Join us LIVE for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club. Watch all the action from the featured group of Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler.
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Contested each May, the PGA Championship is the second major championship in golf’s annual rotation, and perennially features the strongest field in the men’s game based on the Official World Golf Rankings. Known for dramatic finishes and notable champions, the Wanamaker Trophy—which has been awarded to the winner since 1916—is inscribed with names such as Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player.
The 2025 PGA Championship is set to take place between 8-11 May at Quail Hollow Club. The reigning champion is Xander Schauffele.
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club in beautiful charlotte north carolas had some 4 in of rain all the way back from friday but this golf course is in pristine shape we’re happy to be part of our crew today i am peter burns joined by five-time rder cuper ken brown and twotime pga tour winner i’m going to be on the course today mr matt every and for us ken i’m not quite sure if you could have asked for a better assignment number one number two and number three in the world isn’t that fantastic the three best players in the world major championship on a wonderful golf course it’s drying out it’s going to be a terrific day to watch some golf and three of the best you say three of the best the storylines galore talking about rory mackoy what could that first major in the masters and his appearance and winning there unlock for this young man and who has felt at home here at quail yes he absolutely adores the golf course and winning that masters it’s been his dream to join tiger woods as a grand slam winner what a wonderful watch it was too so he’s coming here free mind golf course that he really loves ideal conditions playing long and uh he’ll be so looking forward to it he will be one of the fan favorites here in the queen city and he’s a favorite of this golf course as well quail hollow i think the memories i have from there and just the overall vibes that i get from the place i just love it the design of the golf course too the par fives for me are reachable people talk about augusta being you know tailor made for my game and and some ways i can i can see that but you know i don’t think there’s a golf course in the world that sets up quite as well for me as quill hall if i’m if i’m driving the ball well if i’m driving the ball well at quill hollow i i feel like i’ve you know i’ve got quite an advantage over the rest of the field if you go back to courses that you’ve been to over and over again it’s like okay well i i know what to do here i’ve done this before and i and i think that that experience on a golf course is a is a big deal as well he’s in great form right now ken and i think that’s why so many eyes are going to be on rory maroy this week of what happens when you unlock kind of what he called at some point almost the burden of the career grand slam now that’s done now he’s just chasing more history more history yes see if he can catch up with nick fowler with six major championships he could do that this week and he looks very relaxed i we’ve seen him wandering about a little bit and uh in complete control of his game and we hear him say why he likes his golf course so much there’s 10 dog legs with his power he can cut the corner of the dog legs and get it out there 340 yards and if he can find the fairways what an advantage that is over 72 holes and he can move that ball a little right to left which helps him out as well as one of the other members of our group oh just the number one player in the world and really you see him putting right now and he’s had some success the flat stick rolling a little bit better than years past if you see for scotty is he is in great form if you go back to the cj cup first win of this season and well just tied the pga tour record for 72 whole scoring record and that was solid he’s had some success over at augusta winning those two green jackets but seeking that third major victory the first one outside of the masters and of course not a shock hitting the ball extremely well also we’ll get caught up on the number one player in the world and just rounding out our trio is the third player ranked in the world and xander schoffley and just coming off the success that he had over at valhalla last year it was really impressive ken that was a brilliant performance 21 under par in a major championship the lowest ever score in the pga some good form last week he closed with a 66 and his game’s coming back and his record in the majors is just breathtaking he’s got the perfect game no weaknesses lovely rhythm when his putter hots up he’s a tough man to beat but uh a long course this is a this is a brute of a golf course well and valhalla provided a different type of golf course but one that he aced right from the jump had an opportunity to call his 62 on thursday wireto-wire leader at valhalla but it did come down to the final hole that birdie on 18 sunday got him a 21 under alltime scoring record in men’s major championship golf it was his first major title so walk us through their first hole going to be the 10th ken and a very comfy hole to start on it’s a par five you drive to the top of the hill here and then the second shot down into the green quite a narrow putting surface with a big slope on it little hogs back if you try and run the ball on little fringe bunker on the right if you miss on the right to this flag is very awkward the little hollow short of the flag is tricky to play out of and a green that slopes quite a lot from right to left but a nice easy starting hole but you would like to start with a four easier than the first for sure let’s lay out and listen to the top three players in the world start their journey here at quail good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the 107th pga championship this is our 8:22 starting time now on the tea please welcome our 2012 2014 pga champion from northern ireland rory mroy see rory catching that little bit what he called a little bit juicy part of the rough please welcome our 2020 champion from california xander schoff nice yeah now on the team please welcome from texas scotty sheffler [Applause] and off we go oh the top three players in the [Applause] world two are going to be in wheelhouse position on the 10th which is somewhat reachable as roy mackoy will be on that first cut of rough to get a little bit more of in-depth coverage going to be matt every out of the golf course matt this is weatherwise it’s been interesting but a beautiful morning here on the first round yeah peter we got a we got a good one today for this opener but you’re right the story so far this week has been the weather 4 ines of rain since last friday and you’re going to see it a lot uh on this golf course all 7,600 yards of it guys aren’t going to get a lot of roll in the fairways however the greens here do have subair you’re going to see them with you know similar firmness to most major championships on a thursday it’s going to play into our group’s hands even more if you ask me we got three of the best long iron players to ever play this game going to be a blast to watch with you guys you one thing there matt as you were on the range earlier today you said it might not be a long iron from scotty did you see a small equipment change this week yeah he bounces around sometimes between a a threeiron and a uh fivewood but i actually think he slipped in the sevenwood this week we’ll see uh maybe he’s planning on missing a few fairways i don’t think anybody’s immune from that this week but uh could come in handy we’ve seen that a little bit kyler morawa actually adding a 9inewood last week to get kind of ready for this week can can everyone kind of changes a little bit of you know their approach after seeing a golf course for a couple of days absolutely and this has got the rough it’s about three and a half inches long very consistent the ball tends to drop to the bottom of it so a little lofted wood can be a very useful club to to sort of dig the ball out because the the wood slides through the rough whereas an iron gets tangled up perfect day isn’t it hardly a breath of wind course in absolutely mint condition this is uh going to be a glorious watch look at that some 257 acres an old dairy farm for quail and of course johnny harris and that whole crew have done such a great job over the last couple years really tinkering it for moments like this where you can host a top three players in the world and really one of the best fields in the world and scotty and xander already doing more talking than maybe rory and bryson did in the final round at augusta going to have some fun with the cartoons this year as you see the pj tour ranks this season between scotty and rory kind of drafting off each other and ken this week even scotty was asked in the press conference he says it’s kind of gets the competitive juices flowing to see rory with this start not that scotty’s had a slow start whatsoever as well well yeah it’s like couple of boxes isn’t ali frzy one does something the other comes back it’s really terrific stuff to see these great players and they truly are great players jeweling with each other to have them all out together little soggy underfoot in places this 10th fairway sort of faces the players but it’s all smiles again i think there’s quite an advantage for some of these players especially our trio being able to tee off number 10 remember the two hardest holes out here strokewise are number one and number 18 we will get into the green mile a little bit later for these players but different this is a really quite cozy start let’s see where the t-shots went similar trajectories rory’s a little bit higher it normally is fraction and he just seemed to trickle into the rough i’m not quite sure how far in the rough [Music] so you see those three numbers is the ball speed how fast that ball comes off the club face how far they’ll carry an apex we’ll show you that just kind of make our make us feel bad about our own games here that are watching at home matt ever what do we have scotty shuffler appears to be first out yeah scotty’s ready to roll here by far uh the most accessible second shot into this par five green here at the tent the other two got some issues we’ll see what they elect to do 286 here for scotty he’s got to give this one a healthy poke maybe just a breath of wind in and off the right with the wet conditions yesterday we did not see many players get on this green and two bunker so yeah that’s an awkward bunker shot not much of a lip on that bunker but it’s one of those ones for 35 odd yards maybe a little more you said bit of a skinny one wasn’t it well boys this is aggressive here from from rory this ball kind of nestled up into the right up against the primary cut i don’t think he’s going to be able to turn it a ton and definitely has an oak tree in his way directly on line with the pin got up in a hurry matt yeah it did but it’s left to the green it’s going to be good angle for his third though leave there right all right you hear rory talking to harry diamond pretty good leave there as you see not shortsided it’s almost like he’s played here before that’s an awkward lie matt we’re seeing just the heels of xander right on that stand that’ll get that that’ll get the straight kick slightly left yeah it’s below his feet and then and i think that’s going to help him a little bit here if if it was above his feet and the heels were dangling i’d be i’d be scared boys but uh this is doable here for xander and a pretty good angle 275 to the hole when the prayer mat you get up by that little hollow if it stays there it’s not too bad oh sit okay just a handy leave for him as we are underway round one from quail [Music] welcome back to our first round coverage feature group scotty sheoffller xander schoffley and rory maroy in cc since 1995 some of these guys are so young i don’t even know what they were doing back in ’95 but scotty has the field entering this week at 77 under xander schoffley actually since 2023 has led scotty and rory as far as strokes under par he’s been 44 under but see brooks keepa and morawa it’s quite a group the amount of success they had and matt every’s out on the golf course and scotty just left himself a little bit of an awkward length for this bunker shot coming in on his first hole attempt peter it’s awkward for the mortals but uh you know as far as 40 yard bunker shots are concerned this is fairly straightforward he’s the lip’s not an issue he’s pitching back uphill into the wind i’d say anything inside of 15t is a pretty good shot it’s not one you want right out of the gates by any means but uh you know i think he gets this up and in close to half the time maybe a little less ken it would take me a bucket of balls to get up and down from that 40 yard pitch that so many average golfers would struggle with such perfect lie perfect sand you know gives you the best opportunities just got to make sure he flies it far enough square his club face as you hear the fans at quail it’s awfully special right for the jump we’ll have a little uphill putt for birdie on the 10th take a look at this ken what did you see fairly square club face he wasn’t trying to hit any real elevation on it just make sure he came nice and shallow and that was a beautifully played shot the sand here is just top top quality nothing unpredictable beautiful texture it’s a great job that keith wood and his staff have done to get this course in tip-top shape despite the rain that we’ve had over the last three or four days here in the queen city rory left himself a smart leave matt would not shortsighting himself but couldn’t really see where how bad thick that lie is well i think that was his idea from the start on that second shot uh just by the conversation he had with harry after he hit it the lie is fine um it’s not the best it’s not the worst it’s pretty good for this shot it’s not going to have a ton of spin on it it’ll be able to chase up the hill plenty of green to work with again not the hardest chip in the world here maroy talked all week long about how he really enjoys the par fives here at quail and that’s one of the reasons why i might be able to get a smidge of a read off scotty’s take one more look at it as matt said the lie wasn’t too bad but able to get all the way just about halfway and let it release out a lovely contact you can almost feel he’s almost got a bit of grip coming out of the rough then he too leaves himself the uphill putt this is awkward here for xander well below the surface he’s going to bank this one and hope he judges the bounce right indeed he did you say awkward it was just such a tight lie those tightly moan areas can right in front of those green create a lot of options but right from the jump had to nip that just perfectly that was a quality little shot the green sitting above you and it’s running away from you you just got to flip it up delicately it’s a perfect life for it but it’s still not that easy and for those of you at home watching we had an opportunity over the last couple days to walk this course in the amount of rain thinking my goodness how is this course going to be in playable shape come thursday and matt i mean the sub air with around the greens and the way that this thing has drained it is looking tip-top already really is guys you know we’re going to see it in the fairways for sure but the greens i mean you would have no clue that it rained 4 in since friday it’s uh they’ve done a heck of a job to to rally and get this place ready pretty good look here for rory he’s kind of coming up the fall line not a lot of movement in it this one’s all about keeping the pace up for an opening birdie unbburdened by the career grand slam just one under through one take another look it’s just silky smooth putting stroke struck wasn’t it just oh he’s got head eyes into the bottom of the cup the perfect way to start for rory maroy that’s just been the difference maker for him this season is sixth in stroke game putting and able to do it at augusta and able to do it here early for quail for scotty similar line very similar line uh wouldn’t be shocked to see a similar result right around 10 ft here for for scotty again not much in this scotty this was a year that you know go back to cj cup as he’ll clean that up for par stroke game putting 22 and he’s never been in the top 50 and that’s always been you know one of the things that i wouldn’t even say plate him because he’s number one player in the world but you think my goodness what could he unlock if those putts fall all week long just a slight dise there matt you’re not the only one watching i’m not it is uh electric out here just absolutely slammed for a thursday morning i think everyone’s ready to get outside too boys it’s been it’s been nasty here for three days to say the least and no doubter for xander schoffley so two birdies in a par for our featured group is gives the flat stick back to austin kaiser his caddy as they will stroll over to the 11th such an interesting hole this 465 yard par4 that dogs legs over the left here ken not the easiest fairway to find it tilts a lot from right to left bunkers down the left side but if you go in there you’re not too bad second shot plays a little uphill pin on that left side today how far is it on 19 on six from left just over the little ridge in the green so when you’re down the fairway it looks like there’s not much green to work with there’s a little bit got to work the ball in from the right this from the corner of the dog leg looking back to the tea can’t see the landing area very well couple guys that really move the ball right to left zoned in this week that drive it so well are both rory and bryson yeah this should suit rory’s eye nicely here at the 11th those bunkers especially the last one on the left most definitely in play was asking for it to fly yeah i have three crafts just right here great xander talking on awesome about the line that they want setting up on the right hand side of the t blocks generally means you’re going to try and fade it a little bit and hold it into the slope of the fairway [Applause] anytime you twirl the club a little bit and pick up the tea quickly you can always get a feel for the body language that ball is a great spot now let’s see the scotty shuffle never ceases to amaze me when you watch the footwork for the number one player in the world ken i don’t think he’s going to give this the full smoke so it probably won’t be quite as dancing as he sometimes does oh absolutely right from the left hand side just went straight left as some of the fans are looking around i mean it’s hard to tell with his foot action but i think he slipped a little bit with his right foot just before just seemed to slip a fraction early morning do perhaps as we’ll get a update one more look at scotty’s footwork ball came up straight and left on it take a look at his line we return to kohalla [Music] scotty shuffler’s feet when he swings how do you describe what his feet are doing his feet are flying everywhere but i would describe it as athletic i don’t think his feet even know what his feet are doing it’s uh pretty amazing i love that he owns it doesn’t matter what they’re doing he’s winning keep doing [Music] it this was a pretty good example of it as well see how much this feet move before he hits the ball not much it’s just once he hits it he throws himself at it can you see just the one hand follow through and it’s not the hideki mats matsyama follow through where he has normally has the one hand follow through and it goes right down the middle is this one well left for scotty anytime you got to go through the the roped off areas for the fans it’s not necessarily a good sign generally if you’re in the rough certainly on most of the holes you are liable to have some tree trouble 157 it’s a good look at where these players have hit their drives to shoffley in the greenhouse maroy trying to challenge that bunker a little bit has found its way in there with scotty over on the left hand side schoffley just a really smart play going to have it as good of an angle as you can have 42 front so matt did you get an opportunity to see what scotty and ted are looking at here yeah they caught a pretty good break over here guys uh a great lie slightly above his feet he’s got to go low with it but he can access the front right part of the green and anything short right in general will be just fine and uh leave a pretty pretty easy up and down for scotty say overall a good break here though yes a good line the ball sitting on the top of this tufty ry grass okay just left the tv tag well i don’t think he’ll be able to get to that because it’s guarded by the bunker there’s no way he’s going to get to that as he runs through the sand see the point he’s trying to figure out if he’s out or xander appears that he says it’s me he’s sporting isn’t he he’s a nice fell checking it’s his turn lines just on that sort of bit of tree trunk you can see right of the tv tower is going to sort of jettison in that direction didn’t turn as much as he would like to but plays it safe yeah smart play there guys it’s totally fine all right xander playing quickly now 156 great angle this is definitely a birdie opportunity no wind to speak of at the moment setting up for a draw piggy bounces really was a hard first pounce a little down slope he came off but still he almost heard it hitting a road you would think that they hadn’t had rain here for 3 months with the way that that ball came off of that downhill lie for the fairway but opportunity for xander and rory’s lie in the bunker any problems here matt no it’s just fine and 146 yds guys that’s going to be part of the challenge here you know these fairways are so wet they’re not going to get any roll and it’s it’s hard to it’s just hard to imagine the greens being that firm when your your feet are soaked with a little english for maroy as a safe play over on the 11th as maroy takes a gander at that one scotty doing his shuffle a little bit and xander in great spot as well we continue our feature group coverage pga championship quail [Music] so scotty sheffller as matt ever had told us earlier smart play it’s going to be a little pitching run here ken over the ridge in the green up and over the other side got it over the other side that’s kind of shocking truth lane little bump and run ball just seemed to grab a little bit yeah that front portion of the green is into your face plus it’s into the grain and if you just hit it a little too high it just digs in and of course once you toppled over the crest it was going to be quick so it looked a lot worse than it actually was another yard or so a trickle and it would have trickled down 5t away oh boys uh it’s definitely hot out here i was going to say matt it it it’s going to be a little humidity in the air h and really this is going to be the probably the warmest day that we’ve had here in charlotte all season long it’s been a very nice extended spring yeah it’s coming out of the ground for sure you know rory should have got a pretty good read as far as speed is concerned on scotty’s i don’t think it’s any secret to him it’s going to be slow but the the issue is is about a few feet past the hole it starts to run away from him towards the back of the green should swing to his left gradually this is subtle just like matt had discussed you had to get enough firepower to get it up that hill ken but then never never put on the full flaps afterwards [Music] just sand the first to go from this side you’re putting much more up the hill you’d be a bit more aggressive yeah and ken i i don’t know if you can hear that airplane above but you always want to wait to putt until after it passes you you never want to putt before it’s going to ruin the tempo little secret there learned from billy crert all right zer can be really aggressive with this back up the hill doesn’t have a lot of movement in it at all it just a bit more pace it would have held its line a perfect way to start