 70, putting him three shots off the lead. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., sat at 6-over near the end of his first round, while Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., carded a 7-over 78.

Koepka had birdie putts inside 15 feet on his opening six holes and converted only one of them. He wasn’t the only player struggling to make them.

“If they get about a foot faster, they are kind of unplayable with the pin placements,” Koepka said. “These slopes are just getting bigger and bigger with the speed of the greens and the grain. If you miss it just by a couple feet from the flag, you can hit a great shot in there and wind up 30 yards away.”

It showed on the leaderboard.

No one managed to post anything better than 67 and Olesen needed a long putt on the 18th hole for that.

Greyson Murray, a North Carolina native who hit the opening shot, was the first to post 68. He was joined by Gary Woodland, Koepka and Chris Stroud, who qualified for the PGA Championship only by winning last week at the Barracuda Championship.

Paul Casey was among those at 69, while Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama were in the large group at 70.

Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, broke par for the first time in a major since the U.S. Open last summer at Oakmont, which he won for his first major. He played in the same group as Day, who was headed for another poor start until he made eagle on the par-5 seventh, followed with a birdie and wound up at 70. nationalpost.com