Mcilroy and Spieth suffer on the greens as ‘bombers’ thrive
Favourites both card 72 as Olesen’s 67 sets pace Casey and Fleetwood in good shape at under par
There was no long and short of it for the 156-man field in the 99th USPGA Championship. Just long. With rounds typically taking well in excess of five hours on a 7,588-yard Quail Hollow course softened by heavy rains in the lead-up to the year’s final major, the leaderboard was soon enough – and predictably – dominated by some of the more powerful hitters.
Thorbjorn Olesen for one. The muscular Dane followed up his tenth place tie in last week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational with a 67, four-under par, that tied Kevin Kisner, one-shot lower than a group of American “bombers” headed by US Open champion Brooks Koepka. Best of the Brits was Paul Casey’s 69, one better than Tommy Fleetwood, who was alongside more bighitters in Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, world number-one Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I was driving the ball very, very well, and that made it a bit easier,” said Olesen. “Coming in with some short irons into these greens was definitely the key to the round. I felt like I gave myself a lot of opportunities.”
Less successful on that front was Rory Mcilroy. Twice a winner at Quail Hollow, the Northern Irishman reached two-under par after ten holes. But a four at the short 13th - his third of the day on a par-3 – was followed by a double-bogey on the drivable par-4 14th. After finding the pond left of the green, Mcilroy duffed his pitch, chipped to four feet, then badly pushed his putt for bogey. It was ugly stuff. Four uneventful pars followed. “The greens are as firm as I’ve ever seen at a PGA Championship,” was Mcilroy’s succinct verdict on a frustrating round of 72 in which he failed to hole a putt longer than sixfeet.
Open Champion Jordan Spieth was another who struggled. The Texan’s search for the fourth and final piece of the career Grand Slam got off to a sluggish start, four bogeys outnumbering the three birdies – two coming in his last three holes – in a 72. Unusually, Spieth blamed his travails on the club that is recognised as the strength of a game that has won a Masters, a US Open and an Open Championship in the last three seasons.
“I don’t think I missed any short putts today,” he said. “I just had really poor speed on my really long ones.”
Most of them anyway. As ever amidst his struggles, there were moments of high-quality from the young maestro, the 50ft putt with the 20ft break he laid stiff down the 12th green a reminder of his peerless ability to make the best of even the worst position. But his point was well made. This was a day when his downs on the greens definitely outnumbered the ups. Two holes after that stroke of genius, he drove the 14th green then promptly putted off it.
Elsewhere, however, Spieth expressed an equally rare satisfaction with his play tee-to-green. The quality of his ball-striking meant there was no sense of panic regarding his position relative to the leaders. But neither was he too happy.
“I drove the ball well today,” he claimed. “If you told me I was going to hit my driver the way that I did today, I would definitely have thought I would shoot a few under par – which would have been an awesome score. But I can’t putt any worse than I did today. My scores won’t be any higher if I continue to drive the ball as I did today.
“My goal was to grab the lead. Majors are much easier when you are on the front page of the leaderboard. Given this is just the first round, I know I’m still in it. But I also know that tomorrow’s round becomes more important if I am to work my way into contention. If I’m, say, five back at the start of tomorrow, I’ve got to be less than five back at halfway to really feel like I can play the way this course needs to be played and still be able to win.”
As for Fleetwood, the absence of the hometown boy pressure he faced at last month’s Open Championship led to a greater sense of freedom in what is only his tenth major championship appearance.
“Today was tough but playable,” he said. “You have to hit the fairways. If they make the greens as firm as they could, hitting them from the rough will be a struggle. It was great to ‘beat’ the course today though. If I do that every day I won’t be too far away.”