2021 PGA Championship Updates: Round 1 scores, highlights and more
Rory McIlroy tees off during the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday.
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Can Rory McIlroy, fresh off his recent victory at the Wells Fargo Championship, make it two in a row on Kiawah Island? Will Jordan Spieth stay hot? Or will the Ocean Course bite back once again and terrorize golfers, much like it did in 2012 (specifically in the second round)?
We’ll start to uncover the answers to these questions come Thursday morning, when the 2021 PGA Championship kicks off. We’ll update you on the action all day, so follow along here to stay up to date on the scores, the players, the trends and more.
Refresh this page for the latest updates from the 2021 PGA Championship. The newest items will be at the top.
2021 PGA Championship quick links
— How to watch and stream the PGA Championship
— PGA expert picks: favorites and sleepers
— PGA odds to win
— Tee times: See when the stars tee off
— Photos: A hole-by-hole tour of the Ocean Course
— Experts break down the Ocean Course
2021 PGA Championship leaderboard
4:45 p.m. ET: A few more names rise to the top
No new leader (singular), but several new leaders (plural) greet the top of the leaderboard at Kiawah from the afternoon groups. A total of six players are now tied for the lead.
Corey Conners and Branden Grace from the afternoon groups join Keegan Bradley, Brooks Koepka, Aaron Wise and Viktor Hovland from the morning session. Further back, Jon Rahm and Will Zalatoris sit at 1 under, while Jordan Spieth is at even par and Dustin Johnson makes the turn at two over.
The hilarious reason Jason Dufner has no interest in coaching
Jason Dufner’s knowledge of the golf swing is so deep that other players often seek him out for advice. Which begs the question: Does a post-playing career in coaching beckon?
“No. Never”
It turns out, the high maintenance, high-reward lifestyle of coaching Tour players like himself just doesn’t appeal. And yes, he realizes the irony.
“Dealing with Tour players is a nightmare,” he says, smiling. “They’re psychopaths, man. That’s just a fact.”
A rare slow-play penalty (!) is assessed
or the contingent of fans clamoring for enhanced pace of play enforcement in professional golf, the start to the PGA Championship had a nice surprise in store.
John Catlin was assessed a rare slow-play penalty during his opening round at the Ocean Course on Thursday and was docked a stroke for the breach.
Pro assessed rare slow-play penalty during opening round of PGA Championship
“Catlin’s first bad time occurred during the play of No. 16 (his 7th hole), where he took 74 seconds for his second shot, resulting in a pace of play warning,” the PGA Championship rules committee said in a statement. “Catlin’s second bad time took place during the play of hole No. 3 (his 12th hole), where he took 63 seconds for his second shot, resulting in a one-stroke pace of play penalty.”
2:45 p.m. ET Bryson is *battered* after his opening round
Bryson DeChambeau didn’t hold back after a see-sawing, opening-round of 72.
“This is the most difficult golf course that I’ve played on Tour, and that is a straight-up fact for me,” he said. “That requires a lot of energy.”
DeChambeau was admittedly exhausted after swirling winds dominated an up-and-down opening round, but after his performance at the U.S. Open in September, perhaps the difficulty plays into his favor.
2:09 p.m. ET: Want to play with MJ? Get ready to pay up
Rickie Fowler is back in major championship golf at the PGA after failing to qualify for this year’s Masters, but it seems he’s filled the time well. Fowler told reporters a bit about his spring training regimen — one that included regular rounds with none other than Michael Jordan.
Fowler says he gives Jordan 10 strokes every time they play MJ’s uber-private club, The Grove XXIII together, and that more often than not, it’s His Airness who’s coming away with the victory. “If I don’t lose money to him, that’s actually a win,” Fowler said, explaining how Jordan’s design makes him a lethal presser.
Rick currently sits T11 at 1 under after his opening 18 holes.
1 p.m. ET: Morikawa, Koepka, wind surging as afternoon groups begin
An unsurprising pair of names near the top of the leaderboard from the early groups at Kiawah: Collin Morikawa and Brooks Koepka. Morikawa and Koepka enter the week representing the last three PGA Championship victories (Koepka in 2018/2019, Morikawa in 2020). The two enter the home stretch at the Ocean Course at two under, trailing the leaders by one.
There’s reason to believe the early scores will hold on Thursday at the Ocean Course, considering howling winds that have blown in off the sea. The changing conditions come just in time for the afternoon tee times, a group headlined by Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth.
Why there are ZERO bunkers at this year’s sandy PGA Championship
Kiawah Island is about as sandy as a major championship can get. It’s located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the “low country,” where tall grass blends with sand just about everywhere.
But that doesn’t mean there are a lot of bunkers on the Ocean Course. In fact, this week at least, there are ZERO bunkers. None. Not a bunker in sight!
Huh?
The PGA of America has instituted a local rule for this week’s PGA Championship that calls all the sandy areas around the course exactly that: sandy areas. They are not bunkers, even the ones that look a lot like bunkers, and so they don’t need to be treated like bunkers.
Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer for the PGA of America, put it bluntly in his press conference earlier this week: “As we have in previous championships, the sandy areas will not be bunkers, and we’ve notified all the players of that. So players will be able to take practice swings out of the sand areas. It’s part of the general area.”
Read this article in its entirety here.
11:40 a.m. ET: A 10-year reunion?
Ten years removed from his PGA Championship victory at the Atlantic Athletic Club in 2011, Keegan Bradley has taken the solo lead late Thursday morning on the Ocean Course.
Through 11 holes, Bradley has made four birdies and zero bogeys to get to four under. Tringale was the leader at four under about 30 minutes ago, but he made bogeys on 12 and 15 to drop to two under.
