PGA off to a sluggish start
A slimmed-down DeChambeau leads first-round finishers after delay for frost.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — So much talk about this PGA Championship has been the restoration project of Oak Hill. Equally astonishing Thursday is the restoration of Bryson DeChambeau.
That incredible bulk who won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2020? DeChambeau has shed some 40 pounds by cutting out food to which he was allergic.
“I took a Zoomer peptide test, which essentially tells you what inflames your blood when you eat it,” he said. “Pretty much everything I liked, I couldn’t eat.”
The guy who tried to smash it as far as he could and have wedges into the green? Now he’s happier finding fairways, and he was happy to share what led to the improved accuracy.
“It’s being more ... how do I explain this easy? I’m just in a place where I’m more ulnar,” he said, leaving everyone to wonder what would have been the more complicated explanation.
The place that matters is his name high on the leaderboard. DeChambeau still lashed away with speed and strength, off the tee and out of the rough. That carried him to a four-under 66 and the lead among those who finished the round delayed nearly two hours by frost.
Thirty players didn’t finish because of darkness and were to return Friday morning. That included Eric Cole, the 34-year-old PGA Tour rookie who was five under with four holes left.
DeChambeau matched his low score at the PGA Championship and led by one over Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson and Corey Conners.
“It’s a fantastic round of golf at Oak Hill,” DeChambeau said. “It’s a prestigious place, very difficult golf course. As I was looking at it throughout the week, I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know how shooting under par is even possible out here on some of the holes.’ But luckily, I was able to play some really good golf.”
So did Johnson, the twotime major champion who is coming off a playoff win last week in Oklahoma in the Saudi-funded LIV. Johnson went from a fairway bunker to deep rough left of the 18th green and missed a putt just inside 15 feet for his only bogey.
Fairways covered with a thin layer of frost gave way to magnificent weather with little wind.
“Today was probably the easiest conditions we’ll see all week,” said Scheffler, who took advantage with his first bogey-free card in 51 rounds at a major.
Masters champion Jon Rahm failed to take advantage, making five bogeys in a six-hole stretch around the turn and finishing with a 76, his highest start at a major since the 2018 U.S. Open. Jason Day, coming off a win at the Byron Nelson, and U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick also were at 76. Scheffler challenging for the lead was not a surprise. Last year’s Masters champion has six wins in the last 15 months, and he hasn’t finished worse than 12th this year. Johnson, who led the LIV points list last year, had a slow start to the year but is starting to hit his stride.
Scheffler made a stressful golf course look stressfree, except for a few holes.
One of them was the second hole, his 11th of the round, when he went over the green and faced a scary chip up a steep slope to a back pin. He pitched up to seven feet and saved par. He also got out of position on the par-five fifth hole, getting up and down from a bunker for par. “It was a grind today,” Scheffler said. “No bogeys is pretty solid.”
For so many others, Oak Hill was the grind they expected. Jordan Spieth felt fit enough with an injured left wrist to pursue the final leg of the career Grand Slam, only to struggle with his putting. He shot a 73.
Rory McIlroy looked as though he might be headed to another early exit from a big event. He was three over after nine holes and in trouble at No. 2 when he was over the green in three, some 35 feet away with a steep slope between him and a back pin. He holed it with his putter for a most unlikely par, made birdie on the next two holes and salvaged a 71.
“It was massive,” McIlroy said. “Depending on what happens over the next three days and what I go on to do, I may look back at that shot as being the sort of turning point of the week.”