PGA Championship: Xander Schauffele leads after historic begin with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy chasing | Golf Information

Xander Schauffele holds a three-shot lead after creating main historical past through the opening spherical of the PGA Championship, the place pre-tournament favourites Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy additionally made robust begins.

Schauffele – a runner-up on the Wells Fargo Championship final week – carded 9 birdies in a shocking bogey-free spherical at Valhalla Golf Membership, seeing him put up the primary 62 spherical in PGA Championship historical past and simply the fourth ever in a males’s main.

The American’s daunting clubhouse goal of 9 beneath was by no means near being crushed on a low-scoring Thursday, with Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala sharing second on six beneath forward of a logjam an additional stroke again that features McIlroy.

McIlroy started his bid for a 3rd consecutive victory and elusive fifth main title started with a five-under 66, simply because it did when he gained the PGA Championship at this venue in 2014, whereas Scheffler is inside 5 of the lead as he chases a fifth victory in six begins.

Brooks Koepka opened his title defence with a four-under 67 to sit down alongside Scheffler and Jon Rahm birdied 4 of his final six holes to salvage an unlikely opening-round 70, whereas Tiger Woods – a former winner at Valhalla in 2000 – is 10 off the tempo after a bogey-bogey end.

Historic day at Valhalla

Schauffele began on the again 9 and adopted birdies on the eleventh and thirteenth with three extra in a four-hole stretch from the fifteenth to succeed in the flip in 31, then prolonged his lead by choosing up a shot on the par-four second.

Again-to-back birdies from the fourth and one other on the par-five seventh moved Schauffele to 9 beneath and elevated the chance of the primary 61 in males’s main historical past, with the American nonetheless equalling the bottom main ever – in relation to par – regardless of ending with successive pars.

It is the second time in as a few years that Schauffele has opened with a 62 in a significant, following him and Rickie Fowler doing it within the US Open at Los Angeles Nation Membership, with Branden Grace in 2017 at The Open the one different participant to beforehand handle it.

“I think not winning makes you want to win more, as weird as that is,” mentioned Schauffele, who final gained on the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open. “For me, at least, I react to it and I want it more and more and more, which makes me want to work harder and harder and harder.”

Finau made a bogey-free begin to the week to share second with Theegala, who birdied every of his final three holes, whereas McIlroy produced a three-birdie burst of his personal – together with a chip-in on the sixth – on his approach to a gap 66.

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, two-time main champion Collin Morikawa, Tom Kim and Thomas Detry have been additionally among the many group on 5 beneath, whereas Scheffler holed out from the green to eagle the par-four first and threatened to be the closest challenger to Schauffele.

Scheffler – making his first look because the delivery of his son final week – combined 4 birdies with two bogeys through the the rest of his spherical, whereas Koepka adopted a tap-in eagle with a 35-foot birdie late in his spherical to affix the world No 1 on 4 beneath.

“I’m not really going to worry about trying to shoot nine under,” Scheffler mentioned. “I’m just going to go out and try to hit good shots and play my own game. I’d like to clean up a few of the mistakes. I missed two putts I felt like I should have holed today, but that’s going to happen when the greens get a little chewed up.”

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Friday seventeenth Might 1:00pm

Former main champions Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau are a part of the group on three beneath that accommodates FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland, with two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas and Grand Slam hopeful Jordan Spieth becoming a member of Matt Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry in making opening 69s.

Rahm recovered from 4 bogeys in his first six holes to birdie fourth of his final six and end beneath par, as US Open champion Wyndham Clark stuttered to a level-par 71 and Ludvig Aberg joined Brian Harman and Woods in ending the day on one over.

“I struggled with the speed of the greens today,” Woods advised Sky Sports activities. “It was a grind. I should have been under par for the day but I am over par and we have a long way to go.

“It’s a big-boy golf course. It has gotten longer or possibly I’ve simply acquired shorter!”

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