Key events
Jhonattan Vegas scrambled par from the bunker at 1. He can’t get up and down from greenside rough at 2. His lead halved in short order.
-6: Vegas (2)
-5: Davis (9), Gerard
-4: Rai (6), Hatton (6*), Scott (6*), Thorbjornsen (3), Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
Back-to-back birdies for Adam Scott at 14 and 15. He’s -4 overall after a fine 69 yesterday. The genial 2013 Masters champion is in veteran territory now – he’s 44 years old – but if you’re going to chalk up a major late in the day, the PGA is the tournament in which to do it. Here’s the list of the oldest major champions of all time, and it’s dominated by players winning this very championship.
1. Phil Mickelson (2021 PGA, 50 years 11 months)
2. Julius Boros (1968 PGA, 48 years 4 months)
3. Tom Morris Sr. (1867 Open, 46 years 3 months)
4. Jack Nicklaus (1986 Masters, 46 years 2 months)
5. Jerry Barber (1961 PGA, 45 years 3 months)
6. Hale Irwin (1990 US Open, 45 years)
Viktor Hovland demonstrates the absurdity of golf at 12. His approach doesn’t reach the green and he chips up from the bottom of a steep swale. The ball thinks about stopping on the putting surface but eventually topples and rolls back to his feet. At an excruciatingly slow pace, just to rub it in. He tries again. The same thing happens. Then a third attempt … which ends the width of a dimple away from dropping into the cup. But that’s a double bogey and he slips back to -1.
A street-fighting par for Jhonattan Vegas at 1. Having found a fairway bunker with his opening drive, he sent his second into another trap guarding the front left of the green. Shortsided, he could only flip his third shot 12 feet past the flag … but he made a series of big putts yesterday, and he makes another now. He remains at -7.
Max Homa pours in another birdie putt, this time on 15, and he’s started 4-4-4-2-2-4. Green Mile coming up, let’s see if he dismantles that as well. He’s -3. He’s playing with Joaquin Niemann, who is also flying, and repairing the damage done by his opening round of 74 at great speed: birdies at 10, 12, 14 and 15 have whisked the Chilean up the standings to -1.
Here comes the tournament leader Jhonattan Vegas. An astonishing late-evening finish, five birdies in his last six holes, for a front-nine total of 30. A magnificent 64. He finds a fairway bunker with his opening drive. Vegas is going round with a 23-year-old Aussie called Elvis Smylie. Elvis and Vegas. That’s some coincidence if it’s not deliberate. And if it is deliberate, then that’s all right.
Tyrrell’s gonna Tyrrell at some point. And here he blows! His drive into the short par-four 14th is heading straight for the flag. A little bit to the right and it’s landing on the green and rolling out into Max Homa territory. But it’s not a little bit to the right. It takes a kick left off a bank just in front of the green and into the drink. Having taken his drop, he chips up to six feet, but pulls the attempted par saver. He taps in for bogey on a hole that Homa nearly made albatross, and all for the sake of a few feet either way in the landing zone. Hatton launches his ball into the water and exits the scene, powered solely by the steam pouring from his lugs. He’s -4.
The erstwhile PGA and Open champion Collin Morikawa has also started fast. Birdies at 10 and 12 and he’s -3. Bryson DeChambeau gets up and down from 43 yards on 10 to open with birdie; he’s -1. And JJ Spaun birdies 2, 3 and 4, though this year’s Players Championship runner-up hands one of those strokes back at 5. The 34-year-old Californian is nicely placed at -2 nonetheless.
All bets for today’s shot of the day are off. If anyone does better than Max Homa on the driveable par-four 14th – a 341-yard tee shot that rolls to within a couple of feet – we’ll be doing well. A mere 21 inches away from a hole-in-one albatross. As it is, he taps in for an eagle two. He’d just birdied the par-three 13th as well, and unsurprisingly that’s the first time in his major career that he’s gone 2-2. Having also birdied 10 this morning, it’s the fastest of starts for Homa, who had been in appalling form this season (five consecutive missed cuts) until making the weekend at the Masters and finishing in a tie for 12th. He’s clearly rediscovered something. He’s -2 overall.
Yesterday’s other shot of the day was made by Justin Thomas on 18. His approach had landed in the creek down the left, but bounced off a rock and back out … only to settle on the other side of the creek, in a thick tuft of grass, his backswing hampered by another large rock. He tried the Jean van de Velde approach, shoes and socks off, standing in the stream, but eventually opted for balancing on the small patch of waterside grass on tippy toe, before chopping down and firing his ball over the water and onto the green to ten feet. Shame he didn’t make the putt for one of the all-time par saves, but he’d have taken bogey when watching his approach sail towards the hazard. The two-time PGA champion signed for a 73 that stood as something of a salvage job after a horror start led to four dropped shots in the first six holes. He’s still not without hope and is now +1 overall after birdie this morning at 11.
Tyrrell Hatton makes one of the great two-putts for par on 12. He sends his approach over the flag, but he’s on a ridge that’s no use for getting to the pin. He’s forced to face away from the hole with his first putt, utilising the backstop to send his ball on an absurd 50-foot U-turn. He nearly makes it, too, though the ball rolls a good ten feet past the pin. He smiles wryly … then nails the putt that remains. That’s outrageous. His flat stick very much the hero so far today. He remains at -5.
A good number of pundits identified Bryson DeChambeau as this week’s winner. But yesterday it didn’t quite happen for the reigning US Open champion and Masters nearly man. A level-par round of 71 that was, by his own widescreen standards, a little nondescript … though he still managed to hit one of the two shots of the day (the other we’ll mention in a minute) at the 227-yard par-three 17th: an 8-iron punched to three inches. So close to an ace, and what power. So here’s an indication of how well Jordan Spieth played the 10th back there; Bryson is currently 50 yards short of the green in his first two strokes of the day. It’s a long old track all right.