11:09 p.m. ET: Matt Jones takes PGA lead
Australian Matt Jones made his second birdie in three holes to jump to four under after 13 and grab the solo lead. He’s now up on Cameron Tringale, Keegan Bradley and Erik van Rooyen, who are all at three under.
Other early notables: Joel Dahmen, Rickie Fowler, Jason Dufner and Viktor Hovland are two under; Bubba Watson and Collin Morikawa are one under; and Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka are all even.
10:50 a.m. ET: Bryson DeChambeau cools down…
After birdieing two of his first three, Bryson DeChambeau has now bogeyed four straight to balloon to two over through seven holes. DeChambeau started on the back nine.
10:12 a.m. ET: Tringale retakes solo lead
Cameron Tringale birdied the par-5 11th hole to get to four under and grab the solo lead again. He now has a one-stroke lead over Matt Jones (three under thru 11) and Erik van Rooyen, who opened the back nine (his first nine) par-eagle-birdie-par.
9:38 a.m. ET: Bryson DeChambeau gets hot…
Bryson DeChambeau parred his first hole, the par-4 10th, then went birdie-birdie on 11 and 12 and is now two under after three holes. He rolled in putts from 14 and 32 feet, respectively, for his birdies.
9 a.m. ET: Tringale leads; Koepka doubles opening hole
One hour after the first group teed off, a member of that grouping, Cameron Tringale, is the solo leader at three under through seven holes. Adam Long, Louis Oosthuizen, Rickie Fowler and Zach Johnson are all at one under. (Fowler, remember, received an exemption into the field.)
One of the first featured groups, however, struggled on their opener. Playing the par-4 10th, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka all looked like they were headed for big numbers, although Koepka was the only one who made double. McIlroy made bogey and and Thomas saved par.
John Daly makes eventful birdie; Adam Scott makes triple
John Daly, playing alongside fellow PGA winners Jason Dufner and Jimmy Walker, hit his opening tee shot left off the par-4 1st tee, knocked it to the waste bunker right of the green and then chipped in for an eventful opening birdie. Meanwhile, starting on the 10th hole, Adam Scott started with a triple. He went OB off the tee en route to his 7.
2021 PGA Championship officially underway!
Annnnnnd, we’re off! At 7:01 a.m. ET on Thursday morning Patrick Rada, Adam Long and Cameron Tringale walked off the first tee of the Ocean Course to officially kick off the second major of the season. Rada and Tringale found the fairway on the par-4 opener while Long missed out to the right. More updates will come as more groups begin their rounds. Buckle up for a big day!
2021 PGA Championship Round 1 tee times
The first round of the 2021 PGA Championship begins at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday with Patrick Rada, Adam Long and Cameron Tringale teeing off on the 1st hole at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. Tee times will continue until the final one at 2:42 p.m.
For complete tee times, click here.
Bryson DeChambeau: Kiawah Island will be ‘diabolical’ test
The tournament hadn’t even started yet, but Kiawah Island had fired a shot across the bow. The wind gusted on Tuesday more than it’s projected to all week, and for players trying to figure out how the course will play, it was more an insight into how the course could play.
Bryson DeChambeau hadn’t played Kiawah’s Ocean Course before Tuesday. His few hours playing the front nine were an eye-opening experience — and a challenge the reigning U.S. Open champ says he’ll relish.
“It’s going to be a diabolical test,” he said. “There are a lot of good holes out here.”
Read this article in its entirety here.
America’s toughest golf course? On paper, here’s why Kiawah’s Ocean Course is in the mix
America’s toughest golf course? On paper, here’s why Kiawah’s Ocean Course is in the mix
Apicture might be worth a thousand words, but numbers can say plenty, too. For instance: 79.1 and 155. Those are the course and slope ratings, respectively, for the tournament tees at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, host site of this week’s PGA Championship.
What do those figures mean?
Course rating measures the difficulty of a course from a specific set of tees for a scratch golfer, while slope measures how much more proportionately difficult those same tees are for a bogey golfer. If you’re keeping score at home, you can mark it down this way: your scratch-golfer buddy, pegging it from the tips at Kiawah, would be expected to average 79.1 on his or her eight best of 20 rounds. A 79 would be a good score. Calculating slope is a more complex matter, but it’s safe to say that the result of a bogey golfer playing from the tips on the Ocean Course would not be pretty: 155 is the maximum slope rating any course can be assigned.
So, yeah, it’s one tough track — in fact, on a wind-whipped day, like in the wild 2nd round of the 2012 PGA Championship, the Ocean Course is about as unforgiving a test as you’ll find on U.S. soil.
But why, exactly, is it such a beast?
We asked Scott Hovde, director of course rating and handicap research for the United States Golf Association, to explain the challenges of the Ocean Course in language and numbers we can all understand.
Read this article in its entirety here.
5 things you didn’t know about Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course
1. ‘Bagger Vance’ was filmed on-site
Some 2,492 miles from Hollywood, Kiawah made its mark on the silver screen before it ever hosted a major championship. The course was one of several used to film scenes for “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” the 2000 Dreamworks/20th Century Fox film featuring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Matt Damon. Sadly, no three-way ties will close out this year’s event at Kiawah.
2. It hosted the hardest PGA Championship round ever in 2012
The 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah was supposed to mark the grand introduction of major championship golf to one of the great American seaside courses. Well, those playing that week got a grand introduction, all right. To the hardest single round in PGA Championship history.
On Friday, gale force winds blew in off the Atlantic and wreaked havoc all afternoon, sending scores skyrocketing. On Kiawah’s par-72 layout, the scoring average for the second round was a shade over 78, the highest in a single round since strokeplay was adopted at the PGA in 1958.
Read this article in its entirety here.
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