PGA Championship: 2 records set at Valhalla during first round
It was pretty easy scoring on day one of the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.
After some rain earlier in the week, the soft conditions won out at least for 18 holes as 65 players shot under par, including a PGA and Valhalla competitive course record 62 by Xander Schauffele.
“A whole lot of low scores,” golfer Collin Morikawa said after his round of 66.
Yes, it was a lot of red numbers.
Schauffele led the charge, but 10 players shot 66 or better and a total of 31 shot 68 or better for the day.
The 65 players under par set a new PGA record for the highest number of sub-par opening rounds. The old mark was 60 set back in 2006 at Medinah Country Club.
Schauffele had nine birdies and it was his first bogey-free round in 25 career PGA rounds, while Tony Finau had six birdies en route to a 65 - also his first bogey-free round in the PGA. Sahith Theegala had seven birdies and a bogey for his 66.
“The fact that the greens are soft kind of takes away some of its defense,” Louisville native Justin Thomas, who shot 2-under 69, said. “But Xander's caddie, Kaiser, and I were saying on 9 how tough this place would be if the greens could get firm and really fast. It would just be night and day, a different golf course. But there's nothing we can do about the weather. It's long enough where you just have to hit a lot of quality mid- to long irons, and that's something that we don't have to do very often.”
YOUNGSTER WITH A 66
Twenty-one-year-old Tom Kim shot a 5-under 66 and is tied for fourth after one round.
He is only the second player in PGA history to shoot 66 or better in the opening round prior to his 22nd birthday. Sergio Garcia shot 66 in the first round of the 1999 PGA at Medinah as a 19-year-old.
“I played really nice, really solid,” he said. “Just to kind of get things going, second major championship of the year, and definitely put myself in a good position and just going through the same game plan for tomorrow.”
SHOT OF THE DAY
Scottie Scheffler’s first hole as a father produced our shot of the day.
Scheffler, who missed last week’s PGA Tour event for the birth of his first child (Bennett), holed out from the fairway on the par-4 first hole at Valhalla in the opening round.
Using a nine-iron from 167 yards, Scheffler dunked his approach shot into the hole. The shot from the right side of the fairway landed a few inches from the hole and went in on one bounce.
“It was a stock 9-iron,” he said. “I was trying to hit it right at the pin because I felt like if I hit it the right way, the shortest it was going to go was on the pin. I felt like it was going to go a little past the pin if anything, and it was nice to see that one go in.”
HOLE OF THE DAY
It was expected that the par-4, 500-yard second hole nicknamed “Winning Colors” was going to play tough.
And that it did on day one.
The second hole was the hardest on the golf course with an average score of 4.29 strokes per golfer. There were just 17 birdies, while the hole produced 46 bogeys and seven double bogeys.
MORIKAWA WITH THE BEST COMEBACK
Collin Morikawa had the best recover of the day, going from 2-over after five holes to 5-under for the tournament.
After two early bogeys, Morikawa had a pair of birdie sprees. He birdied holes 6, 7, and 8, as well as holes 12, 13, and 14.
According to the Elisa Sports Bureau, prior to this week he had made three consecutive birdies in a round during a major championship 10 times. This was the first time he did it twice in the same round.
“Yeah, it's nice to roll off some birdies out here,” Morikawa said. “Obviously other guys are making a lot of birdies but knowing that you're able to just kind of get on a roll. I haven't had those little stretches of like birdie, birdie, birdie, in a long time. So just to see that, it's great for my mental side heading into the rest of the week just knowing that I can piece together a nice little bunch of golf. Frankly it could have been better and just hit a bad iron shot or wedge shot on 15. You know, I think just get some good rest, get some good food, tidy things up tomorrow morning and go out and see what plays.”
STAT OF THE DAY
When Scheffler dunked his second shot at No. 1, it marked the third straight year at the PGA that a player made an eagle on the par-4 first hole of the tournament.
Scott Stallings started on No. 10 last year at Oak Hill and did it, while Jesse Mueller also started at No. 10 in 2022 and did it at Southern Hills.
Ironically, both Stallings and Mueller missed the cut in those years. Scheffler is tied for 11th after an opening round 67.
