Johnson flexes his muscles as big hitters take charge
IF you want to know why the fairways will be narrow at the Ryder Cup next month and the rough juicy, take a look at what happened on the second day of the 100th US PGA Championship at Bellerive.
Give America’s heavy artillery generous targets from the tee and enticing hole positions and they are in their element.
World No 1 Dustin Johnson, US Open champion Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland — perhaps the biggest hitter of all — flexed their muscles on this typical example of country club target golf, and took dead aim.
Fair play to the plucky Kevin Kisner from South Carolina, therefore, re, who managed to keep pace with this trio of monstrous sluggers rs despite being a rather r modest 142nd in driving distance this season.
The plucky 34-year- old, who finished tied second in the Open last month, punched well above his weight once more with a fine e 64. He finished just a shot ot behind his playing partner, ner, barstool buddy and the early l halfway leader Woodland, who followed up his own 64 on day one with a 66 for a total of 10 under par.
‘We’ve come through the ranks together, we’re lifelong friends and if only I could hit it 350 yards from the tee like him, well what a different game it would be,’ said Kisner.
Nestling right behind them on eight under is the dangerous Koepka, who became the 15th man in PGA Championship history to shoot 63. In turn, he is just a shot ahead of his big pal Johnson.
At the US Open it was Koepka who came out on top between these two and it would be no surprise if they have another go at it.
Koepka said: ‘When you think where I was in April and having to miss the Masters with a wrist injury, to win two majors in the same season would be incredible.’
Johnson, who has got one major and a ton of near misses on his cv, turned on the afterburners to play the back nine in 31 shots. ‘I’m definitely after that second major,’ said the 34-year-old. ‘It’s time I converted one of these chances I keep giving myself.’
The Europeans? They are not out of it, with Open champion Francesco Molinari five ofoff the pace after a 67 and Jon Rahm on the same mark aftafter a 68. ‘I feel I’m in a similar position tposition to Carnoustie in that I hhad work to do over the weekend and managed to do it, so let’s hope for something similar,’ said Molinari. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the opening day was the 67 thathat Rose managed to conjure up despitedes having his preparations savaged by a niggling back complaint. The 38-year-old moved a lot more freely yesterday, as he set about building on his gains.
The earlier disruption appeared more telling on this occasion, alas, as he made far more mistakes than usual. Even on a course offering plenty of birdie opportunities it is hard to keep pace if you run up four bogeys, and the Englishman had to settle for a 69 and a four under total that leaves him with plenty of catching up to do.
Mind you, given where he was on Tuesday, when he struggled to walk nine holes round here, much less play a full shot, it has been a terrific effort that says much about his fortitude.
Considering he went from just making the cut at the Open to finishing joint second, he will not be giving up on his chances just yet, either.
Among the early starters, the best performance by the 14- strong English contingent came from Matt Wallace, who shot 66 after benefitting from seeing a sports psychologist for the first time. The 28-year- old Londoner has won twice this season but also missed his last four cuts.
It looked like it was going to be a rare missed cut for Tommy Fleetwood when he was outside the mark on one over par with two holes to play, but two successive birdies to finish meant he was safe.
Playing alongside Kisner and Woodland, Sergio Garcia cut an understandably despondent figure. His struggles continued as a 71 left him on one over — with the projected cut mark being level par.
It meant he was staring down the barrel of a missed cut in all four majors this year — and leaving Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn to contemplate an awful dilemma as to whether to grant him a wildcard.
Meanwhile, no prizes for guessing which group the vast majority of the enormous 100,000 sell- out crowd were watching during the afternoon. At 10 shots off the pace, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy clearly had plenty of hot and sweaty work to do to get back into contention.