A more intensive gander at the head of the leaderboard through Round 1 of the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park
The first round of golf’s just significant title of the 2019-20 season wrapped up Thursday evening at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, leaving us with a different leaderboard and a heap of activity to dismember at the 2020 PGA Championship. Bryson DeChambeau broke his driver and in this way traveled into conflict by squashing the field in driving separation, Tiger Woods worked his approach to inside a couple of strokes of the lead, and three of the world’s main five positioned golf players – including world No. 1 Justin Thomas – completed the initial 18 holes of the competition better than expected.
Through one round, it’s Jason Day and Brendon Todd who stand together as co-pioneers at 5 under with Day terminating an intruder free 65 and Todd arriving with an intruder free last nine. Behind the two are a huge number of different competitors at 4 under, among them consecutive PGA Championship victor Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Martin Kaymer and Brendan Steele.
The PGA Championship leaderboard with all the outstanding activity from Round 1 beneath, beginning with Day and Todd.
T1. Jason Day (- 5): In astonishingly moving the course Thursday, Day made his intruder free 65 look easy. He drove it well off the tee, directed his irons with certainty and discovered some accomplishment on the greens, as well. Said Day after the round: “Yeah, pretty sound the whole way around.” It was his first intruder free round at a significant title since the third round of the 2017 Open Championship. This after Day drove all golf players in intruder free significant rounds from 2010-16, per Elias Sports Bureau.
T1. Brendon Todd (- 5): While Todd’s 65 wasn’t as clean as that of Day – he checked two intruder on his initial nine – he figured out how to string together a 3-under-standard, intruder free last nine to get him into the tie on the leaderboard. Todd was a long way from the most loved entering this occasion, yet the 35-year-old has twice won on visit this season – at the Bermuda Championship and at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. He likewise worked his way into conflict a week ago in Memphis before blurring down the stretch. Todd’s not a long and amazing golf player, however he’s a wizard with the putter, which kept him in the blend Thursday by increasing 3.161 strokes on the field putting.
T3. Streams Koepka, Scottie Scheffler, Martin Kaymer, Xander Schauffele, Bud Cauley, Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Brendan Steele, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (- 4): Coming off a T2 finish at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational a week ago, Koepka – the consecutive PGA Championship victor – got back on track in Memphis. He squashed off the tees Thursday and demonstrated great persistence and control with his irons, completing his round with six birdies and utilizing his length for his potential benefit. Koepka is topping at the ideal time after a rollercoaster 2020 that has seen him manage waiting injury concerns, and he’s striking it all around ok to be a real three-peat danger at this occasion.
T12. Tony Finau, Daniel Berger, Gary Woodland and five others (- 3): Despite truly battling to discover a section on the greens – and in spite of hitting just five 14 fairways – Finau turned in a decent 3-under 67 Thursday, utilizing his splendid iron game to overcome any issues of irregularities between the tee and green. He could simply be driving the field notwithstanding some genuinely makeable misses on the greens and a few battles controlling the driver. He’s in a great situation regardless of all that and figures to be one to watch Friday on the off chance that he can line out a portion of those difficulties.
T20. Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott, Patrick Reed and nine others (- 2): No one made an under-standard score look more difficult than Woods did in Round 1. What’s more, it wasn’t a direct result of his back. He persistently got himself in a difficult situation off the tee by driving with separation however with little control, yet Tiger consistently rescued himself in awesome style with his methodology and his putter. Woods recorded 1.228 strokes picked up in putting on the field in the wake of exchanging putters during the current week, and keeping in mind that sparing himself from his driver doesn’t appear to be practical, he ended on a positive note and had some great minutes that could forecast well for his conflict into the end of the week.
Concerning DeChambeau, the most memeable golf player on visit had the most popular snapshot of Thursday with him inclining toward his driver, causing the club head to isolate from the pole. He was 4 under through 10 openings however blurred down the stretch, playing his last eight gaps at 2 over. By the by, the large plane stays well in it entering Friday’s second round
T33. Dustin Johnson among 14 others (- 1) – Consecutive 80s at the Memorial Tournament followed by a WD at the 3M Open raised worry for Johnson, whose back has been giving him fits. Be that as it may, he got back on track a week ago at the St. Jude Invitational, where he completed T12 with an opening-cycle 69. He battled with the putter yet blasted his drives on normal 311.5 yards, following DeChambeau just by a couple of yards. He looked certain and loose, in spite of playing his last three openings at 2 over.
T49. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama among 14 others (E): McIlroy birdied his first gap of the day going off No. 10 at that point immediately delved himself into a channel, checking intruder on 12, 13 and 14 preceding recuperating with birdies on 16 and 18. That was the subject of his day in his last nine as he was missing fairways and leaving himself with 4-and 5-foot putts that end up being his Achilles impact point for the duration of the evening. Rahm played a comparative round at even-standard yet settled in down the stretch. I was dazzled with his balance to complete at 2 under on the back nine in the wake of battling out of the door with intruder on 2, 6 and 9.
The whole way refreshing this story with examination and features from Round 1 of the PGA Championship. Continue looking for additional from the initial 18 holes at TPC Harding Park, and snap here for a more itemized leaderboard.