matt hasn’t missed the shot yet yeah rock solid start for shuriken that’s going to be the recipe for success for for xander what an incredible look from our camera crew of how perfect that putt nearly was and how perfect these greens are and just really an example of why xander top 10 and five straight majors no one has done that top 20 and 12 straight majors just a consistency and that was really smart play he hit it right in the fairway smart iron shot gave himself an opportunity well peter he’s just going to he’s going to pick this place apart you know death by a thousand cuts there’s so many mid to long iron opportunities for these guys out here this week and nobody’s better than xander and if if he drives it well we’d be hardressed to to not see him late on sunday having a look at this thing as scotty just misses that to the right [Music] that was a little bit of an unforced error for the number one player in the world just taking the medicine matt off that aaron t- shot you figured he had played it just perfectly but yeah he caught a caught a break with the t-ot to be honest and would place the blame well ultimately i’d place the blame on the t-shot but the pit shot was below par for him for sure and that’s definitely a disappointing bogey here a little cleanup for rory not much in this back up the hill maybe left edge left center can he read it can he pick the line did not scotty on the right this is his maroy will give back the birdie that he made on his opening hole the 10th putting some geometry on that scorecard early that looked good just did not hold its line a little bit firmer pace canon that would go in so scotty will go ahead and clean this up six top 10s for him so far this season it’s the eighth straight major he’s come into as the number one ranked player in the world it’s the longest streak since tiger had it back 2005 to 2010 a disappointing bogey for mr sheffller as we move to one over as ryan fox is three under and pacing the field right now as we stroll on over to the 12th just a casual 468 yd par4 ken yeah and one of the narrower fairways not easy to find if you drift left or right you get stuck behind the trees in the rough second shot plays a little uphill to this sort of lavish glamorous two-level green and the tear is quite steep little ridge to come up only four paces behind the flag and about five up the ridge so it’s not easy to get at and over leaves a very tricky pitch is a cracking hole and picturesque as well it’s beautiful you you use the words lavish picturesque and what was the other one i’m going to learn all types of adjectives work with you this week cracking that was the other one cracking so try to listen here to austin kaiser giving xander the line and i love the pace of play it’s not exactly louvic fast but he wastes no time getting into the ball yeah i’m with you all three of these guys they’re uh refreshing to watch for sure you know i’m interested to see today this this quail hollow it’ll let you wear the driver out in your golf bag and all three of these guys can get it out there pretty good i’m interested to see who’s who’s living a little bit longer throughout the course of the day this this xander packs a serious punch just a delightful drive three perfect t-shots in command of his game carried at 320 and the ball went 321 great look at how this is a subtle dog leg over on the right hand side perfection as well we’ll see what scotty is lost that t-ot left on 11 little different ball shape for this one on 12 you see his target line was trying to hang on and and it will three t-shots from the top three players in the world three of them in the fairway including mr rory maroy himself as we continue our featured group coverage of the first round of the pj championship [Music] [Music] it’s the first day of a major everyone still believes the crackle in the air is born of that hope all these players somewhere inside have laid out some scenario that ends with them holding the [Music] waker when i grow up i want to have wright thompson’s voice it’s a simple man or ryan fox’s start here at the 107th pga championship as he teed off on hole number 10 and taking advantage of that three under luke tunnel patrick fishburn just one stroke off that lead how about john rom trying to find his form coming in a nice start for the [Music] spaniard podrick matt fitzpatrick see moore you see just the the best field in all of golf you don’t necessarily get that all the time at the us open or the open championship and even at augusta but the pj championship year in and year out ken is such a collection of guys on top of their form yeah they’ve always been very good at doing that making sure they get the very best players playing occasionally one or two miss out on the other major championships [Music] so as you see the just about perfect ball flight three different ways to get there but very different shots right in the middle of the fairway with schoffley carrying it some 328 yards and getting one yard a roll shows you how wet it is out on the golf course just wonder if anyone’s picked up any mud cuz b absolutely dug into the ground roy had a bit of a bounce but all on the fairway have a chance to get at this awkward pin position great look in that shadow trying to listen in on this conversation a little longer as you get closer coming down steps y straight down yep that’s right great everybody needs caddies in their life ken i mean the positive reinforcement great i love that happy for you this is a very difficult pin to get at because the breeze is slightly helping you know it’s going to take a firm bounce he’s got five yards to get above the tear ted scott there guys this might be one of the the harder second shots they faced today there’s just not a lot of green up here to work with at all wind quartering down off the left should suit his eye nicely but it’s going to take something very precise asking for it to sit all right might be a tricky part off of that first cut of the rough depending on how that wedge will will sit but matt you nailed it just the fact of that pin placement with the that subair system in these greens that ball it might sit in the fairway it’s not sitting on the green there’s like a a hula hoop size area these boys can land this ball and keep it up on top you almost have to land it into the slope with the the way the wind direction is and i’m telling you it’s going to be a challenge today these guys are are soaked from ankle down and it’s just weird playing for that big of a bounce when everything else is so wet oh so unlucky landed exactly where you suggested matt just a skiddy bounce didn’t quite clamber up the tier oh i think also i think he didn’t quite catch as he intended yeah you could tell on his follow through is he kind of lost it but this ball appeared to be perfect did he bounce as high as the flag just spun it back so one of the things that rory talked about this week johnson wagner did a great walk-in talk with him said he went to the tp instead of the tpx or tpx which has a little bit more spin he’s been trying to have more three quarter shots to take away that spin it’s one of the dangers of going with that little more spinnier version of the ball now xander from just a shade short of 140 we’ll see how aggressive he wants to be here you do have more room the further left you take it this might need to bite oh you can’t see it from the tv but that’s they’ve gone down a little down slope up against the cush edge of a pool table i’ll be honest the glass when you get once you get up to the green it’s slick as anything well we talked so much about 16 17 18 being the treacherous green mile i would imagine here on 12 with the pin placement the way it is it’s going to be playing as one of the harder holes to birdie today because we saw three different approaches in here including xanders and we don’t have a single makeable birdie opportunity really you can see him releasing the club under the ball more to get a bit of height and try to get his grip but it’s that first bounce that’s caught him out maybe the breeze puffed up a fraction as well so if you’re pin high it might go over the green if you bounce it short and try to get it up there you might spin it back but other than that it’s a pretty easy pin placement it’s a sporty hole it’s truly fascinating ken about how carrie hake and that whole pga crew do such a incredible job of setting up the championship to test the players yeah carrie h is an english fell and i’ve known him for a long while he sets up the rder cup matches as well he does get it just right the rer cup is sometimes sets the flags a little easier for excitement then it doesn’t always have to be difficult to make it interesting but this today the pins actually when you looked at a pin sheet the nearest to the edge is 5 yards which is about 20 odd just under 20 feet 53 is 15 feet but uh there’s all these runoffs so there’s a bit of green to work with there’s a classic example he just tips off the edge and rory’s not in a bad spot here uphill into the grain he’s got to make sure he gets it to run out first bounce but it’s up and then onto the level bit at the back yeah ken it’s it’s not the hardest shot in the world especially for a guy of rory’s caliber he’s got a good lie just stay still back there this is really all about contact out of the three though i would say uh this is the easiest shot far and away squareish club face it’s going to cut across a little bit give him a bit of cut spinness see if he can judge you [Applause] beautifully played i knew what he was doing take one more look so still through it keeps that club face nice and open allows for it to hit and spin the sh properly [Applause] tap in mat for rory as he’ll stride over to the 13th well we now have xander it’s a kind of a awkward lie here this is hairy here for xander it’s right up against a primary cut and there’s quite a bit of guesswork involved with a shot like this you really got to keep the speed up he’s not going to have a a huge follow through but you need some kind of conviction down there at impact you know the the scary thing about this shot guys is it comes out with just a little too hot he’s going to be down there where rory was chipping for par this has got to be so precise i don’t know guys maybe i should go work for the weather channel that was slightly dramatic yeah take a look just that tough of grass and just had to land it right over that fringe xander shows why he’s consistent scotty similar situation yes sir that’s a way to get one back there will not be many birdies made here on the 12th take one more look at just absolute perfect and ken that was a difficult pitch as well because of that tough to grasp yeah yes and i think both of them had the advantage of a slight ups slope which does help without actually seeing the lies but that was a little dandy just at the right time just not bad as he’ll put that two on the card or three rather as he’ll look for a two on the 13th just steps away from that green shifted these t boxes around just a little bit gotta love how just even kill scotty is chips in just kind of says all right yeah workman like his playing partner got a lovely contact it came out exactly how he’s hoping look at the spin on that ball that’s fascinating oh like a well-trained dog go on baby do as you told might as well be a commercial right there for the number one player in the world scotty sheffller so now they stride over to the 13th playing 205 and that back left pin placement today ken just tuck there’s a bit more landing area there than the looks from the tea over that bunker but that little ridge is guarding it a classic pin position of this golf course ridge guarding anything leaking down the left by three yards after the flag you get drawn off the green the commercial players did it sort of virtually in the center of the green just below the cup needs a really high towering iron shot to hold it by that flag and rory’s the man for doing it but with these firm bounces he’s got to come from the sky and drop very softly between clubs seen 18 players already play this par three today only two birdies some six bogeies yeah such a difficult flag to get close to there there’s an argument to be made right now with the number one player in the world scotty shuffler rory maroy his win at augusta just weeks ago and xander the defending champion this might be the most powerful tea time and group that we’ve had in modern golf in a long time it sure is yeah born in pretty good form as well they’re waiting a long time here has it the wind or is it just slightly indecisive see that it had been fairly calm this morning we haven’t seen too much you know we might see just a little little bit of breeze occasionally but kind of this treelined area in this part of the city it’s normally fairly well protected once you get kind of in the green mile it opens up a little bit let’s see 14 15 16 17 18 all kind of have a little bit more or less wind protection i should say but they must be on the green are there people on the green yeah there’s got to be that’s causing a little bit of delay here on the 13th you know roy moy of course going back and getting his first career win some 15 years ago at quail he said earlier this week almost didn’t play in the tournament back in 2010 didn’t feel like the back was in good shape but played a practice round overseas before and says “i hit the ball so extremely well i figured i needed to show up to quail and play.” good thing he did that opened up the floodgates for quite the run for rory mackoy jordan spe earlier this week kind of joked around and his presser cannon called it rory moy country club it’s a fan favorite just see rory looking around and harry there’s a he’s looking at the flag behind him just trying to detect where the breeze is i look up there where’s that wind coming from there’s the stats of what jordan speed would kind of jokingly recalled as rory maroy country club four wins bunch of top 10 finishes now we get ready for scotty and just look at the crowds that have showed up great look all right boys this might be a common theme today for this group three fast players and uh not exactly three speed demons ahead of them tough par three here at the 13th 205 uphill from greens scotty falling off of that ball immediately just like a huge misit into that collection area slightly scaffy shot huge turn big shoulder turn and his endeavor to get it high in the air and softly he just opened the club face it’s easy to just hang back a fraction and the club face comes open trying to bring one in from the serrus cloudset matt do you think the commercial play just to play a bit right of the flag that would be the the proper play here ken i think you’ll see most of the field over there at at 205 this can’t be much more than a sixiron here for xander and is nobody better in the world from this distance that is factual such good pace that ball tracking 10 out of 10 landed a little ups slope exactly what he was trying to do if you want to get close to the flag magic shot ken is that uh is that far enough right of the pin for you you see that left arm straight the turn doesn’t take it even all the way to parallel it’s just such a smooth consistent swing and matches his finishes here now rory on the 13th wind starting to freshen a little bit down off of his left look for this to be slinging in high and from the right uh send he knew he caught a little bit too much of that one but a little downhill putt as far as this course they just get longer and longer and longer eric coils the fourth longest layout in pga championship history playing 7626 probably playing closer almost 7,900 with the lack of roll they’ll get out six holes with water hazard a lot of them coming up on that finishing stretch of hole including the green mile and eight of these par fours at least 450 yards tides for the most the pj championship has had over the last 25 years and grand opening grand closing most difficult holes 18 is the hardest and the opener the second hardest so these players in our group will have to go back to back on those as they teed off over on hold 10 as you see par 71 in that course record held by mr rack maroy himself a 61 keith wood and his team has got this course in great shape 45 full-time staffers another 55 volunteers this week and george cobb put this together jimmy harris back in the day 1961 but really kind of really started getting into a championship pedigree when tom fosio has done so much work on this course over the last couple years always tinkering it and that’s why it’s one of the best venues in all of golf shoffley won’t win to the pin at this point there was somebody had 8 feet earlier today mroy 41 ft and as we see all of their featured group in hold coverage right now is kepka fowler and lowry and mickelson fleetwood in day john rom off to a good start with patrick kentlay and matt fitzpatrick and if you want coverage of the green mile we have you covered holds 1617 18 a diabolical finish in fact the hardest finishing threehole stretch the majors over the last decade [Music] where we saw more double bogeies than bogey or birdies rather in the last couple of years and matt having walked out on the golf course having talked to some of the players out there and seen the conditions if you had to guess what you think that winning score will play at this week what’s the number you’re you’re picking well look you know we get intimidated by these uh the length they attach to some of these golf courses but ultimately at the end of the day if if they’re soft these guys will pick them apart now that being said these greens are not soft so there’s there’s a little bit of a curveball being thrown there uh i think someone’s getting to double digits here i would say low double digits 10 11 12 i’d love to see that as you take a look at i mean that’s a that’s a putting green for most people and on how they play on the weekends here ken and you got to pick this thing just perfectly though well this is pretty straightforward for scotty though plenty of green to work with back uphill into the wind is it too much nip there peter grimaces just a little bit would have liked to have seen it and really the play was perfect just if you can landed maybe about an extra two yards you see how crisp it comes down to this ball can just clipped it off so perfectly i think he was expecting a bit more of a skiddy bounce mention the trees around this golf cart they are spectacular aren’t they really fantastic haven’t all been trimmed up made like lollipops is gorgeous on a day like today we’ve seen that a little bit more with the golf course architecture over the last couple years and them kind of allowing some of these trees taking out some of the trees just kind of let the courses breathe a little bit we saw that oak hill two years ago in rochester we saw it a little bit at valhalla last year in louisville and now rory from about 40 ft matt what’s he going to have to navigate he’s got a big swinger here peter and he’s got to pay attention to the pace this is all about matching up the the speed and the line and it’s going to turn quite a bit halfway there as it peaks over the mound and straighten out late might have borrowed a little bit too much here good play for rory see a look over at the 14th that this is how far out matt was talking about that oy needed to play this ball and never up never end so it had an opportunity major championships pars always your friend especially if you can murder the par fives like rory can ken that’s so true and uh i’ll tell you what else is your friend in this is this club xander has in his hands when par becomes a good score in major championships there’s a lot more emphasis on on putts from 5 to 15 ft mainly because you know those are uh those are your length you’re scrambling for for pars when you’re out of position but in this case for xander it’s a birdie attempt and look he’s gaining more than a shot on the field if this thing goes down and over the course of four days i’m telling you i uh i i had had the opportunity to interview webb simpson monday for a show i’m doing and uh xander was web’s pick and i didn’t even i didn’t even tell him “don’t you can’t say rory or rory or scotty.” he went right to xander just low as you’re right that was not going to have many many opportunities for birdie on this hole especially within 10 ft of xander that deep breath after this ball just swings a little bit left again maybe just a touch more pace on a ken and it would have held its line it’s a pretty good angle to put from after a deemly good approach shot just a par peter i should add to that little story web simpson has lived on this golf course for about 15 years yeah he uh if he knows anything between him johnson wagner of course one of our broadcasting crew taylor zars are members out here and scotty reading it like a member of quail no doubter it’s a great save for scotty just makes it look so easy and that’s really been the difference and why he played so well over the cj cup and i think everybody knew the last couple years as well as he strikes the ball as roy will clean this up if scotty ever got the flat stick rolling it unlocks even a crazier [Applause] level so now let’s get really interesting is 14 15 16 17 and 18 we’ll all have to navigate that water and the 14th ken is one of the cooler golf holes on this course is drivable par4 slings all the way right to left yeah i think it’s one i think it’s one of the best golf course best golf holes in the world that 14’s wonderful got to take a chance off the tea with the driver water all the way down the left it’s a cracking group of closing holes it really is 16 17 and 18 are three tigerish holes how fun is it we’ve already seen two eagles on this 311 par 414th so far playing the easiest of any of the 18 out here at quail if you make par here you’re losing half a stroke to the field at this point look at the hole from the what it looks aerial see the whole hole from the tea it dog legs fractionally from right to left choices off the tea you can go with an iron most players go with a a driver perhaps a threewood today depending where you want to uh let your ball finish holler to the right fin pin right on the front left hand corner there on the 14th eight on seven from the left one of the easy pins water all the way down the left a very narrow green 50 paces deep and sort of although it’s 15 yds wide it doesn’t play that wide cuz it tips off on all the sides so wonderful wonderful short par four but a birdie chance certainly looks that way this morning well got to be careful like you said if you just hit it over on that lefth hand side it’ll trickle all the way down and just another great course in the lineup next may pj championship returns to aranom golf club in new town square right outside of pennsylvania to register for tickets visit pjampionship.com/register registration closes soon tough tickets to get as always the field is great for the pga championship the amount of text messages i got this week going “hey can you get me in?” can’t is jam-packed and next year will be no doubt another one of those events well attended sander schoffley one under scotty sheffller with a chip in back to even par rory maroy birdied his opening hole the 10th gave one back and they are three back of the lead of fox and fleetwood that have found themselves three under so far see just a great look at the clubhouse it’s a special property right here ken it’s a old dairy farm called quail hollow because of the amount of quail that were in the area 257 acres it’s just a it’s a big park it’s a big big big piece of ground and there’s a lovely golf course but it’s it’s made by these trees it really is looks like it’s been here forever and a day you never have thought it was ever a farm driver 3wood oh boys i was uh talking to a few of the members in the crowd and they said kantlay and a couple others have come through here and hit through it on the green it looks like this is driver though for scotty i’ll echo what you said ken uh i would say far and away the easiest pin location on the screen the front left and i don’t mind the driver play you can go ahead and press this thing pin high and