Rules beef, a 500-1 leader — and how PGA Championship embraced the weird

Luke Donald arrived with shots. And a shot. 

Thursday at Quail Hollow, he was firing. During the PGA Championship’s first round, the former world No. 1 carded a four-under 67, which put him both three shots from the top — and in a spot he hadn’t occupied in a while. Or at least that’s what someone told him, and that led to this opening remark during his press conference:

“Obviously very pleased with the score, bogey-free in a major. Someone just told me it was the lowest first round in a major I’ve had since 2004 or something. So you know, obviously I’ve been trending with all the missed cuts coming into this week.

“But no, it was a pleasant surprise.”

Pleasant surprise. There were a few of those. 

If the funky’s for you, Thursday was fun. In seven ways, the PGA Championship embraced the weird.  

The Ryder Cup captains — plural — are contending?  

Donald was once a leaderboard fixture — he’s won five times on the PGA Tour and eight other times internationally. But he’s won nowhere since 2013, and he’s played an abbreviated schedule since being named European Ryder Cup captain for both the 2023 event and this year’s meeting. This week, his spot had come through an invite because of his captaincy, and he hit the day’s first tee shot. 

Then Donald hit just 66 more. Still, during his pre-tournament press conference a day earlier, he fielded zero questions on his game from reporters.  

Donald said he had no issue with that, though. 

“Well, that’s what I signed up to,” he said. “You know, as I said, I’m here only because I’m captain of the European Ryder Cup team. I wouldn’t be in this field otherwise. It’s a nice invitation and a perk that the Ryder Cup captain gets.

“I understand that. I understand that my game isn’t where it used to be, and that is the focus. So it really doesn’t bother me one bit.”

Then there was his Ryder Cup counterpart. 

Keegan Bradley was a stroke worse than Donald, though his play is less of a surprise — Bradley won last August, he’s ranked No. 19 in the world, and there’s talk that he could be a playing captain. Still, it was at least entertaining to see the two captains so close. 

“Yeah, I’m excited to shoot him a text when we’re done here,” Bradley said. “I was pumped to see Luke up there. I know how hard he’s been working back home.”

What would the text say?

“I’m just going to, I’ll give him a little s**t,” Bradley said. “I’ll tell him how happy I am for him to play like that and to come out — you know, I don’t know when the last time he played in a major was. Well, he played here last year. But to come out here and shoot four-under on the first day on this course is impressive.”

A 400-1 underdog was the best in the morning?

Ryan Gerard has played well this year — he’s made 12 cuts in 14 starts, and he has a pair of top-10s, including a runner-up finish last month at the Valero Texas Open — and he played well again Thursday, shooting a morning-wave-best 66.  But at 25, he’s a younger pro, and the oddsmakers looked past him some — according to golfodds.com, he started the PGA at 400-1 odds. 

For his part, though, Gerard believed a day like Thursday was coming. 

“I feel like I’ve been playing really solid for a lot of stretches,” he said, “and I had a couple higher finishes, but I’d say for the most part, I’ve been kind of just hovering in that 15 to 30 range a lot of weeks. That’s not a bad thing.

“But you know, I’m kind of looking to kind of step on the gas here. I feel like I’m playing better golf sometimes than what the results are showing, and you know, that’s definitely something that I’ve got to learn from and score a little bit better sometimes.

“But I feel like over the course of a season, that stuff kind of evens out. You know, the bounces kind of even out. The shots kind of even out. I feel like I’ve played a lot of really good golf recently and haven’t gotten quite as much out of it. I’m hoping to continue the good golf and hope to get a little bit more out of it.”

A 400-1 underdog was second-best in the afternoon?

Cam Davis has played well for a while — since turning pro in 2016, he’s bagged just over $17 million on the PGA Tour, and he’s a two-time Tour winner — and he played well again Thursday, shooting a 66. But this year, he’s missed nearly as many cuts (six) as he’s made (seven), and he, too, went off at 400-1. 

For his part, Davis said he’s working. 

“In terms of a season, I actually played really well at the beginning of the year and felt like I was playing well enough to actually win an event. I was constantly in contention, and then it just kind of left me.

“It’s just constantly trying to go back to things that have worked, trying to keep the head in a place where you’re not feeling like you’re banging your head against the wall all the time. It’s letting it organically come, good processes, good routines, all those little one percenters add up to good golf eventually, and I feel like this week has been a week of good preparation.”

