Join us LIVE for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club. Watch all the action from the featured group of Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler and Shane Lowry.
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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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The best players in the world have come to North Carolina this week to try to win the PGA Championship. The crackle in the air is born of that hope. Major championship golf. That’s what frames this sport. All these players somewhere inside have laid out some scenario that ends with them holding the waker. In every generation, in every sport, a seductive possibility hangs out there that you might win enough tournaments and enough of the right tournaments for people to still speak your name long after all memory of your actual self has turned to dust. They’re after a trophy and a claim and money, but really they’re after immortality. Welcome to the PGA Championship. ESPN Plus and the PGA of America welcome you to the first round of the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina with the 1996 PGA Champion Mark Brooks. I’m Taylor Zarzer. Ned Michaels on the golf course with three of the best in the world this morning getting ready for their te their tea time here shortly. Brookie had to deal with some rain the first couple of days but it is beautiful out there on a Thursday morning at Quail. It’s perfect weather. Cory Mroy comes in as the big story, having won the Masters last month to complete the career Grand Slam. Of course, Scotty Sheffler still ranked number one in the world. He’s won the Masters twice, but he’s trying to win these other major championships. Justin Thomas won here eight years ago and then won this event again three years ago in Tulsa. and his best friend Jordan Speed in his ninth attempt is trying to be the next man to complete the career grand slam. Lots of rain on Monday, more on Tuesday, some on Wednesday, hopefully none today. Almost 5 ines of rain in the last 5 days. And we reference Kepka, Fowler, and Lowry who are going to the tea in five minutes. Brooks Kepka eats dinner with you on Tuesday nights in the PGA Champions Dinner. Brookie, no, he didn’t. Not this year, but usually he does. You’ve seen him in there before. He’s dominated this event the last seven years. You know, he was out uh I think he was out playing. They had all those rain delays and it was Tuesday evening and they waited around. I think they went back out and played some golf. Well, he’s had such success in this event. five-time champ major champion overall. This is the event he is most successful in. The player who beat the strongest field in golf to win the 100 PGA Championship, Brooks Keepka. Trying to win this championship for the second time in nine months. Going to win it now. [Music] It’s a Kepka coordination. Kepka conquers the PGA at Oak Hill. What makes him so successful in this event, Mark? I don’t know about that. This event, he’s good in a lot of events. Maybe time of year. The time of year a little bit. He’s definitely dealt with some injuries, some significant injuries the last several years. Besides his talent, I would say his uh his approach to these major championships has been a huge advantage for him. And Ricky Fowler playing in the PGA for 16th consecutive year, earning a special invitation this year to the PGA Championship. runner up in majors three times. In fact, he’s had 13 top 10s in the majors. That’s the most of anyone in the field without winning. Ricky showed some form last week on the PGA Tour in Philadelphia with a top 20 finish. In fact, he shot 63 in round one a week ago. And of course, he’s won on this golf course, winning the PGA Tours event back in 2012 for his first win of his career. And speaking of last week, so close for Shane Lowry, his second second place finish of the year and now ranked 10th in the world playing his best golf. Definitely playing his best golf in some time. He’s always been a good ball striker and a marvelous pitcher of the golf ball. This club in his hand occasionally gets a little bulky, but uh he seems to have ironed a lot of that out this year. It’s hard to win. Beautiful quail hollow club created in the early 1960s hosting the PGA for the second time as these two will be on the tea in just a couple of minutes. Speaking of Quail Hollow, it is a big ballpark. It’s the fourth longest course in the history of the PGA Championship at over 7600 yardds. A ton of water on the course, especially in the mid middle part of your round. And then on those last three holes, the par fours are beasts. There are eight of them that are over 450 yds in length. That ties a record. And the hardest holes are at the beginning and the end. Well, the yardage is going to play fairly true this year being so soft. We may see the ball start chasing out a little bit by the weekend. I will tell you today’s 450 yard par4 is not what it used to be. It’s a driver and a wedge for these guys. Now they start at the 10th almost 600 yd. Well, just shy of 591 today. It’s about 275 to this left fairway bunker. 340 to carry it. They put it in the fairway. It’s a downhill second shot. Little nuisance bunker there about 20 yards short of the green. We’ll talk about these closely moan areas. adnauseium as we continue on. They’re magnificent. They’re they’re almost like putting surfaces. Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 107th PGA Championship. This is the 738 starting time. Now on the tea, please welcome our 2018, 2019, and 2023 PGA champion from Florida, Brooks Keepa. One of the great traditions in major championship golf is that these wonderful club professionals from all over North America are the starters at this event. Getting to watch a man that’s won it three times. Driver at the temple. Go. Go. Let’s go, baby. Now on the team, please welcome from Florida, Ricky Fowler. Men’s professional golf has been in Charlotte each of the last 22 years. And one of the more powerful moments ever on this course happened about a 100red yards to Ricky’s left when he won it, beating Rory Mroy in DA points for his first PGA Tour victory here 13 years ago. [Music] [Applause] A lot of roll there. Now on the team, please welcome from Ireland, Shane Lowry. He’s made every cut at the PGA since 2017, and he’s especially been great the last seven years. [Music] That’ll stay short of that fairway bunker. So in the trees over to the right, Lowry short of the bunker to the left. Fowler in the middle of the fairway. Because of all that rain we’ve had this week, the ball is not rolling out. They are playing it down in the fairway today as they head to their second shots at the 10th. And let’s welcome in Ned Michaels who’s following these three. Good morning, Ned. Good morning, golf fans. And what a glorious morning it is. Cool temperatures. We got humidity this afternoon. We’re going to get into the upper 80s. But talk about this golf course and it’s so much has been made about length. You better be able to hit it long off of the tee. If you’re not going to hit it that long, you better be able to hit it high with those middle and long irons. And you’re going to have to make a bunch of those squirly little side winder kind of four to six footers on the green. Overlaying that with our three players today, let’s start with Ricky Fowler. Statistically, we don’t expect much from Ricky. It’s not been a banner year. He’s here on an exemption. So, the first six holes for Ricky get his feet under him. start to get some comfort, a little bit of rhythm. Remember in 21 he was on a special exemption here at the PGA Championship and he finished top 10. So maybe that people pleaser side of him, that’s the catalyst for good golf this week. And then you take a look at Brooks Kepko. He can beat you so many ways. Aaron Hills with length and St. Louis with the putter. His mind is sharp. I’m encouraged looking at his Trackman numbers and watching him the last two days on the range bludgeoning the driver. Old school vintage Kepka off the tea. I’m a little concerned though. Couple of different wedge grinds, new wedges in the bag, couple of fivewoods and a sevenwood. He was trying to decide late yesterday what was going to actually go in the bag. So he too these first six holes critical to get some comfort to find that rhythm as well. And then Shane Lowry, well that just might be your champion, folks. You look at Lowry, he’s hitting a lot of fairways this season. When he misses 21 feet, that’s his average miss from the edge of the fairway. Soft fairways, yeah, soft conditions, that means fairways get wider. That means Lowry’s going to play a lot from the short grass. He’s fantastic with his long irons. He’s top 10 in that category in proximity. And then when you look around the greens, he’s almost 50% out of the bunkers around here. That’s a big good number. And out of the rough, the deep rough, his scrambling numbers, he’s top five in the P on the PJ tour. And really, he’s top five on the planet. and he’s been making those putts, the squirly ones that have gotten away from him. So for Shane Lowry, first six holes, let’s see some birdies. When we get to the 15th hole, I want him to be one or two under. Let’s have a day. All right, Matt. Love your breakdown and your preview of these three and how they’re playing, especially with Keepa there. Brooks has really struggled with the driver this year playing on live golf. There are 53 players that are included in their stats in that limited field and Kepka is 38th in driving accuracy out of those 53 guys and missed his first fairway. Ricky Fowler with his caddyy Ricky Romano leaving the picture. You said it, Mark. There’s the pitch mark just to the left of his golf ball. There’s almost no roll out this morning. That one went backwards. You are limited with your options over there to the right of the 10th fairway and this thick rough. In fact, this is as much rough as we’ve seen on the golf course at Quail Hollow. Lowry has yes way more of an opening to the left is a long ways away from the hole. Fowler will play first. has headed down the left side. Needs to catch a piece. Just a layup shot for Ricky here this morning. There’s a front right hole location here, Mark. So, he should have a good angle from there. Meanwhile, Ned Keepa has to be careful with some overhanging trees down the right. It’ll be Lowry to play before him, though. Yeah, Brooks is trying to get the gallery in position and they’re kind of pointing at each other and it’s going to be Brooks actually to go ahead. This is dicey. Ball sitting down, but he has to keep it under the limbs of this hardwood out in front of him. Needs to carry it a good 125 yards. Wow. It’s caught the second tree. Went right through the center of the second tree. Now Lowry from the left rough. [Applause] Couple of guys out of position here. No question. We’re going to find out about this rough pretty early if these guys don’t put it in the fairway. This Palmer rye, Arnold Palmer Ry, it’s all came out of Pennsylvania. Yeah, that overseed. Arnold Palmer had a great relationship with the Harris family that’s run this club for 65 years. Ryan Fox just won on the PGA Tour on Sunday and he has an early birdie in front of these guys starting on the 10th. Just underway here on a Thursday morning in the 107th PGA Championship. You reference Kepka and all his success. Fowler’s first win on the PGA Tour coming here. And Shane has three PGA Tour wins. He did win a team event on the PGA Tour last year with Rory Mroy in New Orleans, but his last individual victory came six years ago at Royal Port Rush. Certainly, these guys have the firepower to contend no matter what week it is in men’s professional golf. What do you think of the current conditions, Mark, after the rain we had in the forecast earlier in the week? Well, these guys are used to putting their hand on it when it’s soft like this, to be real honest. There’s a they play the ball up quite often on the on the big big tour, the PGA tour, and they’re certainly not going to do it here. I think only one time in the history of this event have they ever been forced to use lift clean in place. Yeah. just outside of 125 all the way to the flag for Kekka. And it may sound a little silly, but Mark, I feel like this is a critical shot for Brooks given all the wedge testing that he was doing. There’s a collection area over there and one of the more undulated collection areas on the golf course. Well, I told you we’d talk about those. They’re just immaculately maintained. They’re if you put a stamp meter reading on them, they’re probably about 9 10. They’re fast. That is not the miss Ned. Certainly not not the visual that Lowry wanted. We’d be looking 10 or 12 feet left [Applause] here. Just inside of 120 [Applause] and now Fowler from the left side of the fairway. and ball a little bit above his feet. Aim just inside the right of the green and let it come to the left. Careful. Hold on. I think mother nature was nice to him there in softer