to the right you have all the green in the world to work with little collection area just short right of this green and that’s exactly where it’ll be yeah it’s perfect that’ll be just slightly uphill i mean that’s a makeable shot for scotty it’s not a bad spot to leave it at all kind of shades of this te you know kind of this thing was to go straight right and be a couple hundred miles down the road it’d look like 18 at augusta a little shoot coming out of hole 14 oh no surprise here xander going with 3-wood delivers one of the heaviest blows to the back of the ball and also think he just has one of the hottest 3-woods in general on the on the professional golf circuit this is dangerous be careful he’s saying catch the bunker wet guys that is wet knew it right off the tea matt yeah it’s a uh it’s a pretty big mistake too guys i mean this is a birdie hole all day you just bail out to the right xander obviously knows that but definitely going to be handing back at least a shot to the field here at the 13th rory stepping in quickly also gearing down with 3-wood but should be plenty of gas to at least get to the front of the surface here he has a strong 3-wood as well he does and uh this ball flight should suit this hole nicely this one hanging out to the right a little bit but should be just fine something should catch left a little bit it’s a little bit of an unlucky break as rory knows exactly what just happened it’s about two yards to the left that ball would have kicked left into that collection area as you see cory maroy and his move at it as we continue our first round coverage of the pga championship cohallo [Music] [Music] it’s the pga championship a tournament where legends and long shots both have shined can it be yes had that one the pga championship lure oh he’s done it coverage continues today we welcome you into feature group coverage peter burns ken brown matt every as we’re watching ryan fox three under you see teed off over on the 10th you see an asterk next to that whole number that means they teed off on the back side rolling with our feature group the top three players in the world rory maroy scotty sheffler and xander schoffley as we see keegan bradley rder cup captain that’s going to be a good one over in oh new york later this year i think there will be some fireworks in that one ken it’s no doubt about it it’s going to be a fantastic match the ryder cup matches been terrific as well since the early 80s who will win this time home advantage is huge these days we see that it’s been a home advantage for the pga championship as well nine straight americans have won this tournament you see a lot of different countries represented on that their flags on the first round of the leaderboard on thursday as we see xander just wherever the best what you call a risk and reward hold he’s taken a little bit of a risk not much of huge risk but he’s made a mistake use that hat to kind of signify where the ball went in and one under and for those just joining us he’ll drop he pulled that 3-wood and he knew it right off the jump into the water doesn’t look very kindly this shot matt no it’s not at all guys obviously it’s a terrible angle but it’s off a slight downs slope out of the primary cut he’s got the wind at his back which isn’t doing him any favors really anything inside of 30 ft would be great here for xander you just just want to take six out of play at the moment also looks slightly above his feet so nothing easy about this shot can he go straight at it or is he got the favor a little bit to the right it’s hard to tell jump out a little bit right yeah he can go straight at it ken i mean that that’s fine there’s plenty of green directly behind it he just can’t tug it more than three or four yards could be difficult to get this ball to stop though really good i mean matt i don’t know if he could have landed it in a a better spot no said 95 yards and that might have been 94 and 78 yeah that was uh elite stuff there from xander and he’s still outside of 15 ft just pitching a little up slope at the front and that yeah oh that was terrific i thought he might have had to go a little bit further right but straight at it see can’t even see the ball great job to commit to it but we’ll have to take his medicine meanwhile rory where’s he going to land this one he drew a really good line guys but he’s got that face very square looks like he’s going to land it short and run it up pretty good pretty darn good just running out downhill down grain from there it’s not difficult if you misjudge it to run it in the water of the other side or certainly run it off the edge of the green quality real quality hooded the club face knocked it forward got to rely on a perfect bounce hit the down slope and this is just trundles out great job of our camera crew giving a look at that as we see the aerial view of that water hazard over on that left hand side for scotty electing to go with the putter here matt i love this play smart at all levels peter even for the even for the best in the world yeah there’s the worst putt is always going to be better than your worst chip that’s a a lesson learned early well look these aprons are about as as good as it gets as well not much to this one for scotty uphill about halfway there and then should peel off to his right as it loses speed just needs to break a tackle yeah was hit behind the line of scrimmage well ken wouldn’t this be the game of golf if xander makes this putt and scotty misses his birdie putt it is as we’re just looking down on the green it is just a slither of putting surface yeah it’s a it’s a fickle old game this scott has been a little bit i wouldn’t say scrappy so far so this reachable par4 adds a different little element is they’re going to shake off a little bit and let the guys come up to their t-shot over on 14 we will not miss a single shot we’ll take a quick break and brie viper bj championship i’ll do he had that label of the best player to not win a major and all of a sudden he’s got two was there anything unexpected that came with being a twotime major champion i i really don’t feel like too much has changed maybe i get spotted at dinner more often but golf is golf you know unless you’re tiger woods sanders with victory at valhalla i feel like i’ll have an edge on on the rest of the field i try to work as much positive selft talk as i can you know maybe just kicking in a little bit more self-belief prior will help just knowing that you’ve done it you look at xander schoffley best finish in his majors played well over at augusta back in 2019 but won this last year the defending champion and of course opened up the floodgates for him to run at royal tron later in the year been very impressed with his play the two majors and well turtles pace to see all of it we saw all the kioa a couple years ago we saw all types of things rolling around as pj of america and of course more than 30,000 pj of america golf professionals we absolutely love this game and we love quail hollow right now these guys are opportunity to have it all world par here matt avery we love quail hollow peter burns you kidding me just outside of 15 ft here for xander going to work towards the water as it loses speed would have been able to get away with the errant t-ot that fell in the water so we’ll probably give some a stroke and a half to the field for xander just never really found its speed here ken a little downhill to start with then it fractionally up the hill the grain is left to right and slightly into him you can almost see it stalling as it near the hole right from the jump moves him back to even par now scotty came up a little bit short but this is that distance that kind of makes or breaks scotty on whether or not he lapsed the field or gives everybody a chance man yeah not the toughest read either it’s going to slide just a little bit to his right stay stay no that will feel like really will feel like a bogey for scotty who put himself right in the driver’s seat as get a little feel just out to the right peter i’m with you that’s got to feel like a buggy there for for scotty couldn’t place that thing any better if it’s not on the green and disappointing for for sure i’m going to hammer it home this week but putts between five and 15 feet are going to be massive it’s probably you know realistically there’s probably five or six guys that can win this tournament if we’re being real and three of them are in this group but uh you know who who’s hauling the most five to 15 footers out of those five or six guys i really like uh their chances to lift the trophy on sunday maroy for birdie no pulls it left and he’s going to have a little bit of work to left i would have probably lost a dollar or two to you ken brown if i would tell you that this group will play the 14th at at least one over if not two over par absolutely the beauty of the hole eagle chances and all three of them misreading their putts i mean for rory to miss out on the low side at that sort of pace he’s really he’s pulled it a little bit but misread it as well all right we’ll give that a b minus for mr maroy really felt after that pitch shot had an opportunity to catch one scotty will clean this up all right so two casual pars for scotty and rory and the bogey for xander finding the water off the t-ot we’ll sh on over to the 15th which is the par fives that rory maroy has absolutely destroyed over the last couple years 30 under on this hole since the tour returned to cohallo in 2003 ken bunkers down the right the hole dog legs to the left second shot up the hill and the flag today eight on five from the right in a pretty awkward spot so if you’re going for it in two you’re not going to be able to hold it by that flag fairly generous green and divided into little sections by the little slopes on the putting surface you can see there’s a hogs back as you approach the front of the green and the flag’s just tucked to the right of that relatively easy to get to if you’re pitching to it but not easy if you’re going with a big iron as you see just a big dog leg over on the left hand side this wind not really much of a factor at this point but you know this is 14 and 15 are really the we’re going to give you a little handshake before getting to the treacherous green mile 16 17 18 peter this hole is all about the t-ot it’s everything if you can find the short stuff here it immediately turns into a a birdie hole you’re right the breeze hasn’t been a a big factor but i can tell you there’s some people out here looking for that to change scotty’s trying to cut off a little bit more of that corner all right he has you see just how wet the course has been and yet still looks perfect just not getting much of a roll out whatsoever so that’s really where the advantage matt comes from guys like bryson especially with rory mackoy just the sheer amount that they can carry these drives this week i’m telling you peter it’s a it’s a weapon for sure that much carry distance and it’s really a reason why you know this golf course in general you could probably narrow down the list of champs to 15 or 20 but when they threw four inches of rain you know week leading up to this i mean if you’re rory or xander or scotty especially with the uhoh we got trouble here boys oh my all right stayed up that is a huge break for rory maroy on the 15th is just really got uber aggressive with that line and that ball turnover right to left was flirting with it well listen he’s it’s a he cut off a lot of distance on this hole guys and i’m about 200 yards from his ball and i can see it so may be a great break for rory here at the 15th now xander on that target line took that similar line but a just a nice little cut kim will find it safely in the fairway here on the 15th good spot down the right side as well makes the whole play a little bit longer but the green will be in range for two so we see rory maroy over on the left hand side getting immensely aggressive as matt havry says though the ball is in good shape we’ll turn to see what that lie is going to be like short [Music] welcome back to our feature group coverage as all three of our top three players in the world are at even par rory maroy finding himself over the left hand side after a little bit of an errand drive and for more on that our pga of america coaching center powered by t-mobile the pga professional natalie shien tells us a little bit more about it natalie thanks guys i know rory did not hit his best t-shot there but as one of the longest drivers on tour i want to share with you a couple of ways you can add length to your drives and learn from what rory does best one of the moves that he makes initially in his swing with his driver is he actually moves a little up and back off the golf ball which is an amazing feeling to help you gain some speed some momentum and have that effortless power feel so you’ll notice that he just sort of moves up and back a little bit pushing up on that back leg some into that back swing and just the feeling for you of swinging actually quickly into that back swing can really help you have that feeling the other drill you can do is go ahead and use a split grip here on the club and work on reaching into that back swing making a nice big full chest turn that’s help you hit those powerful effortless drives so let’s go ahead and put the to the test here perfect so using those two drills is going to help you add some power and speed so we can hit it a little bit more like rory love that from natalie and that’s courtesy of t-mobile for business exclusive 5g solutions partner is well what a break that rory maroy has got to take a look at just finds himself on the other side of it as natalie was saying just kind of that up and back around he gets so much power loaded into it but right from the jump he was staring down this ball he knows every single sighteline of this golf courses although matt i’m not sure how many times he’s been over here yeah this one’s definitely not on purpose but you’re right an all world break we’ll get to that in a second scotty shuffler ready to roll from the left side of the fairway no tree issues at all pen cut on the front right and a short right’s not a terrible miss here obviously anything on the surface will do but if they’re handing handing you one out here guys it’s if you take a look right near where we’re showing rory maroy ducking as he’s right in front of scotty sheler’s ball make sure this ball gets airborne scotty okay we’re great play from scotty is it’s about where you’d want to draw it up so matt when you look and we’ll go back to xander real quick and we before we get back to rory so 239 you don’t see this too often guys 239 and this is a set four iron off of a pretty good downs slope back up the hill here for xander this is what separates him from the rest it sounded a little different yeah it was a little fat you could tell that just came off the club face you can hear just the impact looked a little different yeah just perhaps a bit of a watery line maroyy’s really cut this hole down to size my goodness what a break what a break ken i’m telling you man he’s got it all the way down where it’s it’s in the flat this isn’t even off of a down slope just under 200 yards here for rory and i’d say eagle is in play here heck of a break trying to get that ball to turn out right to left okay rely a little bit on that short game but he’ll take it after the t-ot flirting with the hazard on the left going back going back matt we had that you know the conversation was on golf channel yesterday with johnson wagner he talked about you know changing the golf ball allows him to shape it a little bit more a little bit more of a spinnier golf ball see our leader board is the conditions ripe for scoring keegan bradley ryder cup captain coming up at three under matt fitzpatrick luke dunnel amongst others over at three under and remember if you see an asterk next to their number that means that they teed off over on the 10th hole to start the day john rom with a good start trying to find his form over at two under lee as well just perfect scoring conditions the weather will get a little bit warmer we’ll probably face ken our warmest day of the year here in charlotte later today or tomorrow and hardly a breath of wind the wind is forecast to pick up a fraction but at the moment it must be 5 miles an hour if ideal conditions green’s in great shape you can turn your passion into a profession get started over at pj.comworking golf or working golf rather let’s see xander that ball came out just a little different matt did you get a chance to take a look at any kind of lip issues for xander no issues at all for xander here this thing made its way to the flat even though the pin’s cut in the front he still got still has plenty of room to to work with here it’s going to be running away from him and to the right once it gets on the surface but all in all i would say this is fairly routine for xander looking for something maybe inside of six feet the other two guys i’d be shocked if one of them doesn’t doesn’t make it the difference between these pros kim and this this sand is so predictable just firm enough that you can put a bit of spin on it as well aiming a little left just going to use the slope and the the cut spin oh he didn’t like that guys that came out a little lower than i think he expected i think he was surprised with thought it might shoot out just a touch more it’s a great look for the bunker cam it’s kind of died out matt yep i’m going to get over to uh rory and scotty’s approaches i wouldn’t be shocked if one of them made it but i would be surprised if they’ve i wouldn’t be surprised if one of them made it these are very routine you know peter both of these guys could drop 10 balls here and get 10 out of 10 up and down without even blinking i hope you don’t believe in the announcers jinx right now matt clearly right ken i mean that’s putting up this hill it’s a texas wedge for the the northern irishman slow all the way you know peter the only place the announcers jinx scares me extra points the only place that baseball no hitters occasionally as well smart play for rory and we’ll see if scotty learns a little bit of that as far as just a little bit more pace up the hill lucky they both can putt around that sprinkler head one looks like he’s going to go to the right of it and the gr just sneak past on the left otherwise you’d have to chip it got it he’s got it he’s got it what was that peter you called it you said there was a chance that one of these guys would pour one in and scotty sheffller says “i hear you matt let’s do it.” is sheffler with the big eagle one more look is i mean technically that counts as a chip in to a certain extent despite using the putter right i mean he’s had a chip in birdie earlier today and [Applause] now technically a chip in for eagle 15 dead scott yeah maybe we should hit less greens i don’t think scotty’s even capable of doing that peter kind of picks up the one he he threw away at the last there really good stuff from sheffler i guess he doesn’t subscribe to the uh announcers jinx though yeah made you look pretty smart that’s a that’s a that’s a heroic thing that may be the best thing he does all day today here now xander to get to red figures just ken that’s a couple of them that he’s just slightly missed today slidy one cross gray never easy to get it just right we called xander’s first round 62 at valhalla last year and it was so workmanlike now maroy with that birdie now moves to 31 under on this hole since 2003 they might as well put a plaque i probably put a couple plaques for rory maroy out here at what the players have deemed rory maroy country club what a break off the tea though what a break could be tournament defining for mackoy is schoffley remains at even par but my friends this is where the fun starts the treacherous green mile as players navigate their way around the course this week danger will be looming in the form of the green mile the last three holes at quill hollow have been called a nightmare over the years and here’s why in the pga championship in 2017 there were more double bogeies or worse on these three holes than there were birdies or better of those 12 or triple or quadruple bogeies and that matches the number of triples or worst on the first 15 holes a lot of the danger comes from the water and play since the pga tour returned here in 2003 more than 1,800 golf balls have found their way into the water in this stretch of holes all that to say in recent history no finish in major golf has been more treacherous to navigate than this one not wingfoot not kiwa or not even carnasti when it comes down to it no one is safe walking the green mile here it is that treacherous green mile more cartoons we need more cartoons my kids would love that right now bow and thomas hopefully watching 16 17 and 18 can 14 15 opportunities to make birdie and really just almost kind of hang on here ken for dear life yeah these last three holes are a real challenge the 16th is the third most difficult the 17th was the fifth most difficult last time we were here and the 18th is the toughest hole it really is a brute of a par four up the hill with a little stream running down the left let’s have a quick as we might say in london butchers this 16th which is have a look at it plenty of te’s to choose from thank goodness if you are a handic high handicapper dog leg to the right and a bunker down the right which is was a good hit to reach it now and last time the tournament was here there was rough beyond the bunker so there was no reason to clear it this year there’s a little bit more fairway 338 rory might be able to clip it over it and then the whole turn to the right big green divided into little sections and today it’s in a very awkward spot a little bit like the 12th it’s up a little tier in the green firm green it rolls off on the left and the back of it scotty sheffler after his eagle on the 15th first up i’d say that shot tracker looks decent with how soft these greens are with the 4 in of range since we’d had last friday not really a threat of the ball to run out through the fairway so for rory you see that bunker on the right hand side that was pushed back a little bit as johnny harris and this crew tried to quote unquote maroy proof this hole so the first time rory came out i’m told johnny was behind him rory flies it over the bunker and just gives a nice little wink and says we’ll be all right needs to get down oh all right so does not trickle into the water but that is twice matt every that he’s got that thing cooking a little bit too far left yeah a couple of lefts but a couple of great breaks as well i mean that’s a very steep grade that ball landed on right there something to pay attention to though as the day moves on xander very wide landing area at the 16th that looks like a really good line just to the left of that bunker absolute perfection scotty sheffller xander schoffley in grade a position off the t rory will have a little bit of work left when we return first round coverage of the pj championship at quill hollow [Music] here’s the t-shots and rory’s been lucky again he’s got snagged up on the bank as matt said there’s a big downs slope there often would kick into the water but see what he’s left himself the other two in the perfect spots cut the corner shortened up the hole just over 200 yds left awkward pin though even if you’re going with a six or a five ar difficult to get at it what can rory do couple of good breaks though the question is what can rory not do at this at this point in his career and i think that’s the big question kind of coming in after his dramatic win at augusta was how much would this unlock ken of a next level he’s talked about it about trying to stay present but how do you reset after grabbing that title that seems so hard for him to get in that green jacket and all credit to him and particularly the way he did it my goodness it was a when i’m going to button up the green jacket but he kept unbuttoning as he went round and eventually anyway he’s a grand slam winner that puts you in the elite of elite of professional golf so he’s got that monkey off his back and now i think he’s going to free flow