A 500-1 underdog was the best of the day?

Jhonattan Vegas has also played well for a while — since turning pro in 2008, he’s earned over $19 million on Tour, and he’s a four-time Tour winner — and he played well again Thursday, besting everyone with a seven-under 64. But he’s also missed the cut in four of his past five events, and he’s never finished better than a tie for 22nd at a major. 

But Vegas is confident. 

“Yeah, the game has always been there,” he said. “Obviously I’ve gone through a lot of injuries and that type of stuff and hasn’t been easy the past few years, but the game has always been there. It’s about putting it together and playing your best when it’s time to play.

“Obviously haven’t been able to do it at the bigger events, at the majors. So it’s a goal that I have in mind to put myself in these type of positions. We started the right way.”

An alternate is contending?

Alex Smalley learned he was in the PGA Championship — on Wednesday. He’d been the first alternate and found out he had a spot when Sahith Theegala withdrew. 

Smalley did him proud. He fired a 67. 

“Obviously it’s interesting being first alternate,” Smalley said. “I was losing hope after every passing hour. And you know, you hear about everybody’s ailments as being first alternate, as well.

“I found out about four o’clock, 4:15 yesterday that Sahith had withdrawn. I was prepared to be here all day today if I didn’t get in yesterday afternoon or last night. Like I mentioned before, obviously I feel for Sahith, but it was nice to know before the morning that I was going to play so I could kind of mentally prepare for that.”

A last-minute qualifier is contending?

Ryan Fox learned he was in the PGA Championship — on Sunday. After a chip-in during a playoff, he won the Myrtle Beach Classic and was off to Quail Hollow. 

Thursday, he, too, shot a 67. He said if he hadn’t won, he’d have gone fishing. 

“It hasn’t been the ideal prep coming in for me, obviously winning last week, being last man in,” Fox said. “I literally played 18 holes yesterday and that was the only thing I did preparation-wise, basically. Hit a few balls on Tuesday and played one hole before the storm came in.

“Obviously knew I was playing well and just tried to get out of my own way and just let it happen.”

Where are all the favorites?

Good question. 

There are a few. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot a 69, as did Viktor Hovland. Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa shot 70s. 

Other favorites were at par — or worse. Xander Schauffele shot a one-over 72. Justin Thomas shot a 73. Newly minted Masters winner Rory McIlroy shot a 74. Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka shot a 75. Jordan Spieth, a PGA Championship win short of the career grand slam, shot a 76. 

There’s time to recover, of course. But there’s work to do. 

A rules beef?

Wednesday, after a week of rain in the Charlotte area, PGA Championship officials said they wouldn’t allow players to play lift, clean and place — and the rules decision was ripped Thursday.

While the announcement said “the playing surfaces are outstanding and are drying by the hour,” multiple pros said they were frustrated by mud balls, most notably Scheffler. 

His opinion on the matter was clear. 

“This is going to be the last answer that I give on playing it up or down,” Scheffler said. “I mean, I don’t make the rules.

“I think when you’re looking at the purest forms of golf, like if you’re going to go play links golf, there’s absolutely no reason on a links golf course you should play the ball up. It doesn’t matter how much rain they get. The course could be flooded under water and the ball is still going to bounce somehow because of the way the turf is and the ground underneath the turf.

“In American golf, it’s significantly different. When you have overseeded fairways that are not sand-capped, there’s going to be a lot of mud on the ball, and that’s just part of it. When you think about the purest test of golf, I don’t personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.

“On a golf course as good of condition as this one is, this is probably a situation in which it would be the least likely difference in playing it up because most of the lies you get out here are all really good. So I understand how a golf purist would be, oh, play it as it lies. But I don’t think they understand what it’s like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.

“In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down. When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion, maybe the ball today should have been played up.

“But like I said, I don’t make the rules. I deal with what the rules decisions are. I could have let that bother me today when you got a mud ball and it cost me a couple shots. It cost me possibly two shots on one hole, and if I let that bother me, it could cost me five shots the rest of the round. But today I was proud of how I stayed in there, didn’t let it get to me and was able to play some solid golf on a day in which I was a bit all over the place and still post a score.”

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