conditions. That apron is one of the many aprons on the golf course this week that these players will have to contend with. Our colleague Ken Brown went out there and tried to give you an idea of what these players are dealing with. One of the great features on a golf course are runoffs. Areas around the greens that have been cropped tight so the ball runs off, not the thick fluffy stuff which the ball gets jammed up in. And quail hollow has got some absolute beauties this and there’s a lot of the front of the greens little bluffs that can catch the ball slightly misjudge it and the ball just keeps trickling trickling trickling. But look at the quality of the grass. I mean you can do anything with that. You can any club in the bag any amount of spin or putt it. And there’s another beauty to the right of this green down this right side. When you’re down the fair you’re thinking I got to be careful. I don’t want to push it at all. If you push it a fraction you can even finish on the green. The ball just trickles, trickles. I’ll chuck one way up there. And look how it gets gathered off. It goes trundling down the slope. Down they come. Down they come. This is a steep bank and you’re in all sorts of trouble. You only misjudge this shot by a fraction. The ball comes down here. And look what you’re faced with. Not even going into the rough. You’ve got to chip it up the bank. It’s so easy with a fractional misjudgment if you’re careless to take a double bogey. Keep your eye on the runoffs. Looks like Ricky’s ball did trundle back down there. Yeah, we thought maybe it had stopped, but it still had some movement. Ricky’s actually hung up. Give it about two more tea times and it would have definitely okay milked down. Well, graphical error there. Brooks with putter and this is the right play, especially early in the morning. That is right. Right play, wrong, wrong weight. That is not an uncommon thing to see the other 51 weeks of the year here at Quail Hollow. You can take out a wedge there, Mark, but it can come right back to your feet if you’re not careful. Well, keeping it on the ground, it’s certainly more predictable. You don’t have to judge the bounce. Brooks, see just to put a highlight on it though, an exclamation point. That was a really poor wedge from the fairway for Brooks. It never even thought about capturing the green. Well, you said it just a moment ago about how he put some new wedges in the bag. He’s 32nd of 53 players that are tabulated in Live and Green’s hit this year. So, ball striking has been an issue for Keepa. Now it’s Lowry, who’s putted well, especially from this distance this year. And this one’s just a gentle slider from left to right. Gauge the speed. Steady par to start. two two pretty big shots to get get it home here this morning in [Applause] two. There’s another replay of Brooks Kepka coming up this massive hill. collecting speed as it goes up towards the hole. Now here’s the par putt backward and back and he’s not in yet for bokei. I walked this 10th hole yesterday with with Brooks in a practice round and we were talking about the practice green whether it’s prepared differently or it just grows differently. He was saying that he felt it was quite a bit slower than the greens on the golf course. So, if that’s the case, it would make sense that he ran it good four or 5 ft past there. Maybe you shouldn’t put on it if it’s slower. That would be too simple, Mark. Well, Ned said it. ball somehow stayed in this position for Fowler later in the day. That’s back where Brooks Kepkook just putted from off the green. Instead, an uphill chance for birdie 16 ft. Tape hits that edge and doesn’t go in. He had a good ball striking week last week. His his putter went cold on Sunday. Otherwise, he could have he was probably ready for a top five finish. And Mark, I said it in the opening, but it feels like these first six holes are going to be critical in different ways for each one of these players. Lowry, who’s chomping at the bit to get a win. Kepka who’s trying to find his game a bit and Fowler who as you said hit it well last week but the putter didn’t cooperate in the end. Par for Fowler and for Lowry Bogey for Kepka to start. One, baby. And they go from the par 510th to the long par4 11th at Quail Hollow. 465 yards [Music] today. Just a nice sweeping dog leg left. We’ll trust those [Music] numbers. It’ll sound like a broken record, but you need fairway as often as possible here. Today’s hole location just past the center just over that little ridge beyond those white arrows. You know these greens very well since you you play them quite often. I do. They are 2 years old now and held up quite well. They still in fact have a lot of firmness, a lot of fire in them with the subair system they have beneath them even though we’ve had all this rain the last few days. It’ll be Fowler to play first. drifting to the right ever so slightly. Missing a fairway. Yeah. calm, peaceful conditions on a Thursday morning. It’d be nice if that were the truth in their guts and in their brains, too, for the players. There’s a beauty. Now, Kepka, as I mentioned it, watched him on the range Tuesday and Wednesday, and with the big stick, he was throwing down train smoke just like this. The 107th PGA Championship has started here at Quail Hollow Club on a Thursday morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. Few players already in red figures. [Music] T-shots at the 11th. Lowry and Kepka playing cuts off those fairway bunkers. And Ricky Fowler just barely missing the fairway. And Mark, there is a first cut. That’s just as you said as we were walking out on the golf course. just a couple of steps and then it’s the thick rough after that. That would be called the step cut here. And it does vary in width a little bit. There’s a couple of places where they have a lot of pitch in some of the fairways. They’ve actually been very fair to these players and made it a little wider, but generally speaking, it’s about five or six feet wide and it’s cut just under an inch. As for the thick rough mark, how as you were watching out there the last couple of days, ability to advance it and control it up near the hole location. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I think when it was dry, I don’t think it presented near the test or problem that it does now being as moist as it is. And certainly they haven’t been able to top it off or cut it. So, it’s it started the week at 2.75 in almost 3 in and it it’ll it’ll grow. I mean, it’s going to be very very warm and they will not cut it again. It’s going to be more than a bit of bother for these guys. So again, very critical to be in the fairway more so this week. Group ahead of these guys, Alex Smallley, Substraa, and Max Grievy still on that elevated green. I will say this, you know, there’s two schools of thoughts or there’s probably an infinite number of schools of thought about golf. But one thing this rough does, this this overseat, it keeps you out of the trees a little bit more. Keeps you out of the out of the pine straw, much like a place south of here. A number of comparisons made this week about the condition of this golf course with the first major of the year at Augusta National Golf Club as we see Septraa up on the green. He just won on the PGA Tour on Sunday Philly Cricket Club. Getting some bonus coverage here of Straka however is for bogey. Ned, what are your thoughts about the condition of Quail Hollow’s course currently? essentially perfect if we just could do a leg with a little bit of the rain. But I like all these runoff areas around the green. Mark and I hit some putts yesterday and I think you can, as Kin Brown documented in that brownie point. I think you can go with your strength. I think Mark though, it’s difficult to run the ball up because of the moisture short of the greens and the greens are so firm. So, it’s kind of a dichotomy of approach shots. I’d agree with that, Ned. We were talking about the the wet playing it down or playing it up. Obviously, they’re going to play it down all week here. Some players are a little more sensitive to the mudball theory, and it’s real, but uh they get a little bit paranoid about it. Hey, and Lowry will have a lengthy birdie attempt from the back of this 11th green. And that was from 189 yds. And now Fowler from the thick rough. He does have some air behind the ball. He can get a club on this. 160 to get it to the front edge. Sounded thick. That’s well done, Mark. Yeah. Just rolls back into that front apron collection area. That was Capka. just outside of 170. And this requires patience. Don’t try to make up the bogey on 10 by attacking this whole location. And that’s high IQ stuff right there. Lengthy birdie attempts for Kepka and Lowry Fowler short of the green in two from the PGA of America coaching center powered by T-Mobile where the PGA professional Natalie Shien is. Let’s go to her on Ricky Fowler’s swing. Thanks, guys. So, Ricky Fowler has changed his golf swing quite a bit over the last few years with his coach, Butch Harmon, and I’m going to show you a drill that you at home can use to help you in the same way. So, I’ve got an alignment stick I’m going to place on the side of my club here, and I’m going to touch the left side of my body when I get set up. Ricky’s old swing, he used to take the club way outside his hands and then get really laid off at the top. So, you can see where that alignment stick is pointing out in front of me and then he would have to steepen the club a lot coming down. What we can take away from this is we can practice getting to the top of our back swing and trying to get this alignment stick or the end of our club, pointing at the alignment stick the ground or on our target line at the top of our back swing, which he has done an amazing job of over the last few years. But this is a great drill you can use at home to get your back swing in a great spot to help you hit your best golf shots. Thank you, Natalie. T-Mobile for business exclusive 5G solutions partner as we take one more look at Fowler playing out of the rough. You kind of want to get steep on this one. He tried to. You can see the water spray. It’s They’d rather play it longer and dry. They’d rather it be an inch longer but dry than than have the moisture. Trust me. Ricky now ranked outside the top 100 in the world. So, he had to receive a special invitation into the PGA Championship to continue that streak consecutive starts in this event. It’s now at 16. did finish tied for 15th last week in Philadelphia, but that was his first top 15 finish of 2025 in now 10 starts on the PGA Tour. Off an ups slope here. Relatively straightforward. It shouldn’t move much either way. He’s in into the green though. Pretty nice rhythm right there. [Applause] That’ll work. I’d like to talk about briefly how firm these greens have remained after all this rain. While it makes it more difficult to stop those long approach shots, pitching and you know determining what the ball’s going to do when it lands on the green, it be it’s actually easier for these guys. They like they like a little firm because they want a very predictable bounce. And there’s Bermuda based greens. They’re there’s very little grain that everybody obsesses over, which is a real thing, but uh the the grain is not that prevalent here. So, this is a tough two putt right here, believe it or not. Yeah, if you weren’t comfortable with your speed, this is not the one you want. Uphill flattening out and then away from you at the hole. That left for his pars. Kepka, of course, making bogey at the first. using that putter three times off of the green once and twice on it. That club has helped carry him to victory in this event three times the last seven years. And now Lowry just barely stayed on board here in the back of the 11th green. Taylor, I don’t know about you, but I find this 11th green to be surprisingly fast. It’s deceptively fast from back to front. Even even here where you’re going uphill towards the hole, it just seems to skate a little bit farther than you might think. Yeah. And well, you just said it after KKA’s ball got past the hole and now the same with Lowry. Once his ball gets past the hole, even near these hole locations, there is there’s a ton of speed around them as Lowry’s ready to step in here. came so close last week in Philadelphia. I mean, this thing’s still almost 50 ft. Was from 46 ft. Well judged. He was tied with Sept Straka going into the final round and through 15 holes. Almost hold out for an eagle on the par five 15th of Philadelphia cricket club last Sunday before making bogey at 16 and 18 and losing by two. Tied for second with Justin Thomas. But now Kko for par. Just watch the rhythm here. noticed a little bit of a hit in some of his shorter strokes when we were out on the golf course yesterday. Did you say anything to him? You don’t talk to big bad Brooks Kefka the week of a major about his putting stroke, Mr. Brooks. know that Shane Lowry has a spectacular short game net. If there’s one thing that’s been an issue for him the last few years when he’s gotten around the lead, it’s putting inside five feet. That was an issue last year at Royal Trun and couple of different times as he’s gotten close this year on the PGA Tour. And it’s interesting if you look at his statistics, he hasn’t missed inside of 3 ft all year and then from 4T scratchy 5T great. So it’s inconsistent. Steady start today. Nice up and down for [Music] Fowler as they go to the treelined par4 12th. It’s a beautiful look at the home hole at Quail Hollow. The par4 18th of the hardest finishing holes in all of golf. Have you ever hit it in that creek? Not since two weeks ago. We go to the 12th. Well, it’s hard to call it a dog leg. Just slightly left to right. 