Rolling Stone gathers fans
CROWD CHEERS BRANDON ON LIKE ONE OF THEIR OWN
Brandon Stone never imagined himself among the leaders at the 100th PGA Championship, but the 25-year-old South African is riding his best career form as far as it takes him.
Stone delivered ay four-underpar 66 on Thursday at Bellerive Country Club to grab a share of third with two-time Major champion Zach Johnson, two strokes behind US first-round leader Gary Woodland.
Stone was the best-placed South African of the six who started after Louis Oosthuizen withdrew with a back injury.
It’s only his seventh Major start, having missed the cut in the past two PGAs.
“I think Quail Hollow chewed me up and spat me out quite quickly last year,” Stone said.
But everything changed last month when he won the Scottish Open, firing a final-round 60 to capture the European Tour event.
Stone shared fifth after the first day of the British Open before finishing 61st, but that helped prepare him for the heat and tension and huge crowds here.
“Swing felt phenomenal, it really held up under the pressure coming home,” Stone said. “You can’t coach someone to focus in this atmosphere. It’s 40.5° Celsius out there with 35 000 people walking around you. So having had the previous experience at Baltusrol and Quail Hollow really helped.”
Stone engaged with the spectators and they responded with roars like he was one of their own.
“There were just so many people here,” Stone said. “I really engaged with the fans. It kind of kept me at ease, kept me nice and loose.
“I don’t think I have the educational level of vocabulary to really describe it. It’s just great fun to have 40 000 or 50 000 people sup- porting you and cheering you on. Every birdie I made, there were huge screams.
“The spectators have been incredible. To be here competing with those guys and kind of holding your own really shows the game’s close to where it could be.”
Stone opened with a 19-foot birdie putt, put his approach to three feet at the par-five eighth and birdied 14 before a bunker at 15 cost him a bogey, to which he responded with a 32-foot birdie putt stunner at the par-three 16th and another birdie at 17 before a closing par.
While he dreams of joining the South African Major winners list topped by Gary Player and Ernie Els, Stone knows that one good round doesn’t bring a trophy.
“To be in that list would be monumental,” Stone said. “At the same time, it is Thursday, so you need to play smart.” – AFP