Charlotte, NC – The super -group of players n ° 1, 2 and 3 in the world may find it difficult to finish in this way in the final ranking of the PGA championship.
Only Scottie Scheffler, world n ° 1, with a 2-mine of 69, finished under the peer after the first round at Quail Hollow. The defending champion of the PGA, Xander Schauffele, scratched a late Birdie for a 73 while the winner of the masters, Rory McILroy, played his last 12 holes in 4 against the peer for a 74.
“I hope that tomorrow we will play a little better,” said Scheffler afterwards. “This morning was a bit difficult.”
It was the second time in two months that numbers 1, 2 and 3 were grouped; The PGA Tour gathered them to the players in March, when McILroy emerged from the peloton to refuse to Scheffler a three peat at TPC Sawgrass. He had even more juice, coming from the emotional triumph of McILroy to finish the last stage of the Grand Slam career. Scheffler also won a dominant victory for eight strokes in his last PGA focus, while Schauffele, fresh out of a maximum of 2024, had started to end after an injury to the coast of off -season.
After a quiet first hour, the three players turned in turn in the par-4 16th Thursday morning. McILroy almost hung his TEE shot in the pond, slipped while leaving and took a double Bogey 6. He was quickly followed by Scheffler then Schauffele, who both found the fairway off the tee but whose balls were hidden in the mud. The pre -eminent iron player of the game, Scheffler guessed the evil on the impact of the mud and watched his ball on the left and bounce in the water. In a similar position, Schauffele declared that he practically aimed at the rostrum on the right side and still did not take into account the unpredictability with his “ridiculous” mud ball, because he also launched his approach in the water.
“I kept the honor of making a double on a hole,” said Scheffler with a smile, “and I think it will probably be the first and last time in my career unless I have crazy weather conditions.”
The 3 best players in the world all made the same horrible score on the 16th hole Thursday at the PGA championship.
Subsequently, Scheffler and Schauffele resolved the prevalence of mud balls one day after the PGA in America, in what seemed to be a pre -emptive strike, announced that it would not play favorite lies for the opening tour despite the course of more than four inches of rain during last week. The players expected that mud balls were a problem – but probably later in the week, once temperatures at 90 degrees and a light breeze has dried the place soaked in rain.
“Many guys are treated there,” said Schauffele, “but it’s just unhappy to hit good shots and pay them in this way. It’s a bit stupid.”
Scheffler, at least, said that he was proud of the way he had answered the bad break, leaving only one shot the rest of the path while picking up three birdies. The last of these came after a dominant 6-Fer iron in the ninth of the 530 yards, his last hole of the day, which took a jump and settled 2 feet from the cup. It was an ideal cap for an unequal day which also included an eagle putt off the front edge and other wasted chances.
His 69 left him only three shots of early advance.
“I did a good job to fight and keep a level there for a day, which certainly had difficult aspects during the course,” said Scheffler, “and I did a good job by publishing a number one day when I did not have my best things.”
It was far from the best efforts of McILroy during his first major round since he joined the most exclusive golf club.
After an opening bird in a place where he dominated like no other, McILroy managed to strike only four fairways and ranked almost last in the field in the establishment of a total of only 44 feet of putts. The most frustrating was a short failure on the short 14th (his fifth of the day), a poorly judged land while Greenside on the seventh par-5 and a failed defect in the eighth driver who left him outside the top 100 of the ranking. His day ended with an appropriate fashion, with a missed 10 feet which gave him a 74 which corresponded to his worst score of the season.
McILroy refused to speak to the media after his tour.
Schauffele, which has finished finalist on this course each of the last two years, said that he had not left much of his turn a day when he led the ball better than he had done for a large part of the season. He punished only one of the three per 5s, found water on driving 14th And thought he had given two shots on the unfortunate break in the middle of the 16thth fairway.
“If I can continue to hit the driver in the fairway,” he said, “I’m fine.”
Everything is not lost for the PGA super -group – the last eight winners have been classified outside the Top 30 as often as the Top 10 in the past eight years.
They leave again at 1:47 p.m. on Friday.