468 yds. This drops about 20 yds downhill off the tee. It’s going to get redundant. You need the fairway here. And uh man, that’s a Sunday looking hole location right there. Taylor right off the right out of the box back [Music] right. There will be some three putts here today. is a much more challenging hole location than when it’s in the front portion of this green. And in fact, this hole traditionally plays almost a stroke harder when it’s back there in that back portion of the green. This hole and this golf course was designed by George Cobb and opened in 1961 and Arnold Palmer redesigned four holes in the 80s. Tom Fazio has come in several times to make some alterations in the last 30 years. Ned, this hole has never been touched. And if you play it, you wouldn’t want it to be. It’s It’s beautiful in the lowest part of the golf course. You said it all when you said it, Taylor. [Music] That looked to be something between a driver and a fairway medal. He has that mini driver in play this week. Carries at 295, he told me. Well, we’re going to find out very soon cuz that’s what that was. [Music] Mark, it was interesting. Last week in press conference, Shane talked about his driver. He’s not hitting it very far. He said he’s, you know, outside the top 140 in distance, but it’s going where I’m looking. Ouch. skirting through that big tree on the left and have to be rather precise with that next one. Start it down the left side for Kepka. And it’s not coming back. It’s just headed left. That is a difficult place to play from. At the 12th, Ryan Fox, two early birdies in front of our group in the 107th PGA Championship. Yes. Yes. Ryan Fox from New Zealand. Just won on the PGA Tour in Myrtle Beach on Sunday and he’s the early leader on a Thursday morning in the 107th PGA Championship just a moment ago at the par 313th. [Music] How about the chip in to win on Sunday night, beating Quail Hollow member McKenzie Hughes and Harry Higgs to win on the PGA Tour. Yeah, that was amazing. And he was It’s welld deserved. He’s played a lot of really good golf the last few years. He’s popped up in the majors, been a factor a couple times. That was a very quick putt down that green at the 13th. I want the gold one. Yeah, the gold one from Fowler is where you want to play from, especially when this hole location is in the back right. Lowry in the rough could have an opening. Brooks Kepka more issues further over to the left. Ricky is popular everywhere he goes now at 36 years old in California. Lives in South Florida with his wife Allison and his children Maya and Nelly. Well, the good news down here is everybody has an opening and everybody has a pretty good lot. You know what else? Everybody has a rangefinder. There it is. Let’s use that thing. It’s funny, isn’t it? Some players will will use them, some won’t. Ah, habits hard to break. 166. It’s amazing amount the amount of technology they’ll trust. And then doubt that doubt those quite accurate rangefinders. Landed about they’ll trust a machine to work on their path. Yeah. 64 and left a bit Rick. Yeah. I mean in southwest I know there’s nothing but it’s supposed to be like this. So I mean there’s no wind. Okay. Just explain the number if you’re trying to hit it. Yep. Trust it. Well, my rangefinder said 167 to the hole for Ricky Fowler. Give it three for the uphill. 170 all in. It’s a little left and deep. Little gust of wind right there. You could feel it when the ball apexed. That is the mistake you do not want to make here with that whole location. Be a difficult third. You said he had an opening then. Here’s Lowry and thin grass around the ball. Landed 10 or 12 chases on and let it run to the back of the green just like that. Well done. And Kepka stepping in. Has to go up and over a tree. 140 is the landing number. 45 to the hole. Right back into the sun. Go off of the green. to the Ross. Typically don’t get an opening like that from over there. Sound like you’ve been there before. And there could be some divots around that area. Man, it looked like Ricky had a lot of club going in there. Meanwhile, for Keepka, as Ned said in his open just a few minutes ago, it’s been a struggle with the full swing for Brooks this this year. And not just this year, Mark, you you go back to when you and I were together at Oakill two years ago. He was on top of the world, winning the PGA Championship for the third time. But he has been outside the top 10 in his last seven majors. and he doesn’t have a top 25 in a ma didn’t have one last year in any of the majors. Little hard to figure other, like I said, he he’s definitely dealt with some physical issues as well as a lot of outside noise with his move to the other tour. And because of that move to live golf, he’s now ranked 354th in the world, which he doesn’t get world ranking points over there. He only gets world ranking points in four events a year, this one included. Well, that’s truly laughable. They have a system. They got to figure something out. They have to have something to measure these players by to get them to get try to get their best players in in these big fields. They decided to give Ricky Fowler an exemption and he got one last week signature event on the PGA Tour and had his best finish of the year. He’s going to have to show off his short game here, Ned. He sure is, Taylor. And unfortunately for Ricky, right where he’s standing is where he’d like to land this pitch shot, but there a couple of sprinkler heads. So that option taken away from Ricky. So he’s going to have to go up top and try to carry this on the green with a little bit of loft. Well, Brooks is definitely in a more advantageous position if you were going to miss the screen. And they’re just waiting for the players on the adjacent T- box over at 13 to play away. Yeah, Brookkeeper is looking at the 13th T which is some 20 yardds away from him. Max McGrevy, Alex Smallley, and Sept Straco. There they are. There’s Se. That’s new territory over there, isn’t it, Taylor? Yeah, just in the last two years. building that new par 3 13th T shut the course down two summers ago Ned and resurfaced the greens and built that tea box in his heyday. Brooks Kepka was so good at these little shots. Still is. You know, Mark, he plays it with that kind of shut face, steep angle of attack, puts it back in his stance, and pinches right down on it. No doubt about it. His technique’s good. That is a popular thing from to happen from that spot. You go anywhere near the hole and it go runs all the way down to the front of the green if not off of it. So, it’s a common mistake. Mark just caught it really high in the face, which you’re apt to do out of that stuff. But it’s pretty lazy swing. I mean, I This stuff’s pretty thick. Maybe a little more aggressive action and send it a little more up in the air. But you’re right, it’s well out of really bad spot to put it. Howy was able to control his approach shot so well to give himself a chance here for birdie. Little bit of a double breaker as well. Feels like it’s downhill, but it actually will slow a bit at the hole. [Applause] Great read by Michaels. Great effort by Lowry. Should result in another par. And now Ricky for par. Kind of an unforced error there from the center of the fairway between clubs, I’m sure, out there. Brooks is third putt in a row from about this distance. [Applause] Pretty tidy up and down there. Especially being out of position off of the TE. The guy in the fairway made bogey. The guy The guys in the left rough made par. Lowry still at even. Fowler and Kepka now one over just a moment ago. Back on the 11th hole, 2015 PGA Champion Jason Day. [Music] one of the best in the world with that club in his hands. Chipping in for Birdie at the clubhouse at Quail Hollow Club. front lawn and that beautiful entrance to this terrific club and membership here in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosting the PGA Championship for a second time. Had it in 2017. Ryan Fox the Kiwi. Birdie’s the short four, the par 414th. Alex Norin just finished the par 34th in his two under. Meanwhile, our three are at the par 313th. Captain Donald going along [Music] nicely. 205 yds today. slightly up the [Music] hill. This is a tough green to figure out. There’s a very substantial false front. See the arrows on the right will even gather that ball back off the [Music] green. Man, three is a good score today. Anything right past the hole a little bit would be really the prudent play here. Short is no bueno. [Music] This is the group in front se I mean honestly the left short bunker wouldn’t be that bad there to this whole location. How about the year that Seep Straa is having? Number two in the PGA Tour standings behind Rory Mroy. Two wins this year. Rder Cup lock. European Rder Cup lock. Even though he has an accent no not so dissimilar to the three broadcasters this morning. That’s true. United States was born in Austria and moved at a young age to Georgia and now lives in Alabama. Grevy Max is one under to start the day. And now Alex Smallley. 156 players in the field including 20 Corbridge Financial Club professionals. 99 of the top 100 started the week in the field. Billy Horchel was the only one that didn’t come to the proper due to injury. Sahit the Gala, oh my goodness, look at that. The Gala this morning also withdrew. So now we have 98 of the top [Music] 100. Ned was mentioning this new T- box mark. They used it in the PGA Tour event last year for the first time, but eight years ago it was over there on to the left of the 12th green. and now cleared out some trees and built a tea box over here to the right. What do you think about this angle compared to the old one? Well, it’s probably a more generous angle actually into this. The way the screen is shaped with the runoffs and the swailes, it’s actually a better play angle in my opinion. It It doesn’t feel that uphill. It’s not like an annoyingly uphill shot. Might not be the most comfortable look for Shane who likes to peel them from left to right. Center of the green here and grab your putter. I know. Got to be deep or little right. It’s not intended to stay right there. It will not stay right there. All right. So, gravity did its thing. Now, it’s interesting down here by the the teeing ground, the wind feels into and out of the left, but when Shane was hitting, it was on the green showing right to left. Good spot right [Applause] there. Read’s a good score here every day. Couple of seasons ago, 2023, when Ricky Fowler had reclaimed his swing and found the winner circle again, he was one of the best in terms of par three performance. made a bunch of pars and scattered in a few birdies. This season he seems to shortside himself quite often on the par 3es. And this one way up into the sky to the left of that bunker in the thick rough. Whale Hollow Club opened its doors 65 years ago and they’ve had big events ever since. Back here with our featured group coverage this morning on ESPN Plus for the 107th PGA Championship here in Charlotte. Brooks Kepka is a threetime PGA champion. There are only three people in the history of this event that have won it more times than Kepka has. Jack Nicholas won it five times. So did Walter Hagen. Tiger Woods won it four times. Jean Sarin and Sam Sneed also had Kepka certainly has been the modern-day conqueror of this event, winning at Bel Reeve in St. Louis seven years ago. following year at Beth Paige Black two years ago at Oakill in Rochester, New York. Kept’s on the green putting for birdie. It’ll be Lowry whose ball came to a stop here at the bottom of that apron net. And plenty of green with which to work everything uphill and then chasing down towards the flag. such soft hands on those shots, but that came up shorter than he would have preferred. I think he too was looking for that little chase out at the end and it it just kind of grabbed and threw down the nails. So dissimilar to Augusta National Ned, when you’re below the hole, it is dramatically uphill. When you’re above it, you have to be careful. Ricky not wasting any time. The lie is good enough. But Mark Brooks, that’s what I’m talking about. He seems to shortside himself more often on the par 3es and he it’s going to pay the price here. Well, that’s not that dissimilar to the shot he just had on the previous hole. Thought it was going to come shooting out. It did