FIRST THINGS FIRST AT PGA
Walker shoots 65 as he seeks to continue a trend with a major breakthrough.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Jimmy Walker and most of the players on the leaderboard after the first round of the 98th PGA Championship have one apparently good thing in common: They haven’t won a major.
Of late, getting that first one hasn’t been the enormous hurdle it once seemed.
For the first time since 2011, the first three majors of the season have been captured by those who earned their first. That has been the case in five of the last seven majors.
Walker shot a five-underpar 65 at Baltusrol Golf Club on Thursday to take sole possession of the lead, and he fits the profile of a topquality player with all of the ability to have a breakthrough — like the other three major champions of 2016: Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson.
The late-blooming 37year-old from Oklahoma owns five PGA Tour victories and has played for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. Walker is among the longest hitters and better putters on tour.
“Three first-time major winners this year; I don’t think it’s a coincidence or anything,” Walker said. “They are all good players and it was just a matter of time.”
He smiled and added, “Just keep it rolling.”
Among the 19 players closest to Walker, only four — Martin Kaymer (66), Stenson (67), Louis Oosthuizen (68) and Jason Day (68) — have won a major.
Former Ryder Cup player Ross Fisher, of England, birdied the back-to-back closing par-five holes to shoot 66, the same score recorded by 23-year-old tour rookie Emiliano Grillo of Argentina.
Most of the best scores were recorded in the morning, before the greens baked out and a breeze picked up. It will be much softer for the second round, during which heavy rain is expected to fall.
Beyond the top-ranked Day, not many of the world’s highest-ranked golfers were able to solve Baltusrol. To the good was No. 5 Stenson, whose 67 came on the heels of his spectacular British Open win, and No. 7 Rickie Fowler, resurrecting his moribund game — three missed cuts in the last six starts — with a 68.
Mediocre were Jordan Spieth, who didn’t make a birdie until the 16th hole in scoring 70, and Phil Mickelson, who overcame a terrible start to shoot 71.
Then there was awful. U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson had a chance to get to No. 1 this week, but there’s little hope now. He suffered two double bogeys and bogeyed the easy 18th to score 77. Rory McIlroy’s frustrations continued in a no-birdie 74.
Ahead of them all was Walker, who only began regularly qualifying for majors in 2014. That year, he posted top-10s in the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA, but he has never contended deep into a Sunday.
At Royal Troon two weeks ago, Walker shared what was dubbed the “frat house,” with Fowler, Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson. It was fun, but ultimately a drag when Walker was the only one who didn’t get to play on the weekend.
He chose not to practice in the cold and wind and watched too much TV.
“When the first guy comes back [to the house] and he’s ready for a cocktail, you have one,” Walker said with a chuckle.
The season has been a struggle for Walker. He tied for fourth in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, but has only one top-10 since.
“It would be nice to flip it around,” Walker said. “I’ve really been working hard … I have been cranking away and busting it. It just hasn’t showed, which kind of happens sometimes.”
Fowler’s season has been nearly as frustrating. He had a great early run of four top-10s that included a playoff loss to Hideki Matsuyama in the Phoenix Open. But he’s been mostly struggling since missing the Masters cut, followed by a missed U.S. Open cut, followed by a tie for 45th in the British Open.
“You don’t have to sugarcoat it; it wasn’t very good,” Fowler said. “Missing cuts is not fun and definitely not what’s planned. It’s heading in the right direction.
“Swing-wise, everything is fundamentals. Everything is so small. Out here, at the highest level, if you are off just a little bit, especially in a major, it picks you apart.”
Fisher, 35, who was remarkably accurate Thursday, hitting all but two fairways and two greens in his 66, is 0 for 22 in major tries and didn’t play in this season’s first two because he’s ranked 101st in the world.
He has five European Tour victories and nearly scored a big win in 2009 when he lost to countryman Paul Casey in the WGC-Accenture Match Play final.
Seeing others, including two Europeans this year, seize their first majors has given him hope.
“The variety of good golfers is amazing,” Fisher said. “It feels like anyone can turn up on any given day, pick it up and win. … There are a lot of youngsters out there that aren’t scared to go out to play. It’s pretty wide open.”