DAMAGE LIMITATION
A late rally ensured Jordan Spieth kept his bid to become the youngest player to complete a career grand slam on track in the 99th US PGA Championship.
Spieth’s dramatic Open victory at Royal Birkdale means anotheratquailhollowwould 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 recover from three over par with three holes to play to card a one-over-par 72 and lie five shots behind early leader Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark.
US Open champion Brooks Koepka was a shot off the lead along with fellow Americans Grayson Murray and Gary Woodland, with England’s Paul Casey another shot back on two under. With the conditions at Quail Hollow providing a tough test for the field, Scotland’s Russell Knox struggled to a six over par 77 which left him with work to do today to ensure he will still be around for the weekend.
Starting on the back nine alongside fellow 2017 major winners Koepka and Sergio Garcia, Spieth missed from 15 feet for birdie on the parfive tenth and had to hole from five feet for par on the next after his approach ran just off the green.
A good birdie chance went begging on the 13th before Spieth moved into red figures after getting up and down from right of the green on the par-five 15th, only to promptly give the shot back on the
“It’s much easier when you are on the front page of the leaderboard than it is coming from behind”
JORDAN SPIETH next after finding two bunkers. Spieth also bogeyed the first after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker. And when he three-putted