not. What do you notice here? Not enough speed for one. It’s just he thought it was going to come out quick. Now Kepco for birdie pretty hoham par. This group’s not got a lot of energy at the moment. And I will say we have waited with the exception of the opening T-shot. We have waited every step of the way. I I definitely was paying attention to that when they were back there on this T- box. They’re moving along at a few pace at the moment. That’s too many syllables for this early in the morning. That must have been that barbecue you ate last night. I don’t I have to look that one up. Well, we had the best to hosts in town, that’s for sure. An hour and four minutes so far as they are here on this fourth hole they’ve played. Fowler from the Fringe. Pretty sloppy bogey there. That was not that difficult to pitch. He knows it. One in Detroit on the PGA Tour for a sixth time in his career two years ago, but struggled to find that form since. Now Shane Lowry has been a popular pick. Each week he has teed it up given the consistent form he has shown us all year and now ranked 10th in the world. This one might lie to you a little bit. Wants to go right to left, but the back edge of that front bunker will hold it and it might not break as much as you think. I was thinking about inviting Ned to play with me in an event here in the future. Now I want him to caddy for me. We can make both of those happen. was read perfectly. And now each of these players has given up at least a shot so far in these first four holes. But there are chances at birdie coming up. Valer with consecutive bogeies to fall to two over and then Kepka bogey 10 and hard 11 and 12 now on par at 13. The easiest two-hole stretch on the golf course is coming up. 14 and 15. So maybe some birdies ahead, Brooksie. Well, they they gave them a good chance at 14 today. I suspect they’re going to be waiting on this next Tox a little bit, too. Maybe they can regroup, but it’s only going to be 311 yards today and down the hill. I love a drivable par4 in a major championship, especially one that comes so late in the course. Saturday and Sunday, everyone will start on the first and a lot of riskreward here. Well, that 62.4% will go up dramatically today, I would suspect. [Music] That was a 3-wood. And there is there are the numbers from 8 years ago in August in hotter, faster [Music] conditions. There is a collection area in front of the green with everything sloping towards the green. Mark, you’re really just trying to land it in that area, right? Let it gravity take over. Anything inside that top bunker there in our screen, meaning to the our to our right, golfers left of that bunker. The lakes’s in play. If you dramatically tug it, they’ve kind of been forced. These guys need need now. They really, you know, you hate to overemphasize the cliche, but they Well, they kind of all need to make three here. They might employ wave up here, Ned. I would like to think so. Yeah, maybe not. They are putting up on the green. Small straa and McGree. It’s a fantastic place to watch PGA Championship from anywhere around this 14th hole from either side of the lake. You have the par five 15th in front of the on the other side of this hole and then what they call the green mile 16 17 and 18 on the other side of the lake. Plenty of bass for Ned Michaels to catch down there, too. Little fishing derby. I can caddy for you. Can I also Are you the kind of guy who doesn’t like to bait his own hook or get the fish off? No, I can do that. That is a look from the 16th green on the other side to the 14th green here. And Kepka ready to roll. By my count, 18 practice swings. Some cross-handed and some split grip. Not sure we’re feeling great about things. It’s going left. Ned. It is stayed up. We’ll have to see if it stayed up as it landed on the green. But there is a large amount of rough right in front of the penalty area’s red line. But that had a lot of movement in it. Uhhuh. Down breeze. Just a little breeze. Just shots playing a little under 300 yd. And it feels like it’s left to right up here on the T. Fantastic. Cutting it off of that bunker and putting himself in great position to make birdie. There is a nice strip of primary rough just short of the water over there. Brooks could have hung up. Mini driver for Ricky showing on the right. Not a great angle to this whole location at all. Ryan Fox is three under through six. Rory Mroy birdies his first hole in the PGA Championship. Ryan Fox a good start. Defending champion Xander Schoffley with a birdie at the par five 10th and current Masters champion Rory Mroy also with a birdie over there at 10. Scotty Sheffller par that hole. the top three players in the game also playing on ESPN Plus this morning which you can watch. I’m sure Scotty’s panicking. Kepka’s ball landing on the green. Lowry just short of the green and Fowler as you said that is a tough place to play from. I know Ned will try to get a look to see if Kepka’s ball stayed up over there. That’s a look at Ricky’s ball. Well, the good news for Ricky is he’s actually got a perfect little lie here in the bunker kind of perched up on a tee. So, he can put some spin on it, carry it a long way, and if you wanted to just dump it and run it, he has that option available as well. That’s in the spruce pines 55 sand. It’s a sand you see in some other places. that are quite special. One of 61 bunkers on this golf course. Can report that Brooks Kepka stayed out of the water, stayed up in the grass, will be playing his second. That’s a great break. Ricky has the dreaded 50ard. some relief that knowing there’s a little rough back there if it happened to come out a little little hot. Practiced this exact shot this morning. Better rip it. It’s all about guts and commitment. Very well done right there. Carried it about 40 yards. What club are you using from 40 yards away? Out of a bunker? Yes. Probably a 55 56 degree. You see players take less than 60° from that range and use a gap wedge or even a sand wedge. And as Ned said, this is where Capus ball is. Great break. And Mark, here’s where he can use that firmness of the greens to his advantage. [Applause] Pretty average for Brooks. I’m going to give that an A minus. Hold high. Brooks see what do you think? His standards C plus set the PGA champion. I suspect Shane’s going to roll this. And he is one great pitcher of the golf ball. Well, Mark, don’t have anyone accuse us of not doing our homework because you and I hit this exact putt several times yesterday. I think our imaginary hole location was slightly left of this one. It’ll roll nicely through this tightly mode fringe area. So, while you’re passing out grades, what do you giving that one? What do you think, Mark? I’m I’m going to give that a a a B+ because at least he’s coming back up the hill with his next putt. Uh, I’m still in the C’s. You’re accumulating stress and you you know every step of the way they’re accumulating stress because they have they make two more swings and they approached they face the green mile words you’d be more comfortable headed into that stretch one or two under par opposed to where currently set. All right. This is a tough read right here. I’ve looked at a couple different ways. I think it’s going to go to the right. Sure did. You said it. The par five 10th can give you an opportunity at a birdie. 11, 12, and 13 are challenging. 14 and 15 are birdie holes. And then, as you called it, the green mile 16, 17, 18, the toughest finishing stretches in golf, which is why Brooks Kepka needs to make this Ned. His head, the shadow of his head covering the flag. Just put it on his shoulder line of that shadow. What a big break. Stayed on land off of the tea. You have to take advantage of of those breaks, Brooksie. And he does. Mark, do you think it’s an advantage to start on the second nine on the 10th hole today versus over on the first? I do not. I don’t think it’s it I don’t think it really matters, but I don’t think it’s an advantage. It’s a They’re not taking advantage of it. They certainly are. Giant missed opportunity for Lowry to stay at one over, especially with that hole location this morning. One of the more getable hole locations on the 14th hole. Well, just to let you know, it’ll update in a second, but prior to this, we’ve we’ve had two eagles, five birdies, and only three or three pars. It’s been the easiest hole in the course. More birdies than more birdies than pars. It’s just a really tough par three today. They walk up the hill to the 15th T. One of three par Fives on the course. Ryan Fox continues to lead. at three under par and Rory Maroy just a couple of groups behind these guys. Off to a good start this morning here at Quail Hollow. Nobody feels more at home than Rory Mroy. 2010. Rory secured his first career PG tour win here in impressive fashion. His 62 to close on Sunday, broke the course record. 5 years later in 2015, he wasn’t done. Rory broke his own course record with a 61 in the third round. The scorecard is in the pro shop. Set tournament records, finishing at 21 under and winning by seven. 2021 is in the midst of the longest worldwide winless drought of his career. No better place to end it than right here with victory. And last year, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Rory used two Eagles and five more birdies on Sunday to win by five. In the last 30 years, only two players have won five times at a single venue. Tiger Woods has done it six different places. And Phil Mickelson’s done it at Pebble Beach. Now it’s Rory’s turn to try and join that exclusive club. We referenced the birdie to start at the [Applause] 10th. Moy, Shepler, and Schoffley all playing the 10th, but Mroy did just bogey the 11th. Falls back to even just six in the history of the sport. And a text message from Tiger Woods after Rory won the Masters said, “Welcome to the club, kid.” That had to feel pretty special. I wouldn’t know you would know about the getting great messages after winning this though. Hear from anyone fun back in 1996 after your beat your buddy Kenny Perry? Yeah, my wife. any any celebrities, presidents or anyone like that? Fowler trying to cut it off these trees here at 15 and looks like he’s done it. That’s perfect. Guess it was Lowry just before that. I’m still thinking of who contacted you. I got a few notes. It’s well back and Brooks Kepka the side view angle of his T-shot there at 15. Kepka is in the fairway. That was a big T- ball from Brooks. Hit at 319. Couple of them will have a chance to go for the green here at the par five 15 PGA Junior League is bringing friends, families, and communities together through golf. All with expert PGA and LPGA coaching. Find a team near you at PGA Junior League.com with 1996 PGA Champion Mark Brooks. I’m Taylor Zarzer, Ned Michaels on the golf course on this beautiful Thursday morning. Our feature group this morning, Shane Lowry, Ricky Fowler, and Brooks Kepka. Lowry one over Fowler at two over and Brooks kept good just made birdie and now is even par trying to send it over the corner of this lake and excellent T-shots by all three of them there you can see those they those numbers they have left they can all reach the surface You know this whole location, Taylor, front right. How is it in that front right bunker? I mean, excuse me, the front center bunker. It’s a good place to play from, Mark. To that whole location, there’s a collection area between the front center bunker and the right bunkers where everything feeds towards the hole. So, not bad there either. Not bad there. And you just said it. We’ve seen eagles and birdies on 14. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case here today, too. These are the scoring holes on the course today. It’s a pretty small sample size at this point. Yeah, just five players played it, but three of them birdied it. I’m gonna let you explain how we ended up with a Do we have a tusome? A pair? Oh, I don’t think the last player score has been tabulated yet from the group that just finished, but you asked if I got any notes after I won the PGA. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I got Tiger didn’t have my He didn’t have my phone number then. I got some I got some from Mr. Hogan, Mr. Nicholas, and a few others. My wife framed framed a couple of them, so I have them. Here it is back in 1996 at Valhalla. [Music] Best moment of your terrific career. Led the PGA Tour in total starts. I led at least strokes that week. Yes, you did. Beating Kenny Perry at Malhalla. And as you say, sudden victory playoff. You see that tight little draw to that right hole location found the bottom. You felt good about that one, didn’t you? I’ve seen I have seen that one a few times. 