i can’t see any reason why not he’s achieved everything he wanted to do in golf he said the other day in his press conference that it’s just gravy see if you can gallop up that major winning group of players and chase down tiger and jack down to matt ever now is matt another break for rory mroy kind of i mean it easily could have gone in the water but he doesn’t have much where it’s at he can get to the back of it but he’s going to be up on the steel really just looking to advance this thing down the fairway a little bit and leave himself hopefully something around a a full wedge maybe even less i’d say a half a shot of a break that’s a great look of what matt’s talking about is rory how far down that hill he’s going to have to go to get back to his ball it is not a time to be greedy it’s a time to make sure you find the fairway you just cut your losses not trying to hit it too far though i don’t think you can hit it too far just go back and and look at best cumulative score to par in first round lifetime xander and scotty have you know always played extremely well in first rounds with their in contention but rory always seems to kind of hang around for that first round and then make a little bit more of a charge stance he’s got oh no oh no that was a foot slip just when he didn’t need to hasn’t found the fairway hope he’s got far enough up the trees aren’t in his way yeah just that footing gave way as you can see it let’s take one more take a look right here that right foot just completely i mean ken he’s lucky to have made contact with that ball how far that right foot slid before impact guys when i took a peek at it i went and stood over it like i was going to hit it and i swear my right foot slid out from underneath me as well there was just uh there’s something going on there with where he had to take his stance and you know i thought all in all he would just crowd it a little more and chase it down the fairway because it’s not like he could get a tone out of it anyways but pretty big mistake there from rory yeah matt i i i would have thought that he might have put a little bit more aggressive practice swings into it just to kind of get a feeling for how wet it was and well i think he might have got you know lulled to sleep a little bit there peter on on the lie alone because it was a clean lie get to the back of it it was the stance was the issue but uh obviously snuck up and got him looks like scotty’s going to go ahead and play here 212 right back into the fan breeze starting to pick up it’s going to be really tough to get this all the way back to the pin headed straight left he knew it needs a break will not get it flew as if he might have had mud on that ball and that’s one thing matt we talked about earlier with the how wet it was would we see some of that now let’s go straight back to rory maroy this is not easy as well kareem mile living up to its name early today gentlemen we get a cut and this is risky ball above his feet has to make sure this thing doesn’t shoot out left oh he was going to play that extremely safe so let’s go back to what led to that shot and take a look at rory maroyy’s right foot as he’s trying to make impact right when he comes down and shifts that weight look at the right foot here full slip and again an athletic move just to make contact with the ken but this was scotty i can’t explain this one no it was the way it flew it flew a little lower than i anticipated plus it wasn’t trying to no way he was going to hit it down that side of the hole but maybe it was just a bad shot but i have a feeling there may have been some mud on the ball you did see him turn to ted scott a little bit and say something about that ball shooting out straight left now here’s xander 209 not good what is happening are you kidding me the green mile showing its teeth remember 99 double bogeies or worse we might be adding to that here early into the 2025 pj championship i am shocked i could see what happened rory off the tea but scotty and xander from 200 yd out both finding the water here ken that is that’s unexplainable well unless there was mud on the ball because uh both of them had a similar flight on it they both sort of dived left and didn’t really fly where normally slight knuckle ball it doesn’t quite take off and go quite as high and if you’re going to get that back flag there you’ve got to go in from the aerial route kenny i was walking around yesterday out here and i was you know really interested interested to see if these guys were picking up any mud and they weren’t yesterday and i still thought the fairways might be too wet today you get that kind of skid on the top of the surface still but they are start starting to pick up some mud and definitely something to pay attention to you know a lot of these second shots out here are just super demanding even under benign conditions and you throw mud into the equation it’s there’s just so much guesswork there’s nothing settling about it that’s a great point matt just regarding these guys are such creature habit and it’s just a matter of what are going to be those small the small factors and if there is a little bit of mud on the ball as we see where scotty’s going to be dropping xander’s not going to be far removed from his spot as well and this as you see a great look from our drone that’s not going to be the easiest up and down as that pin over on that left hand side they’re going to have to go straight up too rory just wandering onto the green because it’s you got to go up a little tear which is about seven or eight yards short of the flag and it levels out little plateau at the top but it’s not too difficult to tumble it over the other side of the green coming out the rough off a down slope fabulous hole i mean it’s a great golf hole look at the action we’ve seen already well played out here a couple weeks ago with taylor’s arzer and we had much of the similar results in our group i think two balls in the water and one short right for bogeies pros are just like us we see rory over on the other side as we wait for them to drop this again ken as you talked about this isn’t the easiest chip with that pin all the way tucked in the back square face going to play slightly more running type shot to get up just enough [Applause] so that will be remembered for bogei for rory is the number two and number three player in the world wonder how often you see guys in the same group no never it can’t be a coincidence one might have hit a poor shot but two of them didn’t xander saying mine scotty and i think scotty confirming that it will be xander first to play i believe these guys got to be careful over here i mean they’re already going to make a number but there’s potential to make a real big one here if you get cute with this i think they’d both feel like they were stealing if they got out of here with bogey but at this point uh six looks like it’s very much in the cards this ball’s set up very nicely for his drop open club face is miles open as matt’s saying it wouldn’t be too difficult to slide the club right underneath make the carry put this straight up a parachute on it my goodness it’s just dead over there boys i mean everything’s running away from him that obviously didn’t have a ton of action on it but you cannot miss just cannot miss left here at 16 it’s a great look for how far up he had to go oh scotty that ball buried a little bit further down he’s up to sit as well he knew it gentlemen bo might win the skin here i’m telling you tough scene the us open has broken out here at the pga championship it’s a great look at the 16 and how treacherous that left hand side is but i don’t know about 300 yards of the mile as well i got a long way to go yeah 17 and 18 doesn’t get any easier and number one remember how tough number one is as these guys make the turn as see the highest scoring average in the final three holes of the majors in the last decade quill hollow finish on the green mile just tougher than wing foot isn’t it wonderful to see the galleries out full numbers we’re seeing quite a show and some bonus golf for these guys right now and matt i don’t know if we get a chance if they probably won’t be waiting much on 17 as they’ve made a mess of 16 but i would love to know if there was some mud or something on the ball for both xander and i’m going to say there definitely was i could i’m going to echo what ken said just the flights alone that little divy to the left that’s the that’s a telltale sign of a of a mudball and let me tell you something else they’ll most definitely be waiting on 17 cuz menwood went swimming and he’s in the drop area as we speak that ball needs to get up as well oh my god them up how many say that i’m more of a ti 82 calculator kind of guy the abacus is a little more old school bat was kind of just more scratch and sniff back in the day yeah that’s right do the work peter hey i went to st mary’s university i paid my fee got my b we’re in good shape all right xander take us to school with this one gentlemen show us some golf right this uh this thing got ugly fast just blinked and everyone threw it in the other direction hopefully xander learned a little bit from scotty it’s a pretty severe climb up this hill and you know there’s there’s plenty of small victories out here throughout the course of a day and you know having to mark the next one here would would definitely be one for xander i think you take five and or six rather run up it’s got to get on as well my goodness gentlemen be shocked i’ve been covering a lot of golf this year peter you would be shocked at the amount of putts left short uphill by guys on the uh on the tour it’s just it’s out of control it’s hard for everyone to give it enough well this has been a choose your own adventure book for all the players in our crew as you see rory over on the left his foot slipped over on the right playing a little military golf left right left and now he’s got 12 feet and despite all of that in which we just showed you he’s in the best shape ken of this group surprisingly yes the grain on this little plateau is very patchy as well see the different colors there it’s a tricky one to read the overall slope there isn’t much on it once you get onto the ledge but tricky to see the line can he make a bogey an adventurous one no not the happiest of campers however if you go back in history the only time he’s made a double or worse on the 16th hole at coil hollow the first time he played it back in 2010 you know what he did in 2010 he won the tournament yeah peter it’s early let’s settle down in there this is the guy that guy that went the last major with four doubles look at that my goodness so we’ve got six they’re looking for some partners here in the best ball competition now scotty for his double bogey drains [Applause] it this incredible stat entering the 16th scotty sheffler had played 402 holes in the first round of majors and had never made a double bogey that was his first one holy shimoney matthew willis and david gordon are great sports and information group guys keeping us up to date on these stats here the first round now xander for his double i’m thinking man is this going to be the year that they tame the green mile i mean it’s 16 it’s 200 yard approach we’ve got a double bogey in a double bogey in and now a double bogey 666 a devilish 16th for the top three players in the world and i’ll tell you what this was lucky to be a six watch the lip just go out there and make a heck of a catch for this one ken did well to find the cup didn’t it just just enough pace oh my goodness there been plenty of chatter going on the 17th about whatever happened down there well and the 17th is not exactly a hole that is that inviting to the players as well as we take a look at the 17th this beautiful 227 yd par i would say three and a half today ken pinned towards the back of the green so you’ve got some landing area any pin at the front of the screen very awkward with the firm putting surface you got to work it in from the right of the flag but my goodness drifting left bit like the last hold you haven’t got to be very far out to find the water but fortunately this time they’ll have a nice clean ball on the tee but it is a great hole famous for its first firm bounce quite often 227 yds par’s your [Music] friend where’s the winding maybe a little bit into off the right not much of it absolutely shocking development on the 16th double bogey double bogey double bogey by the top three players in the world scotty coming off the high of the chip in over on 15 to get to two under in a blink of an eye now finds himself even for the championship again matt every was talking about the guys on 17 no relief finding the water and luckily ken i can tell you what these guys are going through i’ve made many a double bogey in a day and you get to the next tea you just just flush it you know you just don’t think about it yeah it’s not that’s not easy to do major championships are one and lost on bits of good fortune and bad fortune and i think they probably both were a little unlucky at the 16th but you’ve got to clear your mind and great golfers the bernard langers and the jack nicholas of the world it’s just it never happened and scotty shefflet seems that way as well a whole shoe of colorful people it’s like a flower bed around the 17th t just see the flag on the top of the picture there a little off the right maybe just straight across maybe a hair into them guys i hated making double bogeies and having big weights on the next hole especially when the humidity levels like 90% yeah fortunately this is quite an easy hole yeah right yeah i think the humidity out at quail’s getting hot and i imagine the internal temperature for these three players after that double run a little warm as well as the scoring conditions honestly are pretty good if we take a look at the leaderboard we’ve got some 10 players at three under par so far today we see the scoring conditions have been fairly benign for the players you don’t often get the honor with a double bogey do you uh i was going to say well in my groups you do but look at the plethora of players at three under so far today and that’s just the first cut of that leaderboard coming down yeah i’m looking at the just barely left the one the cameraman left the one there 11 players at three under right now jaw ram 12 it’s a great look at just how packed the 17th is now scotty matt from 227 yeah 227 back downhill that pinka all the way in the back left really just looking to fly this guys about 205 210 should get a big first bounce oh my god holy ghost holy gust all right the ball did get up but i think there was he definitely got a gust there it switched completely you heard him right from the jump holy gust they were making sure that ball got over that that front bunker sounded like batman but again what’s interesting is you see just that aerial view the felt looked like a little downwind right there yeah when he came into that shot peter it was down off the right but that’s not really where it should be compassing it should be more in off the right and it definitely switched you could tell by how soft that ball landed as well if there was any help in that shot he would have got something springing forward not a t-shot for indecision this one not one for any mental daisy picking ball’s tracking looks good off the tea distancewise awfully good needs to settle the brakes well [Applause] just a little bit of a lower flatter trajectory of that one kim brave shot see that wind moving it from right to left for the players probably that line is right where the 17 television camera is about halfway on that green let it roll out trying to get it to turn it’s not all right so shows you how the 17th middle hole of the green mile showing its teeth as well as we continue our feature group coverage of the first round of the pga championship [Music] well this stream runs all the way down the left hand side of the 18th from virtually from the chief certainly from driving distance right up to the green and it’s right in your eye it’s such a demanding t-shot you can see here’s the post that marks the stream it’s one yard off the fairway it really is a tiger so sometimes you can slip one down this right hand side and it does kick into the welcome back to first round coverage of the pga championship peter burns ken brown matt ever out on the golf course as this is where the top three players in the world are at on the par 31 17th all three of them trying to bounce back after each of them making a double bogey on the 16th this is such a treacherous group of holes 16 17 18 but remember all these players started on the 10th so they’ll flip it number one’s one of the hardest holes on the course along with two and three so this sixhole stretch is really where the first round is going to be told for this group just one birdie so far at the 17th that’s a heck of a birdie from some 227 you get a scene interesting the flag on the green is blowing as if it’s sort of helping breeze the flags on the ground stand a limp as there obviously a bit of swirling breeze affecting this hole elevated tea see xander and i would imagine matt just because of where this ball is kind of on that on that break he he would rather chip it and fly it out there versus putt it yeah he can chip it here peter and take out a little bit of the initial part of the break but this is very straightforward shot here for xander i mean layup line material boys cool look at that turf eh got to go all right so take one more look at this ken and i mean the lie was good it’s just a matter of just not rolling out as much he probably would have liked to have maybe got maybe a little about three or four more yards yeah it’s the ball died out he just sort of roll let’s just watch it here he didn’t get the right contact he just sort of grazed the grass behind the ball he’s trying to just turn the club over to hit a lowish rolling shot but it run out but it it didn’t and now great look for mroy behind the green is what’s he going to have matt on that side yeah i think it’s going to be scotty ready to roll first though boys he’s got a long ways home uh a lot of ground to cover going to be going to be moving to the left early and then straightening late maybe maybe fairly quick the second half but anything inside of five feet i think he’d take it a heartbeat oh trundle back down put on the brakes it’s awfully good had it high so it gave it a chance but just had the proper pacing beautiful touch up and over the rise and then the from here it’s downhill down grain easy to get away from you and he judged it a [Applause] bowl that’s just kind of unfortunate for rory i mean that was heck of a shot he hit into here obviously it ran through but always found these little little bumpers out of the primary cut kind of awkward shots just got to give it a little bit of a stab maroy no but an amazing view from that drone that was just hovering over the water on 17 a great look see bellies that wedge in superb shot he made a very very tricky shot looks so easy when he hits those shots he adds some intention he just grips the club a little lighter and he’s not a huge practicer of his chipping he’s just got that natural talent and feel to get the right contact it didn’t go in but it was 10 out of 10 you see what i’m saying so easy to duff those in front of your nose i think if i would have told maroy he might have gone two over through 1617 he wouldn’t have been happy about it but he probably would have thought “okay bogey bogey it happens.” but it’s a double on a par now xander to save his par on the 17 gets it xander had some close misses earlier in the round right pace right line take one more look at just just the right amount of speed tell you what any less speed kenon that ball is going to have will take the break a little bit too much just like the one on the 60s just enough pace all right so they go double double double on 16 par par on 17 as we strike to the last hole of the back nine number 18th and ken you had an opportunity to give us a quick preview of this one and why it’s so treacherous well this stream runs all the way down the left hand side of the 18th from virtually from the t certainly from driving distance right up to the green and it’s right in your eyes such a demanding t-shot you can see here’s the post that marks the stream it’s one yard off the fairway it really is a tiger so sometimes you can slip one down this right hand side and it does kick into the water on the left this yeah i think the grass is so long it’s not going to ping in here but it leaves you such an awkward little shot ball will blow your feet the ball’s settled right down what a drive this is and this hazard down this left side is absolutely perfectly placed and it’s right in your ey line you think about it this is a tough drive you can miss right you can miss left but where you don’t want to miss is dead center otherwise you join the duck don’t want to do that did you did you name the duck did you no oh man as you see today the third toughest hole only one birdie so far almost a full half stroke above par all right ken walk us through it it is an absolute cracker jack and that stream just winks at you the whole time reasonably wide fairway 33 paces wide at driving distance there the right hand bunker not too bad second shot you play up to the hill up the hill and the pins in an awkward spot today on the right side up a little rise in the green all seem to be an awkward spot it is a belter of a fish finishing hole and really gets your attention well so far rory’s only hit one fairway today so he’d like to find this one we talked about just the advantage that all of these players would have especially for the long bombers whoever can muscle it down the fairway this week and he’s gotten a couple of breaks so far but they find themselves well behind so scotty guys a tough t- shot today at the 18th it’s always tough but the wind off the left just adds a degree of difficulty not for scotty though not much doubt left in that one 309 went a full 311 maybe the greens again you the rain has really softened this golf course that’s that wind that matt was talking about slightly from the players left to right it’s left again boys it’s going to be close oh [Music] no it bounced twice have to get an eye on it but the driver woes for rory now one of seven fairways hit well kenny i don’t know for sure but uh i don’t like that ball’s chances of being dry saw it bounce twice as well but disappear appeared pretty fast and if so even what stance he might have that ball somehow stand stood up yeah all right a quick pick up of the tee so great drive for scotty great job drive rather for xander however for rory maroy coming into the home hole 18 let’s take a look at the aerial view of it he’s flirting with the water on the left hand side one bounce two bounces another break for mr mackoy [Music] lock in your pga championship winner at espn bet sportsbook right now new customers can get a $100 in bonus bets when you make your first $10 wager download the espn bet app and sign up with promo code birdie to get started today today’s live odds brought to you by espn bet sports book and before it was about 4 and a half or plus 450 to win it as we stand right now according to espn bet rory maroy 10 to one odds scotty sheffller falling back a little bit from his opening odds at $450 to plus $600 and xander schoffley now 70-1 $10 would be $700 as we take a look at the t-shots on the 18th ken brown is we see sheffller and schoffley in the garden spot but rory living dangerously once again just okay rory’s driving has been crooked sandra shaza’s driving has been superb that was a lovely shot to launch on the water and just have a feather of a cup with the wind off the left that’s an impressive t-shot a long way up there too he’s in the mayor’s office was right where you threw that golf ball over there on the lefth hand side and as we were previewing the 18th hole but matt every’s out on the golf course has been taking a good look for all of these guys and yeah matt what do you got we got another great break for the grand slam champ over here this is three boys that have easily easily could have found a water but