Thursday, Round 1

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA

Q. Garrick, did you know you were a little bit late at that moment?

GARRICK HIGGO: "No, I wouldn't have been late if I knew I was running late."

On-site all week for the second major championship of the season. Our daily recap notes give you a great perspective from the PGA Championship including observations from Joe Idone and John Haslbauer of the Preferred Lines Show. Dive in, and don't forget to scroll down to our Friday (live) betting card!

Round 1 summary:

• 1st place: 67 (-3), Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Ryo Hisatsune, Martin Kaymer, Scottie Scheffler, Alex Smalley
  • There are 92 players within five shots of the lead!
• Scoring average:
  • (Rd 1: +2.26, 2025: +1.76, 2024: +0.27, 2023: +3.68, 2022: +2.83, 2021: +2.78)
  • First nine scoring average: +0.81, back nine: +1.46 (+0.65)
  • Morning wave: +2.13, afternoon wave: +2.40 (+0.27)
  • Hardest hole: #8 +0.51, easiest hole: #9 -0.21
  • The Field was well 353 strokes over par today with 7 eagles, 366 birdies, 588 bogeys, and 68 double bogeys or worse!
• Strokes gained T2G leaders:
  • Min Woo Lee, Corey Conners, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Max Greyserman, and Jason Day
• Betting favorites after Round 1:
  • Scheffler (+166), Schauffele (+1175), Rahm (+1225), Lee (+2000), Koepka (+2450)
• Conditions: High of 65 degrees, wind blowing 11 mph WNW, and the course received 0.25" of rain overnight.

Observations:

Between the lines...

• The only player in the field with a clean (bogey free) scorecard? Patrick Reed.
• As predicted, putting would be a major influence on the leaders. Here are your top 10 SG: Putt players after round one. Notice how #1 and #2 are also leading.
  • Potgieter, Jaeger, Coody, C. Smith, Higgo Scheffler, Smalley, Taylor, Polland, and Griffin
• "Sometimes you see the ball around the greens so you think it's not so bad, but those are the worst ones. The pins are the defense too of the course. Even when you're hitting it in the fairway, it's very difficult to get it on the right tier and have a putt that doesn't do a couple things." - Jordan Spieth talking about the rough.
• "It's hit and miss. I think, if you miss it on the right side going into like -- you know, if the pin's on the left, you miss it right, it's fine. But yeah, I got a couple of lies today that were particularly bad. The one on the 10th hole starting off, that's as bad as I've seen. Yeah, there is a penalty for -- certainly is a penalty for missing the fairway. Probably more than what I anticipated after being here, whatever it is, two Fridays ago." - Rory McIlroy on if the rough penalty off the tee was worse than guys were saying pre-tournament.
• "You know what, I can understand because, if you just go by some of the numbers, some of the fairways are wide, the greens aren't crazy firm. But a lot of those fairways are sloped in a way that they play very narrow. Like 15 today, I thought I was going to be in the fairway undoubtedly, and I was off the fairway. Same on 10, same on 4. It can easily roll off. Then the rough doesn't look as long as many other majors, but it's such a thick blade of grass that, even when the lie looks okay, it catches you so bad. So I can see how in appearance it might be easier, but it's not. You need to play really good golf to shoot lower than 3-under. And then on top of that, those pin locations today are good ones. I mean, they're tucked. They're not easy." - Jon Rahm on Aronimink's difficulty.
• It has to flip for Koepka. Third-best T2G, he left himself on the correct side of the hole most of the day. The putting was atrocious. Gone are the days when Brooks hammered home a put in the back of the cup from 6 feet. A field average day on the greens would put him at or near the lead. Still 54 holes to get it turned around, and I’m wondering if he brought that blade to Philly that won him five majors. We’ll find out tomorrow afternoon. (Joe)
• Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A little overnight rain never stood a chance to soften this course up. Aronimink needed to play firm and it did. The grounds crew deserves immense credit for not over-watering the course leading up to tournament week. The result was a firm yet fair opening round where no player could do better than 67. Toss those pre-tournament predictions of winning scores pushing 20 under par aside - AGC should continue to get even crispier (and more challenging) as it bakes in the Philadelphia sun the next three days. (John)
• Patrick Reed hasn’t competed since The Masters a month ago and showed no rust on day one at Aronimink. One of the sharpest in the field on approach (2nd best), Reed couldn’t get much going on the tricky greens. He gained less than a stroke combined putting and chipping, his strength. One off the lead after eighteen holes, Reed has intentions of being a factor on Sunday. (Joe)
• Ross Restored: The identity of Donald Ross' design philosophy is in the contours of his greens complexes. Credit to Gil Hanse and team for their restoration work, as the putting surfaces were the star of the show in round 1. How do you get such a jumbled leaderboard? Crank up the difficulty of holing putts in the 10-25 foot range. We saw players struggle to read these undulating greens all day, and many defensive putts from that typical scoring range. Whoever cracks the code on putts from 10-25 feet the rest of the week stands the best chance to win in this tournament. (John)

For those familiar with our weekly Friday 5 content tradition, you know there are always a couple of live adds. Keep reading for RTL's round two bets.

Live Betting - PGA Championship

Friday card (DK): Reed under 70.5 (-114) McIlroy under 69.5 (-115) J. Spieth over T. Hatton (-116)

* - Odds can change from site to site. Make sure you shop around before making each bet. Even though a bet is listed, it may have changed since the newsletter was published. FanDuel (FD), Caesars (CS), DraftKings (DK), BetMGM (BM), bet365 (B3), Bet Rivers (BR), ESPNBet (EB), Fanatics (FA)

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