260. Now they have an aggregate playoff in the PG that blue. They’re still pretty sudden death. Little wind whipping through Lowry’s shirt now. Ned, that’s helping. And off of the left, my math with 8 yds uphill, he needs about 245 to cover the front edge. That was just a missed strike there, Mark. And Fowler carries his fivewood 255. My math says 256. Covers the bunker. again. It plays eight yards uphill. The wind. He was counting on the wind. It didn’t push it to the right. He’ll have a lot of green to work with over there, but wanted to take better advantage of the T-OT. Now Kepka, I believe we got the signal for a three iron, which is a lot of club. carries it 250 yds. That was a mly crew of golf swings right there, gentlemen. Wow. You want you mind you want to elaborate? It’s sort of shocking honestly. I mean, in the middle of the fairway, you take these three world class players and it’s wet. They all thought they had mud on their ball. Sidehill lie. No one’s clicking yet. I’m I’m trying to go with the excuses. I didn’t like their yardage. Too much wind. Brookie, the yardages were were perfect for two of them that there was no mud on the ball. I inspected each one of them. So, give me that old school Mark Brooks gritty glass half empty take on those. I just gave it to you. They went through a laundry list of excuses. They didn’t They’re not Nobody’s crying out there. Is current situation for the three that we’re watching. Ryan Fox playing in front of these guys. Three under through his first seven leads. Luke Donald, Alex Norin, Patrick Fishburn, Max Grayerman all at two under. Some world class players behind that. Xander Schoffley, John Rom, past champions Jason Day and Padrick Harrington. One under. Rory Maroy Birdie Boi par start is even through his first three holes. Captain Donald, Captain Luke going nicely. Captain Keegan Bradley his opening hole. And just a reminder, you can follow four different feature groups and feature holes live on ESPN Plus. There’s Mroy, Schoffley, and Sheffler. There’s another player. That’s Xander over the green at 12. That’s well done. Fleetwood and Day out there too with an early birdie playing with Kantlay and Fitzpatrick. And then the green mile feed 16,1 17 and 18 will be a fun one to follow to see how each of the 156 players play the toughest three-hole finishing stretch at least on an annual basis. on the PGA Tour, which would include the PGA Championship when it’s here. I believe only three players in 17 played it under par. It’s a tough stretch. Scotty Sheffller just made 30 at 12, so he’s back to even par with Mroy. Schoffley at one under. So, I guess Scotty can calm down. He never gets too agitated. It’ll be Lowry first here. And he caught a good break. He’s on the front end of a tire track, so plenty of ball exposed. He can fly it all the way to the green if he wants, or he can hit something low and take advantage of the slope that chases past the bunker. almost like he wasn’t committed there. Mark, I would agree. just came out fluffy. Fowler also in the thick rough at least just right up against it. Ned, this just needs to settle a little bit. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Just a really bad lead on a second. Speaking of challenging leaves, what’s going on with Brooks Kepka here, Ned? Well, he’s caught I think it’s going to be a break in the end. He’s in a a wire trench where they’ve run some of the cables here out onto the golf course. And so, he’s called for an official. And by my estimation, I’m not a pools official. Just putting that out there, but he will get relief. I’d be surprised if he didn’t. Meanwhile, looks like Lowry has putter out. Let’s see if Shane goes ahead and plays while Brooks waits on that. Oh, no, he doesn’t. He’s going to pitch this. A little surprised after putting it back on 14. Do you see any difference in the decision making there on those those last two shots? What would result in the club selection? Well, for one, he was downhill all the way to the putting surface on 14. So, no grain to deal with there, as you know. It’s got a little up ramp to go over. And he’s such a good pitcher. And these these lies are immaculate. He left himself one I’m not I don’t love right now since I don’t really play golf anymore. It’s a downhill slider from about 3 and 1/2 ft. Capa now 35 years old, fivetime major champion, winning the US Open twice, winning this event three times. Younger than Rory Mroy. Yeah, Rory just turned 36 last week. Looked like it came out hot. You can see the speed of that the collars here. They’re they’re cut quite tightly. There’s very little difference in the speed of the actual collar. That’s right against the green and these closely moaned areas approaches is what they’re termed. Just an observation, you know, the megawatt trio that went out world number one, two, and three in that featured group. It almost feels like they’ve sucked the energy out of the golf course. We’re over here and it feels like the 8 a.m. home room class. Just nobody wants to get their head off the desk. The gallery not giving it much. I just had some flashbacks. We need a spark, Mark. That’s what we need. Start right here. This one’s definitely holdable up the hill and just fades right to left from his toes to his heels. Kind of hard to believe nobody in this group got it anything under 10 feet for birdie those where those three T-shots were. Well, this one for Ricky, this is a a stroke tester and a confidence builder because it’s essentially right up the fall line. If you hit it with right pace, anywhere inside the hole, left or right side, and it’ll it’ll go down. [Applause] A little sav for the wounds. See if that puts some pep in his step as he goes to the green mile. And Mark, you said this one for Shane Lowry you didn’t particularly envy because you haven’t been playing much. I venture to guess he’s not too excited about it either. That was a clumsy little pitch shot quite frankly. Yeah. And it’s outside 5 ft. Then straight down the hill. We’re all surprised by that start after great play we’ve seen from Shane recently. Now two over par. Fowler improves to one over and Kepka remains even and they walk way back to the 16th T create that new T box created last year for the PGA Tours annual will stop to try to bring that fairway bunker that’s 300 plus yards away from them into play. And Rory Mroy flew it all four days in tournament competition as he would go on to win by five. It is the beginning of the green mile. Well, I’m not going to do the math, but uh it’s only 535 today. the math on see if it’s really a mile and then 17. All those double bogeies lurking around that big lake and that creek comes into play throughout the 18th. Second toughest three-hole finish at the PGA Championship in the last 20 years. If you include the PGA Tour though, it’s the toughest three-hole finishing stretch on an annual basis. I would imagine these guys are aiming left of that bunker, Brooksie. Well, it’s almost 340 to carry and they should not be laying down the breeze today. They’re going to call it 333. left of the bunkers leaves you a relatively long shot. Today’s whole location that’s accurate. It’s back [Music] left. No other way to say it. Four is a good score here. And with these fairways being soft, I mean, it certainly makes it easier to hit these fairways. I’m going to go on a rant here in a minute about defending this golf course and Oh, I love that. I can’t wait to hear that. Now, Ned, when the hole location is in the back left portion, some people like to go right of the fairway, but there’s a big thing called the green mile club they built for you that’s in the way this week. Yeah, you’re not going to be able to do that today. You’re going to have to keep it in the short grass as the hole was intended to play. kind of like that. That actually bounced and rolled out about seven or eight yards. It’s a very good sign, isn’t it? You know, the drive that Brooks hit on 14, he got a bit of fortune to stay out of the water, but it wasn’t far from where he was looking and then he thumped one back on 15. Good swing here. And he might have a little momentum. Seems to like it. Yeah. Smaller. Yeah. You got a bridge. You got a bridge. Shane was marching his way up to the tea box and he and his bagman were having a a conversation and Shane just said, “Let’s not have that as an excuse today.” You’re referring to Darren Reynolds, his caddy and good buddy. And there’s a draw from Lowry. Also into the fairway at the beginning of the Green Mile, the last three holes on the course at Quail Hollow Club. Just a few miles from downtown Charlotte. That’s Bank of America Stadium where the Carolina Panthers play. [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. Beautiful words of Wright Thompson talking about this beautiful place. Quail Hollow Club. Oh, it’s gorgeous. Ryan Fox off to a good start. European Rder Cup captain Luke Donald and some of his potential players are right there at two under. And defending champion Xander Schoffley is one under par to start. Scotty Sheffler and Rory Mackaroy playing with Schoffley are both even par. The group we watch on the 16th. Brooks kept good even. Ricky Fowler at one over. Shane Lowry at two over par. Mark Brooks. What would you like to say about Quail Hollow Club here in Charlotte? Well, for one, I’m I’m a little tired of hearing the the people have been hating on it, beating on it, uh talking about the identity of the PGA. It’s notoriously has the toughest field, the strongest field going as far back as you want to go. and this golf course. But Carrie Hag’s job is to present a stern, tough, and fair test and try to identify the best player this week, arguably the best player in the world. And this field is world represented. And it is a fantastic test. Every club in the bag, we have reachable par4s, every every element you want for championship golf. The other thing is that the leadership and membership at this club are staunch supporters of all things golf, whether it’s professional, amateur, or growing the game, which you know, often abused term. They’re passionate about the game here. And I I I think the criticisms are unwarranted, unfair, and beyond unnecessary. So you can’t ask for a better better presentation than this. Amen, my friend. That bunker you see up in front of Lowry is 190ish to the front edge. So call it 200 for Shane. 227 all the way back to this whole location. And that was aggressive. Needed one more there. Ned just checked up on the very front edge. This a five iron now for Brooks. Ball above his feet. Has to be a little careful that he doesn’t tug this left. Unfortunate little hop off a irrigation control head there. Propelled it another 10 or 15 ft away from the surface. It’s f it’s okay. He’s figured out the driver but still working through those approaches. Ricky Romano is Ricky Fowler’s bag man. Our slot is playing like maybe 202. Yeah, right now. Right now, it’s probably not a club. You know, you have to hit a perfect one. You didn’t quite catch it. It could land, you know, first third, just stop. You know what I mean? Probably just a shot with five just riding it, isn’t it? I mean 204 of the hole. That’s playing. It’s playing 210 fly to the pin at least. Okay. Trying to Yeah, I like it. Ricky hasn’t found a green yet today with an iron from the fairway except at the 10th. And that one was even questionable. Just make your four here, Mark. If you’re Ricky, get it to the center of the green and two play. That’s a five iron. [Music] He picked the right one there. Yeah, that was well thought out and well executed. I was going to say the the most important one is which Ricky really believes is the right club there. Romano has been doing a lot of encouragement to Fowler uh in recent weeks trying to pump him up a little bit and it worked right there. Well, sometimes you might have challenged their manhood a little bit. It’s a beautiful spot on the golf course and that is one gorgeous lake, let me tell you. Yeah, it there are a number of great collection areas to watch a bunch of golf out here at Quail Hollow, but you were referencing the leadership and the commitment to not only championship golf, but all levels of golf. And in the last decade, Mr. Harris, president of this club, Tom Fazio, who has come in and done a lot of work to the golf course and the leadership here, decided to make a significant change to this hole. The hole used to run far to Ricky Fowler’s right. It was a treeine hole and instead they created a new hole on this lake so that you could see five holes in one in one spot and watch all of this action from here on the other side of that lake is the 15th hole. This a look from the back of the green. That’s the 14th hole over there on the other side. And then of course just to the left of our screen is the 17th with those double decker hospitality areas that have been built around one of the toughest par three finishing holes in the game and then 18th of course goes up back to the clubhouse. But they created a stage for championship golf here. That’s what they did and it delivers each time they come. And the spectator is foremost of mind. Little bit of a bad break as you mentioned to clip off one of those irrigation heads, but right uphill into the breeze. He’s had that shot on each side of that lake so far today and executed it well. All right, we’re going we’re going a there. I’m in agreement. Solid. A those are a little more awkward, but that that technique was perfect. Including how he distributed his weight into the hill there. It’s awesome. text textbook. Mark, you would have almost rather had Brooks’s pitch shot there than Shane’s putt. It’s only 86 ft according to our measurement instruments. Last year on the PGA Tour, the longest putt made was right around 90 ft. Ryan Fox. And then until a couple of weeks ago, longest putt made this year was also right around 90 ft. And it was Ryan Fox. Well, the thing you have to gauge here is the speed at the hole because that’s where it’s going to do most of the braking. Totally agree. Get the overall brake right, too. Not bad. This green has a lot of movement in it. Only 10 years old now. The old green was up near where the 17th TE is. Now Fowler putting for birdie. And again, I don’t have a tune a whole lot. Maybe right edge. You like stealing one here. Tyler remains one over. Very well played hole right there though. Just outside seven feet. Think about the last four holes on the green for Lowry. Missed the one at 15. Couldn’t convert at 14. 