stayed up roy and it’s decent lie too not the worst one in the world back pen plenty of green to work with definitely got away with one great look at the finishing hole this will be the finishing hole for these guys yeah yeah i think so right now it’s not a lot of breeze helping or hurting so that’s perfect i love it i’m coming down there’s a pole just left of it it’s caddy k don’t hit it right that’s the truth let’s go mid 90s right now where should it be it should be helping should be helping yeah definitely what you’re feeling is right though the top of the building here it’s got all the flags showing what you’re feeling kind of in from the left i don’t like the mid90s that should be helping but it’s definitely not it’s funneling back into their face right now i got scotty at 186 but you heard him and teddy say they’re going to play something in the 90s this should just be a solid seven iron here and take it where you can get it under the hole cam the wind is deceiving them a little bit they they struggled a little bit of that on 17 as well now rory once again finding the members break oh 164 here for rory ball above his feet obviously almost up on the the steel here but he’s got about 30 paces short of this pin to work with really just needs about a buck 40 out of it in the air the rest should take care of itself person like it oh and rightfully so just about two yardds from disaster off the tee and now up 20 ft from making a rare birdie the first one of the day would be here on 18 never easy to control when the bulls that far above your feet it’s his leg strength that helps him xander from the mayor’s office on 18 yeah no mud here for xander just inside of 150 says get right yeah good play had the yardage dialed in so we’ll see if he’s able to get back one of the strokes he had over on the double bogey on 16 great look at just a kind of stadium type feel around this closing hole of the back nine ken i mean you just that little river that over on that left hand side just just a subtle water feature that just adds so much to this closing hole it’s very intimidating off the tea the look of it cuz the water kind of lies slightly across you not quite sure exactly where it is at places and the bunker on the right you’ve just got to commit to the shot and as matt was saying the wind off the left doesn’t make it any easier although it’s just a light breeze it’s a tricky t- shot you got to make your mind up the scoring conditions have been awfully good for the players luke donald ryan fox and now jagger at four under keegan bradley says i’m not just going to be the captain could he be a playing captain right now if he continues to play this well could be three under as you see sam burns scotty shuffler said he played a practice round with sam burns and said this was absolutely incredible how well sam burns was putting and as far as the other side of the rder cup luke donald at four under it would be a captain’s match just love to see that i want to see keegan and luke paired together at some point on saturday that’d be great maybe even sunday we’ll get a little preview of what the rder cup will look like later this year but you see luke donald over at four under he’s getting ready to head to 15th which is a birdable hole and then going into the treacherous green mile as far as for keegan bradley a quick start opens up with that birdie on the par 510 great bird on 13 now anytime that you can start the green mile with par you’ll be ahead of the field most of the day matt ever doing a great job on the course doing the lord’s work following the top three players in the world right now i don’t know about that peter there’s some kind of work going on out here though scotty he’s got a tickler here boys down the hill and slide pretty good from his left to right but this is all about the speed pace strong tell you what that’s a couple i mean we scotty’s really made some headway you may remember last week of course how or a couple weeks ago how good he played the cj cup but speedwise he’s left a couple short he’s been a little aggressive with him hasn’t just quite got dialed in quite yet down grain downhill the flag is a flattish area only about two yards by two yards and if you topple past it it’s quick back of the green hey uh peter can you look up what time it’s supposed to get hot out here today yeah it would be um about a couple hours ago okay just checking yeah i mean ken come on when former florida gator complaining about the heat i mean you know it’s just yeah you got a good point i didn’t do summer school a lot there in gainesville though you want to talk about torture gainesville florida in the middle of the summer buddy all right big putt here for xander he needs to get this thing turned around it’s a good look pretty level overall far as speed as far as speed is concerned it might drift a little bit to his right and it did you know that made a good putt over on 17 outside of that is just there 16 really for the double as well as he’s driven it’s 38 you would not have figured a 38 for xander how strong he’s been and just really so consistent each and every year in these majors this will be crow quite the roar for the rory crowd assembled on 18 matt if he’s able to drop this one no doubt about it it is slammed around this 18th green right now boys will it turn no [Applause] so maroy will go out as they started on hole 10 one over 37 xander with 38 and now scotty which still quite amount of work here on the 18 uphill a little bit into the grain just got to keep a little bit of head of steam up and so 36 37 38 for the top three players in the world not sure if we thought we’d see that when we first showed up as we start looking at the first nine holes for top three players in the world as they will stride over from 18 back over to the first t box but head back to 16 ken i think we caught a little mud on this ball i think so you just watch the way it flies sort of ducks left very quickly and low tumbling flight all suggest there’s a bit of moisture or mud on the ball and into alcatraz well for 18 there was or 16 rather there was no escaping watch the back right foot for rory maroy lucky to even make contact and not get injured so after that didn’t get much easier for maroy making sure that he did not put it over in the water on the left the ball above his feet would play out to that area did not get up and down he’d make double and for xander similar situation after we saw scotty put the ball in the water xander a similar shot ken and a similar result it looked to me as if he was trying a little 3/4 cut shot look at it a boomerang shape diving to the left and he too found the water so it’s 666 for one 123 in the world the three greatest players and that’s what we see is even par for scotty one under or one over rather for rory maroy two for xander but all three of them as we showed you the double bogey on the 16th and it does not get any easier when the they make the turn cuz the first hole is the second hardest hole back in 2017 and it’s got even harder over the last couple years take us through the first ken a big big power for dog legging hard to the right sort of 60° almost right right around the corner you can cut the corner of the dog leg if you’re a long hitter and you play down to the green a bit like the 10th two has got a little terrace at the back of the green where it’s cut today it’s a demanding path for fairly generous capacious fairway bunkers down the left if you even if you go and there was every chance you better make it to the front of the green little subtle slopes what’s that word you use capacious could you i don’t i don’t know i’m not familiar with that word why okay i’m a simpler man ken you’re dealing with a couple of guys who went to school in the sec but we’re going to need you to tone it down a little bit i went to the school of golf didn’t do much schooling [Music] myself all right let’s see some scoring because we’ve seen it from couple of great players stride over to the first going to be an interesting watch this back nine holes is not of course you can press and force you’ve got to let the birdies come to you with these pin positions and the greens firming up i think we’ll probably see somebody throw up a it’s a par 71 so i imagine we’ll probably see a 66 or so out of the course today this morning is a little easier there’s not much breeze greens are perfect this afternoon the wind’s supposed to freshen up a tad as you can see from the flags behind there on the grand stand it’s just marginally more than the zepha sign behind the correct kenny i couldn’t agree more with uh you saying this isn’t a course you can really go out and chase birdies you do have to let it come to them and that’s a big reason these guys are at the top of the game and none of them have to force it it’s they all have the firepower to for it to come to them and look we play 72 holes for a reason rough start on the front nine for for some but plenty of time left scotty with the no doubter carving it just a little bit left to right starting to see a little bit more run out as the course dries out from the over 4 ines of rain that we’ve had dating back since last friday i mean we had some torrential downpours for moments on monday and tuesday now maroy one of seven fairways hit so far today seems like that one really cutting the corner knows that carry distance and make it two of eight that’s a long way down there that one 184 mph ball speed there’s angles that him bryson some others can take on this golf course that give them an advantage but alexander on the first [Applause] [Music] number one two three in the world all find the fairway here on the first and scotty shuffler doing his little shuffle as always as we continue our first round coverage of the pga championship at quail hollow [Music] there are 10 dog leaves on this golf course five go to the right and five go to the left and i’m standing at the corner of the dog leg and the tea is way back there and the green is in that direction at number two and this is a classic dog leg hole i’m at 300 yards and if you go 300 yards actually distance-wise it’s not too much of a judgment you just got to be accurate but as soon as you cut the corner of the dogley you’re only aiming at this sort of length of fairway let’s have a look and see what the advantage you have by hitting it a little bit longer 320 yards up there i was talking to rory maroy in december he’s in dubai and asked him how far he hit the ball off the tea he said 320 yards is quite a relatively easy carry but i’ve got to hit it solidly if you hit it at 320 yards you got from 160 135 yards left little bit helpful but he said “if i can open my shoulders i can get it out there at 340 yards.” as with someone like bryson dashambo and look at the advantage you get you’ve cut the corner from up here the greens were quite a capacious green and you’ve only left yourself 110 yards well you imagine it there are 10 dog legs you got to play them four times you say you got these holes 40 times and the advantage you’ve got if you can get it around the corner of the dog leg for the wheat is huge you got to find the fairway sometimes taking a chance pays off [Music] ken you’ve got traffic cones you got rubber duckies i mean you i mean how how big is your budget here describing this golf course oh they’re kind of espn and there’s an example of how if you really rocket it around the corner and it wasn’t maximum club head speed for rory how much difference it makes so hopefully 27 yards 173 yards for rory maroy look at him down the fairway there not fair is it scotty didn’t bump it either i mean you know he didn’t bunt it out there this was him giving it a go and or he said “see you.” let’s listen in 207 all the way back to the pin and if anything right now just a tick of a tick of wind back into his face maybe slightly off the left but all in all not much going on here for scotty be five to seven yards of downhill in this shot i think anything between the pin and that uh camera tower and the background will be aok okay for him great distance control for the number one player in the world and number one in strokes gain approach they know their distances awfully well now xander and austin have a little conversation just right of that one barely right yeah just a little just a little conversation here peter you know for the most part in this group there’s there’s not a ton of player caddy convo all things considered compared to the rest of professional golf and if you ask me it’s that’s kind of refreshing i i adore the accountability rory maroy has with his his golf game and really scotty and xander as well i know you know xander and austin are buddies that goes a long ways but there’s still a ton of accountability on his end 185 here for xander such good pacing on that swing and nora catches a break ball flirted with that right hand greenside bunker mroy absolutely just crushed his drive let’s see if that awoken the monster here for a man so comfortable at coil ken yeah so he’s one of these players if he gets just you know a couple of shots gets a bit of momentum gets a bit of confidence a bit of a spring in the step and suddenly he can come alive in no time at all and matt these guys tend to draft off each other too and playing well this should set up nicely for him scoring club as well wow just right out of it maroy just fanned that one straight over on the right hand side kind of a wild start on the second night for rory maroy we’ll get a look at his live coming up next [Music] go ahead wonderful to have you with us in charlotte north carolina i love quail hollow it’s thursday morning everyone starts at zero a blank slate empty scorecards dueling with the fullness of hopes and nerves and the possibility of magic it just takes four good days to change your life welcome to the pga championship [Music] now maroy the green side bunker at one all right yeah i don’t think he’s going to be crazy about that one guys that was that was a pretty easy shot he had there perfect lie green’s running away from slide the club underneath the ball just slip it underneath which he does and almost slides it too well so again we haven’t seen what just one birdie here on the first so far today back in 2017 it was the second hardest hole so it’s quite the gamut that these players have to navigate matt is you know you play 1617 18 the toughest three-hole stretch or finishing three-hole stretch in the majors in the last decade then you go to the second hardest hole on the course number one and two and three aren’t necessarily u friendly as well peter there’s nothing uh there’s nothing friendly about this golf course in general if you’re out of position it’ll just kick the crap out of you all day long and for a long day missing fairways not everyone’s roy maroy hit one fairway and go around that place like he did on his front nine tricky read here for xander initially it’s going to peel to his left but it should straighten out late also going to be a little slippery never really had a chance speedwise it’s downhill down gray and you can see how shiny it is i think he was perplexed you think that ball really thought it was going to go out the right just never had the speed serenity now ken i’ll tell you we need we need something good to have in here we need this putt for scotty to fall as i wouldn’t exactly describe uh this group right now as lequacious this is a pretty high tariff put as well to get everything just right something to get this crowd behind it and give these guys a little wind in their sales they find themselves back behind luke donald amongst three others at four under par so far today great look if it holds it oh it held its line and actually went right at the end that ball tracking about 65% of the way looked right on line but scotty will clean that up it’s gone very quiet out there hasn’t it everyone’s sitting in their pews waiting for something to happen you see it had it rolling when he puted from right off the green over in 15 that eagle but gave it right back over in 16 after finding the water in his approach maroy just looking to see where the grain is running because that gives you a good idea because the grain generally runs with the slope nearly all of it on this golf course if it looks dark it’s that means the grass is growing towards you and if it looks lighter it’s running away from you so this side looks dark to us so it’s a little down the grain that’s for certain but he’s not sure of the line i think scotties didn’t help him much if in doubt a little straighter a little firmer no all right oh way kind of the same similar situation it’s just tough to see that grain and it pushed it right for scotty and take a look here right right here boom grain just grabs it moves it to the right you were talking about ken they both misread it it must be difficult to see maroy with the first 937 but after just a bombing a drive a shocking about how poor that approach was for roaring he’s just near enough to jam it in if it was about six inches longer it’d be a bit of a worrier particularly after his playing partners on the same line and misread it all right so xander cleans that up as they will head on over to the second which is playing 452 yards a hard dog leg over on the left hand side you said there’s five what five dog leg left five dog legs right on this team this is one of the one that swings right to left this is the one i did that little piece on this is a horrible t-shot because the fairway tilts from left to right if rory can get it up here today particularly where the flag is a great birdie opportunity but it’s a tough drive and the pin on the right of the green it doesn’t look much but there’s a slope from the putting surface so although that looks like it’s about six yards it’s probably only about four and a half otherwise you’ll tiptoe into that drop off and it’s oh that’s like falling off a a cliff down there little tear in front of it awkward flag as i say it’s a such a tricky t-shirt hitting right across those trees just twice as many pogies today as we’ve seen birdies and just 61% of the players have hit the fairway to that point that you’re talking about is just really difficult actually the only thing that’s saving the players today is the fact of how wet it’s been because if you caught this on a very dry day with the way that these tour fairways especially championship fairways run out i guarantee you that would have dropped about 20% lower scotty a great look in the right side of our coverage of how big of a dog legging this is and he’s going straight off he likes it and rightfully so just short finding the fairway doesn’t quite get the same high trajectory xander so he’s got to a little careful he doesn’t clip one of those trees if he’s cutting the dog leg it’s interesting strategy wise he definitely doesn’t take the lines at a rory or bryson and some of these more aggressive players but he’s always just so consistent as soon as i say that announcer jinxed them over on the left hand side is it going to be enough to carry it oh wow that’s a quite the break trees are 90% air that’s perfect here comes rory where’s he going to go joy to watch i’ve watched him since he was first turned prone it’s always been fun that’s the mortal target line maroyy’s line might be slightly different oh no all right he may have cooked that one through the fairway oh our cameraman great positioning for him as you see the lie but question is what the leave is going to look like for rory moy struggling right now amongst all three of the top players in the world keep your head on a swivel when you’re working at the pga championship you never know and rory maroy is going to fire one right at you we’ll see what that line looks like when we return first round coverage of the feature groups pj championship [Music] welcome back to feature group coverage top three players in the world struggling through 10 holes so far scotty sheffler at even par rory and xander both two over peter burns ken brown matt every out on the golf course as turned into a beautiful day after couple days of rain leading into this pga championship as we take a look at the par4 second hole the 11th for the players as roy moorey driving it through the fairway scotty getting a break as well but xander schoffley taking full advantage of the trees being 90% air cutting it the farthest drive of the day 107 that’ll probably just be a full sand wedge for xander when it’s his turn you know matt there’s the announcer jinx i’m going to go the opposite here i i think these guys are about to go on a little bit of a heater especially i think scotty this is one of these we’re going to put it within 12 feet or so okay well i’m here for it i hope it happens need some kind of boost that’s for sure by the way we we sit in the nice airond conditioned studios here calling this me and ken going outside it’s getting a little toasty out there for every a little it’s been like this from the rip fellas i hate to hear that it’s all right cut out for it ken you talked about this course this wind starting to freshen up just a touch as it gets a little bit closer to midday yes sir well really good angle here for scotty coming out of this first cut pin pretty much in the center of the green right’s a big no no here but all in all this has got to be a scoring opportunity for sheffler just outside of 150 yards i’m with you peter look for this one to be close 155 from scotty from that first cut steering not bad see we need to we need the universe to manifest it that’s what we needed we needed the vibes to get a little bit higher gotti delivering that just knowing exactly what that just cut was going to do now mory matt yeah playing quick uh pretty good lie but he’s got some tree issues got to go low and judge the bounce maybe land this 30 yards short or a couple feet settle not too bad it’s a good play didn’t give him any kind of a look at birdie after what i think he would deem to probably about a c++ t-shot meanwhile a+ positioning matt for xander schoffley as we look at this and austin got to be looking right at just touch over 100 yards i would imagine yeah this is uh as good as it gets here for xander tell you what boys the best feeling in golf is when you hit a slight pull and you get away with it because it it’s got that extra heat on it and that’s exactly what happened for xander here most definitely tugged that about 10 yards but got away with it and it’s turning this brutal par4 second into a you know a relatively easy approach shot just outside of 100 yards here i think you’d be disappointed if you didn’t walk away with a three doesn’t want to hit it too hard such a long way up here spin it too much [Applause] and just like you talked about that was the danger look at this catching that so he’ll do scotty sheffller a little bit of a favor as he spun that one back give him a line and world number one scotty sheffler knows the joy of winning but also mindful of making sure that winning isn’t the only thing on his mind winning golf tournaments is great but at the end of the day that’s not what life’s about i think with the way that i’m wired as a hyperco competitive person you separate them but at the same time they’re intertwined because um when i’m out there i feel like what i need to do is compete and play as hard as i can when i’m out practicing at home i’m preparing and doing everything i can because i feel like i’ve been given a a gift to play golf but at the end of the day the golf tournament’s over you know you take your hat off shake hands and you move on and so my faith is such an important part of my golf game because it’s not only important part of my life but it’s what helps me kind of realize that it’s not that big of a deal you know i’m called to compete i’m not called to go win every single golf tournament do i want to win every single golf tournament of course but at the end of the day that that’s not what’s going to satisfy my soul great insight on one of the most unbalanced piece of footwork is maybe the most balanced player on tour right now ken brooks yes he’s very very much under control of everything and lovely attitude i’ve spoken to randy smith who’s his coach and one of his bits of advice this