Contrast for Spieth and Rory

JORDAN Spieth and Rory McIlroy carded contrasting opening rounds of 72 as Spieth aims to become the youngest player to complete a career grand slam in the 99th US PGA Championship.

Spieth’s dramatic Open victory at Royal Birkdale means another at Quail Hollow would see him join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in having won all four Majors.

But the 24-year-old had to birdie two of his last three holes to finish one over, five shots off the lead shared by D e n m a r k ’s T h o r b j o r n Olesen and American Kevin Kisner.

In contrast, pre-tournament favourite McIlroy was two-under-par for 12 holes before dropping three shots in the next two holes.

McIlroy bogeyed the 13th after a clumsy chip and then made a complete mess of the short par-four 14th, pulling his three-wood tee shot into the water and then fluffing his pitch following a penalty drop on his way to a double bogey.

The 28-year-old also failed to birdie the par-five 15th and said:“I wish I could have those three holes back but apart from that I played nicely and I’m still in it.”

US Open champion Brooks Koepka was a shot off the lead along with fellow Americans Grayson Murray, Gary Woodland, Chris Stroud and DA Points, with England’s Paul Casey another shot back on two under.

“Historically I’m pretty solid with the lead so that was kind of the goal,” Spieth said.

“I drove the ball well. If you told me I was going to hit my driver the way that I did, I would have definitely thought I shot a few under par. I can’t putt any worse.”

Rory McIlroy