13 got away from him. Sure he’s aware of that. Hope he’s not thinking about it. I have to say, Ned, this is the most surprising start of anyone on the golf course now given the way that he’s been playing. Well, you didn’t start the show by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, this Shane Lowry might be your champion like I did.” So, I’m really surprised. It’s very early in the championship. I will say that. But remember, uh, 2018 United States Open through seven holes on Friday. Kepka was seven over par and he went on to win. So to your point, Mark Brooks, there’s plenty of golf to be played. Is that right? Seven over par that isn’t that crazy. It’s right up there with people that make quads on the first hole of a tournament and end up winning. Tom Kim did that in this state in Greensboro winning on the PGA Tour. Kept with an up and down and remains at even. He is scrambling, isn’t he, to stay at even par. No pictures on the scorecard. Last week, Tommy Fleetwood had another top 10 finish in the United States. In fact, he has 40 top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour. That’s the most of anyone that’s never won in North America. Fleetwood is off to a hot start here on Thursday [Music] morning here at 14. Same putt Ricky Fowler had solved the puzzle. And now for three in a row back at the par five 15th just a moment ago. And I’m going to tell you, Tommy Fleetwood is proof how hard it is to win on the PGA Tour. He is a great player. Matches Ryan Fox at three under par. I get kids coming the bay, they want to know how to hit an iron. I said, “Go watch Tommy Fleetwood controlled finish.” Oh, it’s so good. Fleetwood is currently the 13th ranked player in the world. I’d put him in the top two or three iron players. Schoffley one under Scotty Sheoffller and Rory Maroy in that same grouping as they play the 14th are even par. This is a look right in front of the Green Mile Club down at the hole. Here is a virtual look of this big par three. Well, it’s only 227 yds today. I know we’ve seen this hole a lot. Familiarity does not lead to contempt in this case. This is an awesome par three. It’s actually decided many, many championships. Back hole location today. A little bit on the left. It’s probably a friendly hole location actually on this green. You know what I mean? Not trying to get too aggressive. That’s the green mile club we were talking about right behind Ricky. It’s virtually the same shot he just had. And I know it’s a little bit downhill, but almost identical shot he just had on the You’re like 16. I’m liking a 205 shot right now. Yeah, I don’t think you can go wrong with 210, but I like I like focusing in on that 205. Okay. Well, you gave him 210 on the last hole and he hit it 205. So, I might have given him the exact same shot just like you said, Mark. I mean, it was the best swing he’s made all day. Don’t complicate things. Yeah. 227 downhill 7 220 That’s five iron on the way out to the right. Not coming back home. No, that will be a popular spot all week. Mark slightly. This is perfect. 34 35. Yep. 324. Ned, how far over that? Come on. Greenside bunker. Do you want to land this? You think anywhere over it will work? If you’re trying to get it close, 10 paces. This is an enormously important swing for Brooks. And it looks like he’s delivered a beauty. Hang in there. There you go, bro. Got it, baby. Just hung up. It’s still moving. Just didn’t hang up. That’s what we thought happened to Ricky’s Fowlers Ball on the first hole today. 10. It’s two hours later now, right? A little warmer. You said that. Little do on the ground. Walking over to the tea here. Shane was blowing his nose and wiping his eyes. So, what we heard on the way to the 16th TE of let’s not use that as an excuse may be some type of allergies. This is right at the center of the green. Handed softly. Irishman needs to turn it around after a slow start here on Thursday morning. [Music] [Music] Hit the green at the PGA Championship with ESPN Bet Sportsbook. Start off the tournament with $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. How about these hospitality suites that have been built out at Quail Hollow Club? These double-decker suites all over the golf course. Huge buildout this year for the 107th PGA Championship here in Charlotte. Fowler, Kepka, and Lowry walking up near the 17th green. Lowry will have a lengthy birdie attempt. Kepka and Fowler’s balls both found the collection area. golf course just in phenomenal condition. Keith Wood has been the superintendent here at Quail Hollow for over a decade and he is truly the best in the business. Everyone raving about the condition of Quail Hollow and I for one Ned have never seen it better. I don’t know how it would be better unless you can control the weather. And if you can do that, we need to have a conversation off air. It has been a dry year so far in Charlotte and we’ve needed all of this rain. We just needed it next week. A lot happening over here. We’re busy to the right of the 17th. Yeah, Kepka taking relief from that drain. And I don’t know if you caught that practice swing from Fowler, but an enormous amount of water splashed up as the club made contact with the ground. So, he’s going to employ casual water and take his relief. And Brooks Kepka. Good break for Brooks because he’s would have been standing on the drain, but from where he was, he could not have putted it. couple of irrigation heads between him and the green. And and how about Ricky going from the the apron over to the first cut, the step cut, as you said, Mark? Get a little cush there, don’t you, Marky? You do. Plus, you really don’t want to play it out of the wet if you don’t have to. And you don’t even want to putt it out of that wet because you’re not confident that it’s going to come out with speed. You you might think that it’s going to come out sluggish and then gas it out of there. No doubt. Greens are TIFF Eagle and then the collars and the approaches are what is called Tacoma and then the rough is Bermuda with as Mark said Palmer Rygrass overseed in it. And that Tacoma was developed at Ricky Fowler’s alma mater. Came out of Oklahoma State Department. Well, they weren’t sure who was going to play first, so they flipped the tea, pointed at Ricky. So, it’s his play. Well done, [Applause] There’s a little roll off there. Some might call it a false edge, but typically called rolloffs that uh Ricky had to encounter. Decided to carry it. It’s also the same thing that carried Brooks’s ball off the surface. This one needs some pace to climb this hill. It’ll bounce to the right early and right here should start to come left again. His report card stays up there in the 4.0 range for the short game test. similar to that of Taylor Zarzers in college. Uh there are some people that are hopefully watching that can that would object to that, but I really appreciate that you think it. I bet Ned Michaels uh Shane Lowry is getting tired of these extremely lengthy birdie opportunities. Well, let’s see. He had a what 50-footer on 11. Yeah. 46′ 5 in. And then had the big one back there on 86′ 5 in. 16. Yep. This one’s 66 ft 8 in. This one as far as 66footers go is relatively straightforward. Right to left early flattens out and then tries to slither from left to right the last say six or eight feet. But again, just get the pace right. That’s the main thing. Needs to get on the horse. Another one of those. Just what you want. You may have allergies going. Well, Ned mentioned it earlier, the putting numbers, which can be a bit headscratching for Shane. As you look at his putting numbers this year on the PGA Tour, putting from inside 10 ft, he’s 137th. And you actually get to 4T, he’s 173rd. Well, this is 5′ 6 in. So, this is going to be center cut. Told you it’s been a frustrating start for Shane after another chance to win this past Sunday in Philadelphia. Just outside four feet. Confidently hold. You don’t win five majors without having a exquisite short game usually. And he has one. He does. Remains even par as he goes to the 18th T. Part of our feature group coverage this morning has the top three players in the game. Scotty Sheoffller, Rory Moy, and defending champion Xander Schoffley. All three of them are even par. as they play the par five 15th. Mroy and Schoffley both made birdie on their first hole. Sheffler had an early bogey, but they are at 15 as our group gets ready to play 18. Meanwhile, the top of the leaderboard is interesting. Mark, we have six guys that are three under par to start, including both Rder Cup captains at three under par. Luke Donald is three under through 10. Keegan Bradley three under through his first four. That’s awesome. Playing cap playing captains. Matt Fitzpatrick. A good start. Ryan Fox, one of the first guys on the course at three under. We referenced Fleetwood and the man I flew next to from the last PGA Tour event to here to Charlotte, Nico Etchavaria, who was grilling me with questions on the plane flight here on Sunday night. gets off to a good start. Was that on your G10? No. No. Uh I would love one of those. It was um it was not glamorous. I’ll say that. Ricky going with mini driver again here. At least it had the look of the mini driver. This out to the right a bit but trying to draw back. He’s not having any trouble hitting the fairways. when he beat Maroy in in D8 points in a playoff 13 years ago, he executed a similar shot to that one. Hit it a bit further down there and led to birdie and he won for the first time on the PGA Tour. This is also not a driver. Yeah, they just had a last minute checkown. I like this play. This big hardwood that hangs out over the left side is in his way for the fade. He can turn this over a little bit better. See if that stayed up. Ned, that’s close. Yeah, his slider hasn’t been sliding. leaning a bit. It’s perfect. Now it’s perfect. about three yardds from the penalty area, but perfect. Now on the left side of the fairway, we have seven players at three under par off to good starts in the 107th PGA Championship. [Music] 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. It certainly changed your life, Mark, winning in 1996. Would you agree with that? 6870 6970. Those were your four scores. Four good days. Is that what you had? Yes, I had four good days. Mhm. For sure. I don’t know how much it changed my life. I mean, the the exemptions, you know, it’s amazing. But, uh, I wasn’t I was about these guys’ age. You you certainly can see a guy have a mediocre day and then have a remarkable day. But to Wright’s point, almost all of the champions have four at least good days. It’s hard to win a major or it’s hard to win any golf tournament with a bad day in but you know this one of the statistics that came out well sort of caught my attention from the first major of the year was the basically basically if you’re not in the top 10 after the first round you you kind of don’t win. So it’s not going to be true as true here in this championship but well you were tied for fourth after the first round man. Where are you digging that stuff? You were tied for third after the second round. 