week and he’s a bit of a sage randy be comfortable in this environment this week just be yourself and feel at home feeling at home with mark brooks my former analyst for the last couple years i saw mark this morning right when i was crossing over that’d be i mean between you and mark brooks that’d be pretty powerful onetwo punch for those two as we see rory getting a little bit of a look looks a bit shiny down there matt it’s shiny and this is one of the one of if not the quickest putts on the golf course pin high left here at the second you know peter i know you’re a big fan of that mark brooks i am too but just want to say i think we got a a nice little upgrade today this kenny brown is an absolute legend he’s been carrying me for about four years in these broadcasts now now maroy really got to be careful with the speed here boys just look how soft this is taking that the right hand side that’s a good play because kenny’s got to be frustrated with the way that this has started so excited about unlocking what he did over at augusta coming back to almost his home away from home you kind of think you want to chase some things early but it’s a good example of staying within himself giving himself a birdie putt just missing too many fairways four on the left three on the right so it’s a sort of not even a pattern i mean matt every this ball just zip by pull the string yeah this is a bummer here for for xander was doing some dancing for a second but now he’s got uh he’s got one he’s got to give a healthy rap to to get it there not a lot of movement in this it’s a long one but it wouldn’t shock me if it gives it a scare nice by my count the fourth putt that he has just missed so far today so speed’s been pretty good for [Applause] xander just been rock solid top 20 and 12 straight majors the only player to do that top 10 in five straight majors we’ll have some work all right peter let’s see if all that uh manifested you did back in the in the fairway works here i feel it i’ve already written down three on the scorecard for scotty i’m already starting to scout hole three okay i saw what you ate for breakfast this morning that could be gas you’re feeling but we’ll see we’ll see put some hot sauce in the bacon we were rolling see if this one rolls for scotty what’ i tell you never a doubt my man you are you not entertained scotty draws a circle on par for second so maybe that gives a little juice to this group getting a little sleepy since hole 15 this was a no doubter that’s what we come to expect from a man is playing his eighth straight major as the number one player in the world we stride to the third ken walk us through it oh it’s absolutely dead straight this hole don’t get tangled up with the left rough otherwise you get parked behind the tree ideally little right of center particularly where the flag is cut today in this left corner slightly elevated green that tips the ball off on all edges at the second 18 on sorry 24 on seven from the left is flag you just see on a little area five above the little tier in the green and about three behind it and there’s a little back slope so okay but you got to find the fairway in the left rough is oh you you struggle if you get in there only three birdies so far today on this 488 yd par fours one of the tougher fairways to hit matt it’s just 44% of the players so far early in this first round have found the short stuff yeah peter all you can eat here at the third just straight away one of the narrower fairways on this golf course starts to pinch in at about three bills out there [Music] shapes it perfectly and here comes the number one player in the world scotty sheffller the red digits so funny guys like the leadup to majors how we we put all this this prep work in and talk about all the studs that are going to play well around this track and how it only fits a certain type of player and then we got luke donald in the lead alex norin at five under mhm oh wow [Applause] spectator said it best oh wow i’m telling you oh wow is right he has been uh noticeably the longest guy in this group today seen that a couple times now mroy been struggling with the driver accuracy he’s leaning just a little bit trying to catch the right side of that fairway no another fairway miss that’s the story of maroyy’s round so far as scotty sheffler finding the fairway as xander as well as top three players in the world navigating the first round of the pga championship here at quail hollow [Music] welcome back to first round coverage of the pga championship over here at quell hollow remember you can hit the green the pga championship espn bet start off the tournament $100 in bonus bets when you make your first $10 wager download the espn bet app and sign up with promo code birdie to get started today we welcome you back into our feature group coverage of the number one number two and number three player in the world i’m peter burns joined alongside fivetime rider cuper ken brown and twotime pj tour winner matt every out on the golf course and just how matt talked about we all projected ryan fox and alex noran to be ahead of the field right from the jump right ken yeah well that wasn’t expected i saw alex and spoke to him yesterday alex norin on the practice ground he’s been off for a while got a bad injury i think he had about six weeks off and just coming back but he looked to be striping the ball well and he was in great spirit so a lovely start for him as we see brian fox pacing the field is opened up over on the back nine tell you what going par par on 161 17 18 aka the green mile will bring a lot of smiles to his face as birdies in two of the last three coming into his final hole hole number nine well on his way to be the first round leader for now as the second wave of tea times will start in just a little bit over an hour or so see alex norin having quite the day as well a birdie on the first which was the second hardest hole in the 2017 pga championship that’s a great start now matt looks like scotty’s in between two clubs coming off the birdie on number two he’s got two in his hand at the moment just trying to figure out this wind direction it’s a big piece of property this this quail hollow and there’s a ton of movement around it kind of funnels through these big pines and and oaks they have out here and it’s just a recipe for for it to swirl you don’t need much you really don’t you need like five to 10 for it to to give you fits at the moment it’s quartering down off the left and just 188 yards for scotty this could be a big eight iron definitely a scoring club for him lower trajectory for scotty drawing it in just miscalculated feel a little bit of help right now yeah i’m getting help so scotty will have to deal with that what shot are you going on 605 perfect xander was about to pull the trigger also hey hold on let’s meeting of the minds i think he wanted to get in there quick because he likes likes the wind direction at the moment and there’s always a potential for it to bounce around a little bit and the club not fit the shot as well as it once did a few seconds earlier some safe play for xander from maroy continuing to have some issues off the tea matt we got problems here big tree in his way he’s got to go low decent lie but uh kind of hairy if you ask me really good guys really good really good look at this [Applause] off for good i think it might just clip the branch as it goes through just keep your eye on it a very tricky shot to get it low and under the tree he just just tiptoes up you see i think it just gives it a little twig on the way through oh man yeah it was lucky caught a thin limb yeah got a very thin limb but okay well played so scotty will have an opportunity to get to two under one of the reasons why he’s been playing well so far this season is the first year he’s been under in the top 50 in strokes gain in putting natalie sheen are teaching professional for the pelican gives us a little breakdown of scotty stroke absolutely and he exactly right has never finished the year inside the top 50 in stroke ske putting currently 19th in strokes gain putting this year so he is putting better and one of the things that i love and appreciate about scotty and how he works on his game is he cares so much about the fundamentals so what i saw him doing on the putting green the other day very simple he was using a putting mirror and he had a bigger one just like i’ve got set up here which can check your setup but you can also see your shoulder alignment and on a short putt like this you can make sure that your alignment is perfect and that you are hitting the ball online so before he goes out and plays he hits some putts on here checks his setup sees the ball going in the hole over and over again to build confidence and just make sure he’s doing the simple things really well back to you guys great insight from natalie for the pj of america coaching center powered by t-mobile remember t-mobile for business exclusive 5g solutions partner and absolutely spot on that’s exactly right get your fundamentals right and uh you’re on your way and this is what these players are doing all the time see if scotty can have the same amount of success that he found that natalie pointed out on the last hole this was sweet i thought he might miss it on the left cuz his playing partners he hit his fraction to the left and it went left right into the heart of the hole well played second shot was delightfully played out of that first cut of rough this is matt really a good example of how you can have about nine different pin placements on this green however you want to set this up just to i mean it’s this this square footage wise on number three is monstrous yes it is it’s the beauty of the design guys i got to be honest i’m a i’m a little disappointed i didn’t bring out a pencil today on the course need to write down all these tips natalie’s given haven’t been playing a lot of golf these days she was great she’s over at the pelican golf club i was going to ask that too but does a lesson come with a round of golf over there i know it’s tough to get on that track we’re going have to find that out next time we kick it to natalie we were there and saw the south carolina gamecocks win the sec women’s golf championships a couple weeks ago over there now sec texas longhorn remember scotty shuffler got a saddle little meat left on that bone a little bit these downhill putts starting to run out as the day moves on some are some are sneakier than others this stretch here though boys right off the rip i know this is our 10th 11th and 12th holes but boy the start here at quail hollow one two and three i mean you’d be hardressed to find a a tougher opening stretch of holes in anywhere in golf yeah the opening stretch and the closing stretch been treacherous for these players so far today now xander try to get one back tracking take a look at just how severe that stroke was played the first three 444 which is always quite tidy on this nine couple over as well as he’s driven he hasn’t scored as well as he ought to have done i suppose he had that one bit of bad luck at the 16th yeah there’s a little mud probably on the ball on the 16th has really just changed the complexion of this round finds himself one over it’s been quite the opposite for rory boys two or two fairways so far and let me tell you pretty much every fairway he’s missed he’s drawn a great lie i mean even here to to be able to keep that ball low this is a normal major major championship lie out of out of the primary cut there’s no way he would have been able to keep that ball low but it was clean he can get to the back of it and he’s taking advantage of some of these breaks you know six or uh 15 and 18 those were massive breaks ball staying out of the water he’s played those holes one under par and looking to take advantage of another one here at the third to steal one just a touch too much pace might have caught a little bit more of that borrow one more look at it catches it looked like it was tracking a little bit softer ken i think it would have i think so too yes found away natalie sheen gave us a kind of a great look at that drill that scotty was using with the mirror just to make sure those shoulders are square the stroke is square and the club face was not pulls it a little left the iron play has not been as sharp as we’ve seen from a man that has really redefined iron play over the last three or four seasons here on tour rory cleaned us up take one more look at his scorecard as he’ll stride over to the par three fourth but head was still the stroke looked maybe a little quick but found its way on the left hand side and ken when you were playing did you find yourself kind of drafting off how everybody else was playing and if guys were going low or if guys are kind of just stuck in neutral yeah it certainly helps if everyone’s going well i think drags you along and you think well i should be doing this as well can happen the opposite sometimes people just struggle a fraction there’s where they all are 22nd for scotty we’ll head on out to the par three fourth playing right at 186 look at where that pin is today yes shortage hole fortunately for rory he won’t need his driver it’s quite difficult to pick the wind it’s always tricky anyway but today have been a difficult day to pick the breeze it’s a light breeze and it just moves around the trees and you can’t feel it and where that flag is cut you’ve just got to be just right but it is a relatively easy hole oh very easy hole today and that pin placement all albe it tucked to that left hand side those players will probably try to bring it in right to left hold up one second i don’t think it changes boy matt that’s that’s twice that xander tried to get into a shot i don’t see how this is going to come short is it wind problems challenge that you know yeah i just felt that way for it’s got to be just switching just a little bit on him and austin obviously doesn’t feel comfortable and steps in which clearly he’s allowed to do cuz xander seems a okay with it tough pin today here at the fourth fellas it’s caught on a bit of a green change anything past it runs away towards the back of the green anything short runs towards the tea go hard go hard this thing is to the moon just to go hard just a little bit more as you can see there’s a little bit of a hump you see the shading of the grain right about halfway through that camera shot we just had all right rory time to make a little charge it’s out here for sure scoring conditions ideal all things considered got to look a pretty good one there from xander you take anything inside his ball whoa turn bit of a pitch out there peter yeah that was just seems to be just a touch off kenny that’s kind of his miss sometimes isn’t it that it kind of underneath run out in front of it that’s exactly we’re just seeing as we just drops it down i think he was just trying to draw it in there but a little bit too much into our angle of attack now matt the number one player in strokes gained an approach needs it he does i spent most of my time on the range this morning watching scotty warm up and what an absolute treat i know it’s the driving range and most guys are pretty good on it but just a a clinic from start to finish good play uphill putt back into read the numbers here as we continue our feature group coverage the pj championship [Music] yeah it’s embarrassing really as well nobody has it covered better when it comes to the pj championship than us over at espn plus kepka fowler lowry of course our group we got mickelson fleetwood day rom patrick kentlay and matt fitzpatrick he’s playing extremely well he’s three under and if you want the green mile you can get that on the feature groups as well 16 17 and 18 the aka green mile which we saw all of our players in our group the number one number two number three players in the world go double double double on 16 here on the fourth is just a good look of every shot that’s been played so far today 31 feet has been on average right now xander and shuffler inside of that 12 birdies that’s the little red marks got a couple of bogeies and guys missing it over on that left hand side yeah it’s noticeable that you got to be close range to make the birdies very few long putts are holding this golf course because the flags are cut in the corners you’ve always got a ridge to come over if you’re not in the right spot just turned out to be a perfect week we would not have thought that on monday and tuesday as it was just some downpours out here at coil but a great job by the crew to get it ready to go the subair system on the greens going to make this one probably a pretty fast putt matt every it is it’s one he’s got to pay attention to that’s for sure and uh i’ll say this thank god they have that subair here because it would be just a a dart fest if they didn’t back half of this rory’s got to keep his eyes on anything with pace it’s going to run out past the hole not a lot of movement though overall see the difference and now goes back into the green slows down great pace from rory still trying to find something to latch on to good angle to see it from it was well judged up the hill and down the other side shiny at the cup difficult to knock that to 3 and 1/2 ft by so maroy taps that in just again that double on 16 wayward where t-shot over on one is unorylike here at quail now xander kind of up the hill and down the hill you’re mad or a little bit and i know it’d be a reach but it would be really nice for one of these these 30footers to fall for xander he’s been close so far this one tracking he’s got enough speed oh my goodness it’s been all around it opened up with that birdie and i’m thinking oh here we go this is what xander does it was all downhill from that little crest there for the last five feet this is certainly the most makeable one of the three first of all it’s closest and it’s not got a hump to come over yeah i’m spot on there again it’s also slightly uphill go ahead and be be aggressive with this one they virtually ga started giving these to scotty at the cj cup how well he puted that week good pace no i think that was going to be right all the way i think the only reason why that one hit the lip is because he did have such an aggressive pace on it i was here on sunday night i arrived into town and i thought it’s it’s going to be a dry evening i’m going to have to go around the golf course in case it rains on monday and tuesday which it did mhm and there were about two people out on the course three people two of them were club pros and the other person was scotty out there with his caddy working a lot on his chippings he was hitting lots of chips around the green so he was here early preparing you know what’s interesting ken is scotty was asked well because of the weather and the disruption and guys not being able to get in traditional practice rounds like a you know monday and tuesday did that affect you and true to form with scotty he just says “not really just out here we’ve played this golf course before they feel familiar with it there’s a lot of different geometry shapes on that scorecard for scotty not as many circles as we’re normally used to seeing for the number one player in the world and well this leaderboard trying to nestle in at that four under spot ryan fox already in with a prince impressive first round alex smallley never in the field as of late with seahith not being able to make it so at four under again the eagle on seven birdie on eight spender quite a run and maybe the most impressive part about that ken one under on the green mile that is impressive 26 putts is pretty good as well the big greens here is easy to three putt now and again walk us through number five this 449 yd par4 dog leg right bunkers left and right a fairway that’s pretty soft and then you turn hard to the right to this green that sits across you slightly and they certainly made this tricky today where that flag is cut it looks fairly tender when you look from here but the slope on the right really takes the ball away from the cut little ridge to come up if you go beyond the flag it’s leaves you a very quick putt shoffley been driving the ball fairly well so far today and as soon as i say that misses a fairway dynamite drop in there burns that seem to nestle in down the right side pin on the right that’s a not a good spot to be better missing left than right on this hole it’s a great look at how wide this fairway is in fact one of the 22 of the 30 players have gone through so far some about 74% of the players had hit that fairway you see maroy just really struggling with the driver today has only hit two fairways this one will miss it as well is it miss five on the left and four on the right is either sort of the two-way miss is never a good thing in golf you know your swing’s not in the groove if you’re missing it both ways and that was interesting it’s it was almost a i just don’t have it today with the driver type reaction after he hit it he kind of just yep light the candle scotty going to be challenging that bunker over on that right hand side it appears it found it buckle up boys we’re going to have to figure out what the lies are going to be matt ever going to have to go coast to coast when we return here with the first round coverage of the pj championship at quo hollow it’s the pga championship a tournament where legends and long shots both have shine can it be yes you’re not going to get better than the pga championship i don’t believe it oh had that one the pga championship war to be a part of that history is the greatest feeling as a professional golfer that you can imagine you will join the most exclusive fraternity to win would be a lifelong dream come true the pga championship coverage continues today we’ve got some great feature group coverage coming up in the afternoon justin thomas finding his way in the w maker here in 2017 dustin johnson kyler morawa over at 114 that’ll be over on espn plus the fast play of louvik hoberg and patrick reed and jordan speed right after them at 125 and we continue tom kim windam clark bedki matsyama over at 136 again remember we go four of our featured groups victor havlin gary wooden and bryson d shambo who is going to be interesting to see if he can have a little bit more success with the driver than rory maroy has had so far today as rory once again missing the fairways only hit two fairways so far today scotty sheffller finding that right side bunker as well and xander missing it this par4 fifth you hear the dramatic music and it’s a dramatic hole to say the least matt ever out on the golf course and matt you had to choose your own adventure who you’re going to follow on this one oh d none of the above it’s uh look we got a couple of hairy lies out of out of these bunkers both of the balls found their way to the bottom but the rakes here the tongs on them are are spread apart fairly wide and this ball’s kind of nestled down a little bit for for scotty right around 150 yards but clean contacts what this is going to be all about maybe a touch heavy yeah does that ball catch the front bunker yeah that thing uh hit about two inches below the lip guys and ran all the way back down came out of the the plug lie though which just looked just sounded just a touch maybe like it got a little bit fat on it as you see it right there you’re right another three inches in that ball probably nestles about 12 feet so some work left for scotty now rory maroy right from the middle of this bunker trying to kind of reset himself mentally it looks like he’s just been ken just really struggling with the driver so far today yeah it’s the key factor his great strength and if he’s struggling with it he’s back with the boys with the mere mortals the way he’s driving it well this lie worse than scotty’s also nestled down he’s got a better angle but be doing really well just to get this on the putting surface sounded just a touch chunky as well no that gets it nice play for maroy as you see the crowd looking for a reason to applaud they get it if this was a slightly city down lie he just clipped it off the top of his hand a fraction clean but got it to grips a superb shot really was quality quality plus we take one more look