Jordan Spieth’s dream of joining Rory et al in the Career Slam club looks kaput for another 12 months after yesterday’s 76. Too far gone already, the 2015 Masters and US Open champion and 2017 Open winner has his work cut out simply making the cut. That’s right, yes? Well, let’s just hang on a minute, because he’s come out on the front foot swinging haymakers. Having split the 10th fairway with his opening drive, he’s just launched a fairway wood straight at the flag, from 283 yards to eight feet. In goes the eagle putt, and all of a sudden he’s back up the standings at +3. It’s still the longest of long shots, but you know Jordan, no situation is considered irretrievable. Here’s to some more of his trademark swashbuckle.
The first significant move of the day has been made by Tyrrell Hatton. The entertainingly volatile Englishman has kept a lid on things so far this week, and you’d be in a good mood too had you birdied the last yesterday. His approach at 18 was one of the strokes of the day, and has clearly buoyed him going into round two. Consecutive birdies to start, at 10 and 11, a 15-foot birdie putt followed by another from 20 feet, and Hatton moves into a tie for second. Heading in the other direction: Cam Davis, with bogey at 3, and Aaron Rai with bogey at 1.
-7: Vegas
-5: Hatton (2*), Gerard
-4: Davis (4),Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
-3: Scott (2*), Rai (1), Campos, Thorbjornsen, Bradley, R Højgaard, MacIntyre, Fitzpatrick, Echavarria, Poston, Hisatsune, Noren
The first yelp recorded by today’s blog is emitted by Ludvig Åberg. The young Swede didn’t bring his Å-game yesterday – the air-mailing of a couple of greens never a great sign – and yet he still managed to battle his way to a 70, his putter digging him out once or twice. But his first shot of the day doesn’t augur well, a drive at 10 carved into the trees down the right. His playing partners Patrick Reed (+1) and Jordan Spieth (+5) split the fairway.
Preamble
It’s a star-studded leaderboard. Just not studded with the stars we expected. Here’s how the top of it looks …
-7: Vegas
-5: Davis, Gerard
-4: Rai, Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
-3: Campos, Thorbjornsen, Hatton, Bradley, R Højgaard, MacIntyre, Fitzpatrick, Echavarria, Poston, Hisatsune, Noren
… and here are today’s tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST). It’s on!
Starting at hole 1
12.00 Adam Hadwin (Can), Keith Mitchell, Bob Sowards
12.11 Eric Cole, Cameron Davis (Aus), Eric Steger
12.22 Brian Bergstol, Jacob Bridgeman, Austin Eckroat
12.33 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Niklas Noergaard (Den), JJ Spaun
12.44 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Patrick Rodgers, Nick Taylor (Can)
12.55 Joe Highsmith, Aaron Rai (Eng), Cameron Young
13.06 Tom Hoge, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Taylor Pendrith (Can)
13.17 Patton Kizzire, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den)
13.28 Richard Bland (Eng), Tyler Collet, Jimmy Walker
13.39 Jason Dufner, Shaun Micheel, Michael Thorbjornsen
13.50 Rafael Campos (Pur), Ryan Lenahan, Matt Wallace (Eng)
14.01 Brian Campbell, Elvis Smylie (Aus), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)
14.12 Larkin Gross, Johnny Keefer, Chun-An Yu (Tai)
17.30 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Justin B Hicks, John Parry (Eng)
17.41 Andre Chi, Patrick Fishburn, Seamus Power (Irl)
17.52 Max McGreevy, Sepp Straka (Aut), Alex Smalley
18.03 Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry (Irl)
18.14 Jason Day (Aus), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Phil Mickelson
18.25 Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Jon Rahm (Spa)
18.36 Corey Conners (Can), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
18.47 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler
18.58 Tony Finau, Max Greyserman, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den)
19.09 Keegan Bradley, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak
19.20 Akshay Bhatia, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy
19.31 John Catlin, Jesse Droemer, Garrick Higgo (Rsa)
19.42 Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Spa), Justin Lower, Rupe Taylor
Starting at hole 10
12.05 Michael Kartrude, Jake Knapp, Sami Valimaki (Fin)
12.16 Michael Block, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
12.27 Lucas Glover, Max Homa, Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
12.38 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Adam Scott (Aus), Will Zalatoris
12.49 Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas
13.00 Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth
13.11 Wyndham Clark, Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
13.22 Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Gary Woodland
13.33 Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Russell Henley
13.44 Brian Harman, Justin Rose (Eng), Cameron Smith (Aus)
13.55 Brandon Bingaman, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Davis Riley
14.06 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Tom McKibbin (NIrl)
14.17 Beau Hossler, Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Timothy Wiseman
17.25 Luke Donald (Eng), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Martin Kaymer (Ger)
17.36 Taylor Moore, David Puig (Spa), John Somers
17.47 Nic Ishee, Kurt Kitayama, Alexander Noren (Swe)
17.58 Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Tom Johnson, JT Poston
18.09 Bud Cauley, Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Davis Thompson
18.20 Thomas Detry (Bel), Harris English, Michael Kim
18.31 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Chris Kirk, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
18.42 Laurie Canter (Eng), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Karl Vilips (Aus)
18.53 Rico Hoey (Phi), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Sam Stevens
19.04 Robert Gates, Ben Griffin, Lee Hodges
19.15 Nick Dunlap, Harry Hall (Eng), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa)
19.26 Ryan Gerard, Greg Koch, Marco Penge (Eng)
19.37 Dylan Newman, Victor Perez (Fra), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