192. I think he stayed up here, Ned. Sure did. Another nice break for Brooks. Keep some baseball in his family and he’s going to have to play a bit of it here. It looks like three or six. I mean, it’s the the green’s wet and there’s there’s nine behind it as well. So it’s not, you know, you’re safe with that. Come on. Couple hundred yards. Sixiron. This is doable. Throw it out to the right. That’s what he’s done. And it is curling back. Is it up? See if it’ll stay there. Nope. It’s going to turn around. Still a good play in that position. I I referenced the baseball his great uncle Dick Gro played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Fowler center cut. Take dead aim here. This was a big pull. I don’t know if it’s cutting. [Music] stay up, but it’s in the rough. Mark, I think it’s worth noting Tuesday the greens were as firm as we’ve seen them. Yesterday, you and I on the golf course, it felt like the greens were softer and the course was a little bit slower. And the green seems soft here early Thursday as well. I’d agree with that. Looking at the reaction of these balls. Oh, well, when they’re this soft, take a chance and go flag hunting, right? Darnair jarred that. There’s a wild little hop right at the hole. 186. Oh, it almost two hopped right in the jar. That was actually kind of cool there. Think it had any cut spin there? That was more like it from the Irishman. Somebody get him some allergy pills. Brooks Kepka has been living on the edge so far this morning. What’s the key here when the ball is so far above your feet? Don’t shank it. How do I do that? Wider stance. I think that’s one of the keys. stay centered and it is a little more baseball swing and do your geometry meaning figure out where that face is likely going to be at impact. So if you’re going to probably yank it, play for it. That that’s what I’m saying that, you know, do the do the geometry how you set yourself up. And same thing around the greens. When you get those super awkward lies around the green, just start doing do a little better geometry and realize that ball’s going to take off wherever that face is looking. That’s where the ball’s going to start. Same is true there. I think they were actually worried about that ball coming out a little hot. wedge out Mark. And in my opinion, that’s absolutely the correct play. It’s too many slopes, too much ground to cover with a putter. No, sometimes you’re right. Pitching the ball actually makes reading the shot easier. Not always, but he’s taking that big roll off in front out of play. Pitch right over it. It’s pretty darn good right [Applause] there. B+ for Brooks. So, he still got a a A average on these pitches. It’s probably about six feet. Rick is not wasting any time if he’s serious about hitting this. He is. All right, Mark Brooks, I have a a riddle that you can help me solve here. Ricky essentially, we’ll call it 200 yards. He was 190ish and then another six seven uphill. So call it 200 all the way to the flag. And as they walked by I asked them, “What’d you hit? Five or six?” And then they kind of looked at me. So I had to ask it again. Five or six? And they said that was a seven. So first of all, I felt about as big as a gummy bear. Second of all, he told me on Tuesday he hits his seven iron 180 yards. I guess uh adrenaline. They’re probably playing the wet a little bit too in the bounce. There there might be a yard or two of wind behind him, but if you had said he’s hitting seven, I’d say he’s probably going to miss it left. Yeah, I agree with that. And of course, as you know, everybody should be, you know, usually don’t need reminding. They’re just playing to a carry yardage to some certain spot or area. Probably accounting for 20 or 30 ft of release. And I’m I’m I agree with you. I think these greens have they’re not any firmer than they have been. That’s for sure. 8 ft for par. Was so fluid on that last one back at 17. That’s pretty fluid right there. Again, like all great most great championship golf courses, you still need to try to keep the ball under the hole. It’s very true here at Quail Hollow. And that doesn’t always mean short of the hole. There’s sometimes you got to get it all the way back there. um past the hole. Sometimes it’s under the hole. That’s exactly where Brooks is cutting from. Firm and inside the hole. Pulled it. Just kind of fighting with fire Ned with playing off of the fairway and off of the green so much. [Applause] And we’ll turn at one over through nine. How many cumulative greens has this trio hit here on our opening nine holes? I’ll do some quick math for you here. He’s given this 3 foot 8 incher full attention again. He hasn’t missed from 3 ft or inside all season long. You know, this is a little bit outside of it. Yeah. He’s hit seven. He’s used his putter far too often. Only four greens hit for Ricky Fowler so far. I’m keeping the running total here for you. We’ve seen a lot of scrambling from Brooks Kepka this morning. He’s only hit three. So, seven combined for Fowler and Lowry and seven for for Fowler and Keepa rather and seven for Lowry. They make the long walk over from 18 green to the first T as they play their second nine holes this morning. For Eric Steager, golf is not only his profession, but a family tradition. The PGA golf instructor is making his first appearance in a major and brings a unique family tie to the event. My dad, who’s a 40-year PGA member and has qualified through this tournament as well in ’94. I don’t think I made a birdie in the two rounds I played. I missed the cut by five or six shots and flew back and and ran my men’s club here the next morning. We grew up on the same course that I still teach at today. He was a head pro at for 25 years. That full circle moment is uh very cool. Good. The impact that I get to make on other people, especially new golfers, is amazing to me. And if I could just plant a few seeds in their mind and be able to make a difference, a small difference in this game is incredible. It’s going to be great. I know that it’ll be emotional for sure. as he walks down the fairways. Pebble Brook Golf Club, Noblesville, Indiana, and his first major appearance. Eric te’s off this afternoon. Those are the Corebridge Financial team of 20 scores so far from club professionals that teed off this morning. Stagger is out at 1236 off of the 10th T. It’s a great tradition in the PGA Championship to have those 20 in our event each year. And certainly to give a special shout out to Preston Cole who played in the PGA Championship last year at Valhalla. He is the top assistant here at Quail Hollow. Came so close. Mark qualifi sectionals at the at the PGA professional championship down in Florida to qualifying here. But instead, he’s he’s got a coat and tie on working in the shop this week with the rest of the great staff. He’ll be ready next year. A beautiful clubhouse between the 18th green and now over to the first TE. Well, Ned asked earlier if you don’t want to start it on one or 10. I don’t think it mattered, but this is a stern opener. You can see 504 yds pretty hard dog leg to the right. It’s just asking how you how’s your ball striking. So, you know, an architect can choose the famous some of the more well-known phrases are, you know, open around with a handshake. There’s no rules. You can open with a right cross. Mr. Wakers trophy is out there that you hoisted 29 years ago. Barely. It is heavy. 30 lb. I saw it weighs more than a keg of beer. Yes, we empty. We have a great feature on that we’ll show you coming up in a little while. The hole is 19 yds shorter, Mark, than it was when it was debuted in 2017. The first hole used to be a short under 400 yd par4 and it left. It was eliminated and this hole was created eight years ago for the PGA Championship. So that would have been more of a handshake opener. Yes. And then the downhill par three second which is where the uh where you can buy a hat or a shirt in that big tent was down there at the second. That hole’s gone now. back into the breeze now. And he didn’t love the finish. Didn’t like the strike. Ned, we will see players take such different lines off the tea. You’ll see a guy like Lowry try to play a cut off those bunkers which he was unable to do there. And then you’ll see players aim in the trees trying to clear them. Bryson Dshambo later today. I would expect him to do that. The last time he was here that’s what he did. Now that long ball, you know, they say around here that’ll go a long way. First time we’ve seen the big driver, not the mini driver from Ricky today. And that’s a beauty. He’s taking it just up the right over the drip line of those trees that you mentioned, Taylor. [Music] Terrific. We watched Midwe on Tuesday play here. He had nine iron into the green. Hit it over the corner of those trees. And this would set up ideally for Brooks. He’s trying to drop to the right. His cut hasn’t been cutting. The cut. No cut. You’re right, Mark. Yeah, that’s left. Eight players are three under par. It’s the first round of the PGA Championship. [Music] Captain Keegan Bradley shave that mustache off. He’s got a clean look coming in here at the PGA Championship. Of course, he won this event 14 years ago. A nice play from the apron area at 10 that led to birdie ahead at 12 back right hole location. Keegan went flag hunting. Also led to a birdie and got a golf club from Mark Brooks at the par 313 over that greenside bunker right next to the hole. Bradley three under through his first four. He just parred the 14th. Look at all of those players at three under par. Both captains of the RDER Cup at three under Keegan Bradley might have to pick himself if he keeps playing like this. Mark, well, he just outright qualify. He did say that if he doesn’t outright qualify, the top six make it in automatically. That he wouldn’t be inclined to pick himself, but something tells me his teammates may tell him that he’s on the team. Scotty Sheffller’s name at the bottom of that screen now at two under par. Scotty started with a bogey at 11. Birdie 12, but just made some noise. Mark over at the 15th. This from off the green for Eagle. Pretty good spot to leave it though on that second shot. paid it off. See took the flag out. Chefer two under. Maroy one under. Shley even par. Usually this is just a wedge out. Get it back into play shot from this bunker. It’s 238 yds away. Ned, can how far can Lowry andor Kepa advance the ball here? I don’t believe they can get it that far. I’m not even sure they can capture the front of the green. Does have a clean lie, but the ball significantly below his feet right now. You’re thinking about getting it in the fairway. How am I going to make par with my third solid strike up 30 35 yards short of the green there. No way Brooks can get it down that far. Just too close to the lip this one. Left and high. Believe it stayed in the first cut. It’s just in the edge of the fairway. Yeah. Okay. straight action, right? A little off. Yeah. Can’t really play it to move it though. You know what I mean? Okay. So, 99 Yeah, I really like trust that Fowler again. Ball below his feet. Should be a sixiron. Go. It’s good now. Mark turned out fine. Guys, this is a par five the rest of the year. The other 51 weeks of the year, it is played as a par five. And because of that, it one of the easiest holes, at least from a handicap perspective. But it is a par4 when these guys come to town. As we take another look at Ricky swing, just barely covering that greenside bunker on the right. And now the putt for birdie. And that was a 6R confirmed by the incredible quality of this video presentation. Chris Olmire and his team of camera operators doing a great job with that. Joe Taylor, Mitch Hummer, and the Cameron, and the rest of our crew all doing a great job with us this week on our feature group coverage of Fowler, Kekka, and Lowry. Three under is the popular score right now. There are 10 guys that have gotten to that mark. No one to four under yet. Because Kepka and Lowry were in that fairway bunker. They’re both trying to get up and down from outside 50 yards. It’ll be Kepka first. Want a little bit of an upshooter lie. It was going to require some boldness to fly it all the way to the back where the hole is. And maybe Mark, smart play there, just taking a big number out of the equation. No doubt. About 60 yards for Shane. Perfect angle. And he’s walked all the way up on the green. Wants to feel the green firmness under foot. Wants to be able to assess. Is this going to bounce or is it going to land soft? It’ll curl hard from right to left. And Mark, from what I’m seeing, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just tries to hit a low one over the bunker and let it almost roll out like a putt. I guess he could throw it halfway into the center of the green with some spin on it if he wanted that option. Yeah, I think he’s probably looking for a something lowish with a long first hop. Again, long is is a bad situation. Tough up and down long here. He’s going to keep some check on this [Music] one again. Protecting from going long. But you guys have said it in the last 24 hours. Just much softer conditions. These balls are not rolling out as much as they did earlier in the week. I would imagine that changes this afternoon if it continues to stay dry on this Thursday. Another look here, Mark. I’m sure perfect contact. flew low. Just didn’t hit hard enough. The softer conditions. We were We were talking about this walking around the other day. You know, does it bother you hitting five irons, seven irons, eight irons? The softer turf, the softer conditions. I I I would argue it’s harder on wet shots, you know, because you’re sitting down on it so much more that uh more uncomfortable contact with the turf than they’re used to. Firmer. They want it firm. You can see that ball running on out. Actually runs away back there. That’s an uphill putt coming back. Pretty stout stretch when you do te off number 10. Starting 16 17 18 1 2 3 That is a tough sixhole stretch. net. Traditionally, the two hardest three-hole stretches on the course are these six holes. And that’s why I was questioning earlier where would you rather start on the 10th or the first? Our leaderboard proves otherwise. It’s an even split front and backside starters. However, another pay attention to the speed on this one. That was smoking. Smoking is right. That might have run off the green had it not collided with the cup. Oh yeah, that was 10 12 ft by if not more. 1 2 and three at Quail Hollow on the golf course is the second hardest three-hole stretch on the course. 