straight that left arm remains just in a not wasting any time does xander schoffley chunky lie huster get after it closer sending this thing just sky [Applause] high well we saw two of the best players in the world doing what a lot of average golfers do find a fairway bunker natalie sheen is over in our pj of america coaching center powered by t-mobile a little bit on how to hit those shots sally yeah we’re seeing a lot of fairway bunker shots today from quite a few players but things i’m most impressed by with these guys who are the best in the world is their low point control what you need to have when you have a fairway bunker shot i see too many players putting the ball too far back in their stance who are amateurs and really struggling with catching too much sand because we’re trying to hit down too much or hit like a greenside bunker shot so what i want you to do one of my favorite feelings is to just put the ball actually a little more forward in your stance grip down a little bit on that club put a little pressure on that front foot and actually picture that you are hitting up on the ball to really make sure that you make ball first contact and don’t catch any sand between the club and the ball and you can get really nice clean contact every single time just like the best players in the world back to you guys well said by natalie and now straight to scotty shuffler that’s awfully handy you know guys i just want to touch on rory’s bunker shot there that was a very bad lie and when i walked by it i mean the good lies in my career i felt like i fatted every time i walked by that thing i was like there’s no chance there’s no chance and he made it look so routine there i was actually going to ask you guys uh for our next tip to be about a fairway bunker shot and our producer read our mind there we’ll send you the bill for natalie for the week fair enough they’re over at that pga of america coaching center which is a fantastic yep just compound that they have right by the headquarters that’s correct all dark is grain hunting and checking the the slope as well as where the grain is growing yeah overall ken it’s it’s pretty consistent throughout the putt here though it’s it’s back down the hill and it’s going to be working to his right obviously quick overall but xander just hasn’t had a ton of of good looks today this by no means is is one here really just looking to cozy this one up and not have to mark the next one shoffley’s been flirting with it all day long make percentage here is probably about what 8% if that go pace had been pretty decent up to that one but again you know ken you talked about grain hunting that’s another little part of these huge greens where you can have maybe one or two different breaks two or three different elevation changes but also it’s the change in which way that grain moves on these greens that’s why it’s so important to find the fairways because you can’t get at these flags from the rough and then you’re always a long way away or i’ve got a tricky chip the key is finding the fairways this would be some birdie as you talked about it the chances of making birdie from where maroy’s lie were probably weren’t too high according to espn bad no not at all that’s a good point there peter this is a uh a slider from right to left but most definitely makeable keep your head keep your head oh my goodness rory can’t believe it yeah that’s his third pretty good lip out today again your read even the kind of read from the green book that we had that i think it’s why it befuddled more who thought it was going to go left to right and it just held its line what a timeout you guys got green books in there can’t confirm nor deny that sir [Applause] look at this looks like it’s going to stay low and all of a sudden holds its line rory cannot believe it just looking for something to jump start this round meanwhile scotty what do you see here matt let’s see if y’s got anything probably not playing outside of the hole here ken beautifully done if you’re a youngster taking up the game just watch his setup procedure he does it so well it’s very easy does it time and time again exactly the same thing and it gets you in the right position don’t he never rushes it’s always done in a nice pedestrian way scotty sheffller and he finds himself even though it feels like a frustrating round for scotty tied for 22nd even for his round so still within decent striking distance for the number one player in the world the number three player in the world desperately needs this to fall ken he’s hold okay so far some of his putts have lacked a little bit of pace head still no peeking his head’s always so still when he putts a no doubter yeah they got seven and eight to come they’re two birdie opportunities you may even get the odd eagle you talked about it ken just the idea of his setup as we await these guys there’ll be a a little bit of a a wait over on seven but what about that setup in that approach here’s here’s a classic example he’s picking his line he knows exactly where he’s going to hit it i’m going to hit it inside left at medium pace club behind the ball nice light grip look at the cup time and time again little adjustment to his putting stroke and she’s on her way when i was a youngster i went down to see henry cotton who won the open three times we used to go to panina in jender in february to give me a few lessons and uh he said “you got to get a setup routine.” and i spent three months working on the same thing same thing same thing over and over again until you don’t even know you’re doing it you don’t even think about it but it’s it’s an important factor particularly on pressure putts as you look at the six looks innocuous that pin position but it ain’t it’s the bluff at the front of the green it’s a sort of greedy bluff not a valley of sin but it gathers the ball up so you got to carry it beyond that you’re going to get a hard bounce and you’re generally going to go past the flag to get close to this flag you’ve got to be a bit special it’s a bit of coin flip for the players that have played so far today just 48% of them hitting the green it’s really tough but it’s long as well see just all of these guys there’s just not really that many not many places to pick and choose your spot to you can go just give it the green light special there’s always a stick in the tail matt any breeze about i wish nothing out here boys uh maybe maybe just a breath into their face right now but 241 it’s a long ways home here at the six oh i see like he’s taking i don’t see that much hurt allowed to use the lasers this week one of these with it would be ideal right anyway you know what i’m saying i got i got it sits like sander got the discovery land company’s sponsorship which is one of the better ones to get they’ve got some fantastic spots left but it’s definitely a little bit up there yeah peter i’m going to go ahead and say that’s the best one you get that’s pretty good you get you get a private jet company you get listen they’re paying for those private jet companies they’re just getting extra hours added on for putting it on the bag but these they’re discovery land 241 here for xander got an iron in hand needs all of it win gosh you’re in regulation which is better than half of the field so far today that was four iron from sander this is also a four iron from rory shot does play downhill about 10 yards but at the moment we do have some breeze back into their face which probably neutral neutralizes that out got to hold on that wind starting to take it out settle settle all right at least there’s a little space in between that first cut pitching it back in to the breeze just a great look at the crowd tough to get a ticket this week in charlotte for the pj championship coming into town ball was left right from the jump well when you have a 250 yard par three chances are maybe one of them were going to hit the green little short game clinic coming up from a couple of the best players in the world as we continue our first round coverage of the bga championship at quill hollow [Music] the greens are green the fairways are green the jacket for a few of them is green the mile is green 16 17 and 18 at coil hollow the money they win for hitting a tiny white ball is green the losers will be green with envy and the winners will leave the green expanse of grass behind the gates of this place reflecting in the mirrored sterling silver of a trophy strapped into the front seat like a friend looking down onto the sixth green and the awkward pin position and the wind picking up let’s have a look and see who’s done what there we are that gives you an idea blues are the ps reds are the birdies you can see there’s only been two of those and there’s been a few bogeies which are in gray a lot of people got gobbled up there see the all the balls at the front of the green they’ve pitched into the little bluff and they all run into the same spot and you they’ve done pretty well to only have three drop strokes from there so we did see some gray colored golf balls when we show that shot chart that means a bogey from the same areas that we saw scotty and rory’s ball end up matt every’s out of the golf course with scotty what do you see matt yeah well let’s let’s settle down this could have been club club pros over there not the best in the world boys uh this is very straightforward for scotty sheffler plenty of green to work with going to work to his ride as it loses speed uhhuh awfully good that scrambling will work for the number one player in the world not a lot of wrist action just sort of stiff action lets the club slide under the ball crisp strike he really is a delightful chipper this is what he was working on sunday glad you brought that up you said that he was over here sunday working on the short game he went from fifth around the green in 2223 17th in strokes gained last year and is at 95 so far this season so trying to get dialed in on that here’s maroy from a very tight lie matt tricky shot too he’s got a sprinkler head he’s got a dodge it’s right where he needs to land this ball just carries it over it all in all pretty nicely done boys that was judgment that must have tiptoed over that sprinkle head by nowhere 8 in if he hits it in there it can go anywhere that gives him probably a visual representation look at where that you can just see on the top of the hill there just got to get it over that watch how close it goes oh well done made a tricky shot but pretty darn easy there trickiest shot so xander trying to find some success and we talked earlier about you know scotty trying to dial in around the green stroked gain around the green for xander has been 135 on tour putting wise though he was top 15 the last two seasons coming in at 140th so far this season had an opportunity to call his first round 62 in route to his wire-to-wire victory last year and everything looked like a bucket for him needs to pour one in get one back here in the sixth could there be another two they only had two so far low and right all the way all about the same distance away aren’t they all about a yard away not sure who to put first they’ve had a faithful gallery today haven’t they think they’re all waiting for some fireworks but haven’t seen a whole heck of a lot from this group albeit the we did see a chip in for scotty for birdie earlier in the round and from off the green made it eagle from the fringe over on 15 but since then it’s been a lot of hold on and hope mroy paul looks like it’s going to dive a little bit to his left it’s a great look from our camera crew okay so found some even water for rory but still finds himself seven off the lead steven joerger’s 500 through 15 we can just watch how still xander’s head is doesn’t move makes it easy eight straight pars for xander since finding that double bogey on 16 tap in for scotty and this crew will play the six at par par which is quarter stroke better than the field they’ll take it but the story really today is top three players in the world none of them under par one of the reasons why many thought including the oddsmakers over at espn bet that rory mackoy’ have a great week was because of the driver that has not been the case right from the jump as they teed off on hole 11 we saw some struggles for mr m maroy lefts and rights haven’t we had not just a consistent miss this was at the 15s and this was the break of all breaks trying to cut across the corner of the dog leg yes two lovely soft bounces otherwise it’d have been in the water oh that hung up then over on the 16th he knew it right from the jump this thing was headed out left and it led to really an interesting lie he had back foots ends up slipping and ends up making a double then on the 18th this was another great break and he had a good break on 15th 16th and 18th t this is eight times out of 10 was going to finish in the little stream but didn’t and he made a pass from there they’ve been lefts and rights and this one was a cutter the second trying to hit a bit of a draw and slid into the right hand rough he said in his interview that if he drives well at this golf course he’s got a big advantage but if he don’t it’s always going to be a struggle the fewest fairways he’s ever hitting around and he’s played many of them here at quil hollow is three did that in 2012 in route to a 70 he also only hit three fairways back in 21 in the last round where he shot 68 so he can navigate it around here but needs something to kind of spark it for all of these players the only two fairways so far has been found by maroy two for 11 i know that feeling now a couple of birdie chances coming up the seventh and the eighth seventh is a reachable par five the eighth is a actually drivable par four so finishing just uh right through here on the seventh as we wait for these guys is that water over on that right hand side just a really picturesque oh it’s a magnificent hole you can see it all from the tea bunkers down the left water very much in play it’s quite a narrow fairway then the second shot well to half island green it’s the shortest par five6 yds and it plays downhill the flag today cut on this little high ledge on the left side which isn’t very wide it also tips off on the right and the left so there’s about three places left and about five paces uh on the other side a tight little pin if you find the fairway you have a chance to get one reasonably near the cup xander’s driven darn well this week set up for these little cup shots so far full left trying to get that back over on the right hand side see it guys good look for the fans and telling me these things are so cut in a square type situation and you’re saying jack nicholas used to like a little different t boxes right yeah you like to have a round tea box and i i never like the straight path it kind of gives you a an aim line whereas some of the old courses in scotland they used to snake about just a fraction right rory there’s not much you need to hit the fairway here in a bit of trouble needs to make a move right now this is the moment good job that’s the first time in forever see his ball speed he’s taken his ball speed down to 178 so hit that a little more i’d say 80% rather than the full thresher so finally we did it that was an important one to have as he wants to get back something on the field now scotty looks like no doubter [Applause] there right behind rory maroy but right in the garden spot so we should see some fireworks when we return first round coverage of the feature group at the pga championship [Music] two years ago i circled quail hollow on the calendar when i realized that a pj was going to be played there i used to live there two of my kids were born in charlotte brian lennahan for par and he is going back to charlotte north carolina i number one i love coil hollow the golf course i’ve played it one time i played on a 45°ree day one day in charlotte with my dad i absolutely love the course people have asked me you know what’s your favorite course and i would i would probably put that top five or 10 that i’ve ever played i’ve been very fortunate enough to play a lot of great courses and everything but quail would definitely be up there and then to play it in the tournament conditions and tournament atmosphere i mean it’s incredible awesome to see the corbridge team the corbridgeidge financial team of pros getting an opportunity to play with some of the best in the world bob sards starting his day of course michael block saw him he’ll be taking off a little bit later this afternoon [Music] we get one of the best fields in all of professional golf this week over at quail hollow so remember just michael block was one of those players over in the 2023 pga championship at oakill was one of the 20 club professionals won low pro and also had that very memorable hole in one on hole 15 in that final round just slam dunked it in and finished tied for 15 so got himself into last year’s and now in this field as well as he qualified for it it’s a conversation i’d like to hear between rory maroy and scotty sheffler and knowing these two there’s no telling rory’s one of these renaissance men that can kind of guess he can talk about anything i first met rory when he was 14 darren clark had brought him to the forest of arden for his birthday party to come and watch the golf and someone said “you better go and interview this new star.” he had his little curly hair and his tightless hat on oh yeah he was very shy he sort of hid behind the tree and darren said “come on.” so i had a few words with him and he spoke as he does now very nicely but timidly so that was a nice i’ve seen him go then when he turned pro which was 2008 september chubby chand who was his manager said “look i’d like you to would you play a hole with him?” there is there’s his little curly hair yeah would you play a hole hole with him as a as first hole as a pro so i went out and played the first hole as a pro with him we played the sixth hole at the belfry the bbc sort of covered it and that was uh back in 2008 i followed his career with a great deal of interest and it’s well he’s a grand slam winner i mean grand slam he wouldn’t i wish we had the interview that we did he wouldn’t have mentioned the grand slam he was more worried about getting his card which he did very easily in spectacular manner at st andrews i remember him he was right on the cusp of keeping his card uh he was got to the road hole and you think if he just can finish par and he hit his second shot on the old course the bunker was the pin was right behind the road hole bunker and i thought he’s not going to be a nutcase and go straight at it he just went it were right up in the air to about six feet and i thought this boy’s got some game and it’s been like that ever since clearly that roller coaster of emotions just a couple of weeks ago over at augusta was one that was emotional for not only him but for so many that have just kind of followed his career as following his t-shot as he took a of a breath of fresh air to find the shorts shuffler in good spot as well too matt every out on the golf course xander schoffley on that left hand side matt what do you see from these guys well xander doesn’t have a ton over here just chase it down as as far as he can leave yourself a nice number for a wedge beautiful look from scotty just 220 yards out matt yep scotty’s going to give it a go here first as you mentioned 220 and a little bit of a breeze in and off the right obviously left is better than than right here this is the right distance get up okay we’ll see another chip in from mr sheffller we’ve already seen two shots hold from off the green that’s a pretty fighting good chance at number three peter left is better than right but straight out it works too in case you were wondering that dog will hunt okay it’s a great look at how soft it is and like matt was talking about not much of an angle for xander no there’s there’s really not but it’s it’s a good lie i mean he can chase this down as oh far as he wants to i mean he chased that almost up into the green boys say i think he chased it all the way i i would imagine all the way up into that bunker he didn’t look like he was worried about the hazard that played out and now rory desperately needing this matt 217 trying to salvage something late into this round well 217 and he dodged the mud ball this is a good look here for rory and you’re right peter he’s got to walk off here with no worse than four oh no this ball was double cooked double crossed can’t tell you how tricky that is pol to go through green running away there’s only about six yards of flat at the top of that little ridge as well we’ll see how he plays that when we return first round coverage of the pga championship [Music] pga junior league bringing friends families and communities together through golf all with expert pga and lpga coaching find a team near you at pga juniorleague.com it’s a great view of how many young future golfers some that we may be covering one of these days all eyes on the top three players in the world in this feature group scotty sheffller rory moy xander schoffley and it’s a great aerial view of a lot of pastel colors in the crowd cory mroy has been a roller coaster of motions we talked about in the masters and even on this hole is off the t-ot thankfully we found one had been struggling and that summarizes how the iron play has been for the reigning masters champion this is a tricky shot matt i mean do you pitch it into the fringe or you try to land it all the way on the green well again he caught a heck of a lot of guys who can get to the back of the ball i think the safe play is banked into the fringe um anything past this pin with any kind of speed it’s going to roll 40 ft past all the way back yep won’t have any problems with that this is just disaster on seven right from the garden spot in the middle of the fairway needed something at two over par well ken it’s the beauty of the design here at the seventh you know the water right naturally these guys want to bail left and no bargain at all left of this screen and pay the price for the bailout and it’s on full display there from rory now xander approaching this one and go straight up and straight down on that there’s quite a bit of risk xander took on that second shot but i’ll tell you what it’s paid off now this is very run-of-the-mill as far as a greenside bunker look and wouldn’t shock me one bit to see this one scare it oh my [Applause] just want to point out something guys you know our whole group in general out of these greenside bunkers today really struggled to generate any kind of spin and i i really think it has to do with the uh the prongs on the rakes just and explain that for those who don’t don’t understand the difference between those two about like either you know with the prong size being different they’re just they’re just spread out further from each other so what happens in the bottom of the bunker where the balls all work their way to it’s not as uniform it’s not as compacted there’s areas for that ball to nestle in and you pay a bit of a price for hitting it into these green side bunkers settle okay still going to feel like a missed opportunity for rory assuming he taps that in par five she felt he would be able to make some hay with all week long and finally found that bunker or found the fairway and couldn’t take advantage of it they can get to some interesting pin placements on number seven if they want to tuck that thing back over on the right hand side peter i think get a pretty good argument out of a lot of guys that this might be the hardest one on this green um that right pin location yes it does bring the water into play but everything works over there you don’t need to take an aggressive line into it everything kind of ends up in the same area here there’s just not a lot of room and boy where scotty shoffler left this eagle attempt he couldn’t ask for much more this is a killer look to pick two up on the field if anything it might move just a little bit to his right but if he keeps the speed up i like his chances putted it in from off the green on 15 for eagle this will be a tapin birdie for scotty who gets back to one under the pace was good just kind of peeled a little bit left off the fringe he’s crafting out a decent score because he’s you’d have to say if he was judging himself he’d probably say b minus game i think it’s left right and then here really see it there’s a little shelf low on the left as we look at and low on the right the green runs away so it’s sort of landing on the deck of a dingy now five under being the round that everyone’s trying to catch so far i think it should be a little bit from left to right but it’s having a good long look and birdies have been a bit thin on the ground single putts have been a bit thin on the ground on this three ball was probably just a touch over to that right hand side like you said shaley to get to one over no didn’t they were studying long on that one i don’t think they ever really felt a good line on that ken it was a good stroke well struck it just i think they misread it all right so yet another par for xander but a missed opportunity after a nice bunker shot getting ready to hold stroll on over to the eighth after rory taps that in rory just has to feel just a dagger in the side with being just some 20 15 yards away kind of double crossing it over the left and not making birdie as we’ll head on to the par for eighth hole playing just a shade under 350 ken yeah it’s just about 330 to the front of the green today so it is sort of drivable you lay up wherever you think’s a good idea lots of options off this tea but what you can’t do is launch one right if you hit it over there there’s a hazard jungle so you got to be careful miss left not too bad been a little gathering spot so there ought to be some birdies here today but options off the tea i think most would go with a driver it’s just absolutely sandy best to reach this course will be interesting to see how it plays over the next couple of days not expecting to get any rain we got as much as 4 in since last friday and so the course is pretty soaking wet that little gathering pin has produced 21 birdies two others as they probably hit the t- shots down the right if you do that you do well to get another you see the the path from that t- box straight up to the fairway god it’s in mint condition the course is goodness it’s ridiculous again this town has been ramping up for the pj championship having the president’s cup a couple years ago and it doing well is that your new house just being built on i didn’t want to talk about it we’re having some construction issues i’m working on the permitting right now but we’ll get there ken i’ve got a whole wing for you matt will bring the car back around up front for us and it’ll be great down one win they can give it a run scotty shuffler one under in the round yeah they can all get it up there pretty close group in front of them did and these three maybe with the exception of rasmus in front of them plenty of gas to get it there stepped into it might be finding that front bunker short right be pitching back up to that hill matt should be okay yeah this is just such an awkward hole guys it really is it uh it’s it’s that distance where not really anyone in the field can get there unless it’s firm out obviously the boys aren’t getting any roll today but um you also need to wait because you’re going to get close enough to where you don’t want to land one in some guys backstroke you know 30 yards short of the green they’re definitely going to hear it it’s also awkward in the sense of uh even laying up it’s not a it’s it’s not a guaranteed layup and small green i don’t know i think we’re going to see changes to this hole in the future it reminds me a lot of the 12th at tpc it’s just like through the years they’ve they they want to keep tweaking it and i don’t i don’t i don’t know what i would change about i would make it shorter for sure i’d make it shorter for sure i want the whole field to be able to get it there if we’re going to do a drivable par4 i think that 340 350 is just kind of no man’s land except for a handful of guys in the field just makes it way more entertaining and way more fun to play when everybody has access so when you say that too if you look at how deep that actual tea box is they could probably move it up a good oh yeah 15 to 20 yards and wonder if that’s something that maybe carrie hey and those that great crew that set up this course might look at hey maybe there’s a a different tea option in different rounds to make it a little more accessible for some of these players that is one of the things that johnny harris the president of the club of course his father founded this club along with george cobb back in 1961 and when talking to members over here at quail it they’re proud that they have these events but it also comes at a little bit of a cost there’s a lot of times that they’re always making some slight adjustments like a mad scientist to this golf course but that’s why it’s created such great finishes over the years and it’s why it hosts so many great events they’re waiting for the group in front of them so menwood lee that sounded to me like the applause of a man that drove it close and chipped it close for a birdie so now xander patiently waiting big t- shot on the eighth all right see if you can chase this thing up into that front bunker maybe even the collection area over there on the left go really hard let’s get for it to go okay i it did get in the bunker question is is it scooted far enough to have a little bit of a normal lie ken did you ever have uh this much thoracic rotation in your swing i was quite fleshy hips though get a bit of club head speed can he find a one of his magical shots put it in the heart of the green good boy he’s got to cook just a touch left again by the tree all right all right catches that’s actually going to be a pretty good angle for rory moy see if he can jump start something late into this round we continue our first round coverage of the pga championship [Music] this week at quail hollow several players are trying to get into a very exclusive club scotty sheffler looking to add a pga championship to his two green jackets the only players to do that before turning 30 are tiger woods and jack nicholas rory maroy and jordan speed are trying to get what the other has rory could be the first player to win consecutive majors since speed in 2015 and speed wants to complete the career grand slam something rory did last month and what about last year’s pga champion we didn’t forget about him xander schoffley says the tournament moved to stroke play in 1958 the only players to go backto back are tiger tiger again and brooks kepka speaking of mr keepa he’s looking to win his fourth pga championship the only player to do that all time there’s only three of them walter hagen jack and of course tiger so whether this waker trophy is the first second third or fourth it might be time to make some room behind the velvet rope need to have some cartoon characters for us let’s see if scotty sheffller can go avenger-like drops it just over he’s studying it you can never know with scotty so even killed about whether or not he’s happy or unhappy with the shot but he’ll take that look at birdie so we saw you can see sander that ball landed on the down slope of that bunker and is nestled right into the middle and over on the other side rory mroy is going to be taking the drop yeah rory just taking relief from sprinkle head over here that was a heck of a shot scotty shuffler just hit using that backboard nicely uh i would say xander’s got the tougher shot of the two here he’s quite a ways back in that bunker it’s below the surface and it’s another one of those lies it’s just sitting down guys it’s going to be tough to get any kind of action on this even with the the speed he needs to put on it he does have that back stop scotty’s ball caught helping him out a little bit here so that that would be the only saving grace but if he can if his ball can find its way into this bowl i would say that’s a a quality shot out of shalay and for rory that appears to be quite a lofted wedge so i would imagine he’s going to try to land this on the green and not run that kind of anything of a pitch into it will he i don’t know i might uh he’s coming off of a down slope and even if it’s a 60 you can still jam that thing in the back of the stance and potentially land this a yard short that would be the shortest i would see here though peter i’m kind of with you i think we’re going uh one or two yards short with some conviction one hop stop show off for the crowd he needs it two over goes straight low needs to stay right there okay go out on a limb there and say that was a a slight mishit yeah i was surprised i mean ken that’s a rare ball flight for such a lofted wedge did you take a look and that ball never really left and he cut under it a little bit as well in the end and i thought it might not make the make the journey to the green can it sounded and it almost looked like a bit of a drop kick if you ask me alexander stepping in quickly not working with a ton here look at this trying to just rip the spin boy too good yeah didn’t think that there was a opportunity that he could land that ball short was going to have to nip it and he nipped it too well as you said take one more look at just how quick he is how fast his hands were ken in that bunker shot yeah and it landed it in the fringe i think he was probably just trying to carry onto the very edge of the green splash as i say the texture and the beauty of the sand is absolutely perfect for playing these bunker shots it really is there’s no excuses match which which one were you more impressed of you go scotty first as far as the most impressive uh approaches in here on the eight i would say scotty and then the other two were kind of i mean we’re dancing but we’re not taking pictures you know was pretty surprised by rory’s i think uh i think he’d want that one over well this is one of the better looks sanders had today hasn’t had a ton of close ones he’s been scaring it but they’re all from about 25 30 feet this one just outside of 10 uphill right to left or right-hander’s dream one he’d love to have bucket better late than never xander after nine straight pars finds a way to get one back just as matt every talked about right to left the rightander’s dream pace was great up the hill that’s the guy we saw at bajala let’s see we saw all three of them go double double double on 16 let’s see if we can go birdie birdie birdie on eight well peter i think this is the toughest read out of the three by far sometimes the straight ones are the the hardest and i really didn’t see anything in this this is about uh commitment kind of the story of all day for rory struggling with the driver just not that many opportunities but frankly guys he was in good position on seven you know bad iron shot good position on eight kind of an awkward pitch but just not taking advantage of any of these in the brakes and this could have been a whole lot worse as well too with some of the breaks he had today ken some very good brakes crooked t- shots yeah i just saw you know right before he hit that putt guys i just saw him take a a second peak and i’ve been there a million times nobody wants to to walk up to an 8 to 10footer and see nothing in it it’s just they’re you’d rather be you’d rather know one way or the other and i think that might have been a case of that right there with rory just a little bit of indecision and it’s amazing how that stuff kind of just starts piling up out here start getting in between numbers and reads you don’t like and scotty looking to go the other direction after a birdie on the last ball just peeled straight off right off that club face maybe a little bit of grain moving it back down towards that kind of false front great shot for scotty but not able to string together backto back birdies keep an eye on his head yeah it’s pretty steady a little downgrade you can see how shiny it was but it also was a bit from left to right those sort of ps if you could admit it i know it doesn’t make any difference but you’d rather give it a chance on the high side let it dribble down on the low side their finishing hole the ninth par4 playing just a normal par five distance for mere mortals 531 yards ken yeah 325 to reach the right hand bunker and it’s a little bit uphill and you turn half left to this big big green which when you look at it like this you think oh it’s it’s just a big big target but it’s separated into lots of little sections today on that back right hand corner if you go three four yards too far it’ll trickle off the back edge of the green brute of a par four this one a real brute for your fred four fours on here you’ve done extremely well this week it’s been the second toughest hole so far this week is davis thompson the only player in the field so far made a birdie inside of that few and far between even with the tea up slightly tease up but still a a beast boys this ninth they got they got they they got a little breeze at their back as well helping them out and this would be a heck of a way for xander to end this opening round pick one up here at the ninth gain over a shot on the field no doubt about it carry a little momentum heading into round two oh all right they lost that over on the right hand side is it in the bunker cuz no it’s not xander sent in the fridge or in the rough oh over under eight and a half couses today out of xander uh i think i think oh that might be depends on what we got i think i’m at seven right now that’s the counter at all right cuz all right cuz we got to get ken we got to get ken brown saying tomorrow doing the lord’s work scotty one under he’s broken par in nine of his last 10 opening rounds at majors the only exception 2024 us open and this has just been i mean you would probably say maybe a subpar round for scotty sheffler and yet once again you find himself in the top 20 kind of hum along and it’s certainly a hoham round for him isn’t been on fire by any stretch of the imagination but that’s the class of the man maroy it’s quite the adventure off the tea it’s been a mess off the tea peter i was trying to be polite i know i know he’s looking he’s holding that finish and well that’s appears to be left as well as the fans will hustle up over there to get a look at one of the stars of the game we’ll get a view of that live we return first round coverage of the pga championship [Music] [Applause] [Applause] as we see the closing hole for our marquee group of the top three players in the world is once again rory maroy just struggling with the driver not the distance just the accuracy scotty sheffler finding that fairway and xander over on the right hand side so they’ve got it covered on this hole and this is rough has been playable just not really a lot of opportunities it’s not as penalizing as maybe us open type rough but he’s trying to find something as the leader is at five under scotty sheffler the only player in the top three of the world finds himself underpar so far today and kind of did it in a a different way ken for him it wasn’t throwing a bunch of darts it was a chip in early you know some unorthodox ways to get in we go back into the 12th talking about that chip in yeah this was a magnificent shot made a tricky one looking easy a little bit of an ups slope but played it well so easy to hit one of those and it comes shooting out in this case he’d almost run off the front of the green this was a at the par five for an eagle we thought here we go he’s going to shoot a really low score troubled into the side of the cup this is where it came apart for scotty for a moment as we talked about that ball diving straight over on the left hand side you guys summize it might have been a little mud on that ball cuz it happened as well to xander schoffley all three players making double then over the second this was quality plus coming out of the rough to judge this so well never left the flag and under the cup as well for another birdie opportunity cash that in on the second then of the seventh another opportunity for eagle right off the green no but a tap in birdie which would get him to one under by the way big credit to matt every who called that eagle for scotty sheffller earlier in the round as we take a quick look at what rory maroy is going to have to deal with some tree trouble here matt yeah peter i wouldn’t exactly say that say that call was a stretch though that eagle call there but i i appreciate the pat on the back uh roy’s got a whole lot of nothing over here this tree is going to affect his follow through i think anything back in the fairway and just some kind of shot for his third is a victory nicely done rory has played this course as much as a lot of the members have and he’s probably seen some sides of this golf course he has never even knew existed gentlemen most definitely i would agree with that you know one other observation from today you know you don’t always get to see these three guys play together xander is long i mean long long like he’s noticeably i would say a healthy 15 by scotty sheffller off the tea that’s shocking healthy scotty looking to throw a dart here in this final hole this could be good scotty sheffller give the crowd what they came to see that is the mark of a man who’s been entering his eighth straight major as the number one player in the world that will make lunch taste a little bit better sorry xander i was talking in your shot my bad i thought you were gonna apologize for that cliche got many of them okay oh ball below at the feet here for z it’s going to help him out a little bit so will the lie really just looking for the front number let this thing chase out all the way back to the hole is he admiring it it’s not too long just two tiptoes over the back covering the flag all the way came out a little hot out of that line continue put a bow on this first round of pj championship [Music] well we are just getting started here at coil hollow on the course justin thomas dustin johnson kamora part of our feature group coverage or on espn plus one of three different feature groups patrick reed jordan speed ludvig boberg will be part of that trio as well get back to those other featured groups but first featured player rory maroy having to take his medicine after an errant drive backs off of this one matt this is an important up and down to stay in contention of this tournament very important up and down but a fairly straightforward wedge shot wind just slightly in off the left for rory at the moment i’d look for this one to do some dancing around the hole though boys spin so he’ll have a putt at it as we see the remaining part of our featured grooves twom clarki and tom chem 136 and just in about 15 minutes teeing off our last of the feature groups gary woodland victor havlin and bryson dshambo well again there was a lot of eyes on rory maroy one of the odds on favorite according to espn bets this week because of how well he traditionally drives the ball it’s not very accurate today we’ll see how bryson navigates this course and now xander and austin taking a look at this kind of a thick and juicy lie matt yeah that was uh well described there peter thick and juicy on point he’s going to have to keep the speed up here just the angle of attack and the slope he’s going into alone this club is going to come to a stop at the bottom plenty green to work with though see him trying to flip underneath it sort of a rather verdant green grass around the ball as we look at scotty’s shot only one birdie and it was a chip in from off the green it tells you how hard the ninth has been cory connors had thrown it to 9 ft earlier today but missed that putt this one for scotty 2 feet 7 in that’s a dart again another round and you look at scotty and just go “what’ you shoot?” shot 69 little guy home yeah a shame about the 16th of that bull diving into the water we’re not sure whether it had mud on it or not but that was the setting back it was just rolling along nicely until then since then it’s been a battle just look at the absolute sheer amount of fans that are going to be out here at coil all week long big putt here for xander guys finally made one on the last this is actually a very similar putt to the last should work off to his left not positive on that one peter and i’d hate to end the day on a on a bad read but i got this thing about a ball out on the right don’t let us down here evie the whole world scott verplank and george havar’s got our feature group coverage coming in also they’re listening in so it’s all about this call a strong finish for the third ranked player in the world strung together those nine bars ken the birdie on the eighth and a strong finish on the ninth and lunch will taste a little bit better than he did after that double on 16 yeah that was a lovely way to finish putter was a little cool drove pretty well overall just one of those days he never got the ball very close to the cup but steady 72 one over again he was grabbed the 16th little mud on that ball might have cost him but survive and advance keeps it back at 72 now rory matt what’ you see very similar putt as uh as xanders there’s not a lot in it guys right center right edge keep the speed up left all the way he knew it a very frustrating day for the man who many thought would be the odds on favorite how well he played at augusta and would it unlock another level of his game just ken kind of struggled the entire day it was his driving really was hit four fairways missed four on the right and six on the left it’s a very frustrating day and holds almost nothing and scotty for one of the more nondescript 69s that we have seen hook pure class major championship tough golf course not got your agame and there you are round in 69 always nice to watch it’s really one bad swing or one bad break over on 16 where that ball kind of flew straight left leading to a double for all three of those players in that group scotty the only one in red figures but really the story of the day that many people will be talking about is rory maroy only four of 14 fairways led to him struggling a little bit finding those greens and the flat stick didn’t quite working as well 37 in 37 out and you get k you said it wasn’t just a miss on one side that cost him today he just wasn’t in the groove there were some pulls some hooks some one spled out to the right very few found the fairway and they are quite generous fairways one of those days when he drops the club a little bit on the inside and quite quite approach the ball from the right angle either blocks them a little or overdraws them and this was a huge break number 15 stayed out of the water there was few crook ones he got away with 16 and this ball was headed out left as well just watch what happens when he goes down the bank it’s the first bounce you think it’s definitely going in the water bon bon and suddenly it hit something i don’t know what it was but that would have been in the water if it hadn’t hit whatever it was he’d end up actually still making double then on 18 you know i don’t know if he was being hyper aggressive today hey really the only time they felt under control with the drivers when he took a little bit of the swing speed off trying to cut the corner at the second and was always going to run through into the raffle on that line we heard more fours from rory than we saw birdies today and for xander schoffley third ranked player in the world throw the ball a little bit better but just never really got going he had that opening birdie on the 10th we thought here we go just like his 62 at valhalla but kind of cooled down from there final thoughts on today but it was interesting we were expecting a birdie blitz but it was a bit of a struggle and that 16th hole really took the wind out of their sails but it was good to watch and they battled away bravely a lot of work to do for rory indeed but he’ll have a lot of support here in this crowd our am featured group coverage is wrapping up golf though goes nowhere we continue with george sabriquez and scott plank going to be out here they’re following bryson dshambo victor havlin and gary woodland for matt every ken brown i’m peter burns it’s been a great morning here at quail hollow for the first round of the pga championship [Music]