16 17 18 the hardest. A lengthy par attempt for Lowry here. Even though a different angle that might have spooked Shane a little bit, I hope so. You don’t want to get too frisky with this. Net. That’s 20 putts through 10 holes and you can feel every one of them. I’m going to round this one up to 5 ft net 4T 11 in. Well, he’s been steady with the steel for the last three or four five footers that he has had. again. Look, should be inside. Grateful on 17 and 18 buried it. Should be inside left. Yes, some nice rhythm right there, Mark. These greens are so good that if you start feeling it with the putter, you seeing the lines, you just get the the sense that you can start to make everything You can almost sense a little frustration in his putt on 18 a few minutes ago. His par putt that he tried to jam in there. So much for avoiding the big number. Double bogey for Kepka. Speaking of double bogeies, the top two players in the game, at least by world ranking. Both just made one at the 16th hole. Rory Mroy was short and right of the green in two which is a very difficult place to play from. You have to go over a bunker and he had trouble from there and that led to double bogey and after an eagle at 15. Scotty Sheffller just gave those strokes back as well. He hit it in the water with his second shot and Scotty is now back to even par. Green mile taketh away once again. And we were gonna have to get a third score scorecard up there too. Joe Xander Schoffley double bogey at 16. All three of the top three players just took a six at the 16th. Ned, you need need to give these guys a pep talk. Gracious, what is happening? I tell you what, it’s gotten hot over the last 45 minutes or an hour, so maybe that’s taking a little energy out of the boys. went right through it, Ricky. Hard dog leg left here on number two. 454 yards today. There it is with the X-Man. That is wild. This hole turns hard left at the 300 yard mark. That looks better. Perfect. Hole played. Each of these three Ned will play the hole the way it was intended to be played. We might see Mr. Dashambo take a different line later today. That’d be something to watch, wouldn’t it? I mean, he’d be looking over the tallest of those hardwoods down the left side. That’s where the green is. Kept’s going through these trees. Let’s see if he gets away with it. Not high enough. Not high peak height enough. Thought I heard some lumber. You did. Yeah, they’re scrambling towards the cart path under a couple of those oaks down the left side, specifically Willow Oaks. Let’s take you through the front doors past general manager Tom Delo’s office to the waker trophy at Quail Hollow Club. the PGA of America and our more than 30,000 PGA of America golf professionals. We love this game. Scott Davenport has been the head professional at Quail Hollow for over 20 years. He has a terrific team of PGA professionals here at Quail Hollow. Deacon Bradley, Luke Donald, the Rder Cup captains getting off to a good start. Alex Smallley got in the field this morning. Sahit Tagala withdrew due to injury and Smallley took his spot and he’s making the most of it. I do like that PGA Championship invites the top 10 alternates to be on site now in case something happens so that they’re prepared. They’re allowed to play practice rounds. Sure. So, Small had a normal preparation in advance of this PGA Championship. nothing to lose. Remember back in 1991 when John Daly was the ninth alternate? No, I don’t remember that. And got into the field and won it. Forgot about that one. Do you know who withdrew that got him in? You want to go down that? I know Mark lie was one of them. No, Nick Price. Well, yeah, he was at the top, but then there were a few others after that. I think he was the one that tipped him over. Drove drove all night. Yes, he did. T-shots at the second. Kepka either just off of the pine straw near the cart path over there and Fowler and Lowry with beauties. Kepka’s in the grass trampled down so he does have enough ball where he can get some solid club on it. just figure out where to leave it so you can have the best chance of making a four. That should be your job. The problem here is he needs to carry it by my math about 100 yards to get it into the fairway. And so he’s going to have to keep it under the canopy of trees. And if he does that, it’s going to chase through the back of the green or he just rifled it right into the trees right to our feet. Could have been worse. It has been a rough start for this three-time champion. Just three of nine fairways and three of 11 greens. And Brooks Cup goes three over. Oh, Ned’s exactly right. The tough part is to get it up out of this grasp yet keep it down long enough. I’m sure it was one of those that No, that got up too quickly. Terrific shot in there. See if that can get Shane Lowry going. He’s definitely got something going on in the head. I mean, talking about allergies or something. We’re golfers. We all have something going on in the head, don’t we? Well, that’s why I corrected myself very quickly. 141. Yeah. Give me about 145. M below his feet uphill. Short right is not the miss. Neither’s pole high to the right. I had to call that one in the air. Saw it coming and inexplicable. Unlike inexcusable. I mean, it’s just Yeah. Not not firing on the cylinder today. He’s missing from the middle of the fairway three times now with scoring clubs in his hand. And he’s made the mistake you cannot make. And unlike some of the other aprons here, this one runs into the rough and doing what he’s doing there. It almost tells me he’s out there playing a little bit little bit of swings going on. It’s crazy. Ricky’s still back in the fairway. That’s what I mean. Figure out what happened, isn’t he? I mean, just look at him. I’m sorry. Meanwhile, Brooks came all the way up to the green. as he walks back to prepare to play his third shot. Yeah. And this is kind of a gross looking situation on the extreme downs slope. Matted grass wrapped around the ball. Call it 30 yards to the front edge. Good news is if the greens are a little soft, Mark, you can carry it five or six paces on and it’ll streak from left to right. Anything inside of 10 ft here is pretty special. He’s definitely taking it upstairs. We’ll send it to our PGA of America professional Natalie Shien with more. Thanks, guys. So, we just saw Brooks Kepka hit a punch shot out of the woods. And there are a couple mistakes I see people making when they try and hit these shots at home. And one of them is taking either too big of a back swing, but mainly it’s adding too much speed through the ball. So having excellent tempo on these shots is incredibly helpful. Sure that you make solid contact and that the ball does not launch too high when you hit it. So what I love to try and have people do is really practice swinging the club from hip to hip, keeping my arms nice and long. And you can add a little bit of speed, but we don’t want to go overly fast so that the ball jumps up. So, just like that, you can keep it nice and low with some speed. Back to you guys. And you said it earlier, Mark. That’s the key through acceleration with those clubs. Natalie and her husband Justin do such a great job at Pelican Golf Club down in Bair, Florida near Tampa. Fowler now from the rough. That’s about all he had there, Ned. Yeah, he had to take the short and miss out of play, didn’t he? This was Keepa’s second shot that led to the third shot that Natalie was just talking about. Yep. missed the window by three or four feet. You’re right, though. That probably was going to be through the through the green anyway. This green has a lot of fall from back to front, by the way. I might add it. It feels like when you’re on it, it has maybe the most This one will be speedy. You better believe it. It’ll just be a tiny little nudge with a stroke. And because of that, you have to give it so much borrow out to the right. And he’s aimed a good three feet out to the right. kept his round coming apart. He was even through eight holes, but a bogey at 18, double at one, and as that left for bogey at two. [Music] Fowler for par. About halfway there, it’ll snap off. Heels to his toes. Oh, Jesus. Let’s see a birdie. Mr. Michaels Shane Lowry inside 10 ft. Beautiful approach shot. What you don’t know was there was quite a bit of debris on his golf ball. So, there’s a little bit of a hit and hope and he was rewarded. So, to pay it off, find a little paid dirt. here would go a long way to improving morale. And I don’t mind being firm with this one a little bit. Yeah, it may run three or four feet past if you miss, but I think you can take some of the break out of this. He’s just uphill and it’s quartering from the back of the green to the front. [Applause] We did get a player to four under Mark Brooks. We’ve got Ryan Fox now at four under through 14. Just played the par4 fifth. And he’s played the most holes. He must have been in the opening pairing. Let me double check. Yeah, there’s one actually one group in front of him. He teed off at Well, you know, you’re right. He He did He was in the first group at 705. Se the first group off of the back. That is That’s what I thought. There’s Ned’s theory. And Brooks has taken an awful long time to line this up. Paid special attention to it. Something might be broiling under the surface. Just took a moment to get it in check. Turn the temperature down. Next May, the PGA Championship returns to Aronomic Golf Club in New Town Square, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. To register for tickets, visit pga championship.com/register. Registration closes soon. The PGA Tour was in Philadelphia last week. That tournament will be here next year. And this tournament will be there next year. So this little Charlotte Philadelphia twostep will continue. Aronomic next year. Then Frisco where Natalie Sheen is at PGA Frisco headquarters. Goes to Olympic 2028. Back to Baltas in 2029. Congressional hosting the PGA Championship. Only did that once. 1976 they get it in 2030 before we go back to Kioa Island, South Carolina in 2031. That was out in the middle of the face. And if those last five holes weren’t enough, you get you be you get greeted by the 488 yard par4 third. This is one of my favorite holes on the golf course. It’s such a classic treelined well bunkered. Just a straightforward great golf test right here. just makes you want to hit two good shots and demands it. It is the number one handicap hole on the scorecard uh the other 51 weeks of the year. It doesn’t play like that this week. Typically the first and the 18th are the hardest holes. Finally got one to cut. The range is over there. See if Brooke stayed on the property. He’s going to hit another golf ball. That is over near the fourth hole. Just can’t find the center, can he? No, he’s a little crossed up right now. Future group coverage continues of the 107th PGA Championship in just a moment. [Music] [Music] Lock in your PGA Championship winner at ESPN Bet Sportsbook right Now, new customers can get $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 are brought to you by ESPN Bet Sports Book. Keep his odds have gone up to 100 to one. Fowler now 400 to1 and Lowry 225 to one and it has been a struggle from the start for these three world class players. Lowry two second place finishes this year on the PGA Tour ranked 10th in the world. Ricky Fowler just had his best week of the year last week. A top 15 finish. Look, Skepco trying to find that form. He’s trying to find his T-shot here on the third. I don’t know if Ned Ned’s got anything info over on the practice range. We are in search. It is wide right and not in the practice area. I don’t think the practice area was out of bounds. It’s not out of bounds. Yeah. But I don’t know that we found it. I’m walking up on it now. They seemed to have it and then they kind of lost it. Sounds like usual day. So we just heard it hit the road. We could get some somebody told us the road here on the other side. Just trying to see what it pass angled this way. So, do you know where it hit the path? Here. Further down here. So, down there. Yeah. You didn’t hear anything after the path, did you? No. Then I would say once it did that rig, it’s probably over. Meanwhile, Fowler’s going to go ahead and play the middle of the fairway mark. 190 right to the hole. Be a good strike right up the gut. Big ridge between his ball and the flag stick. Yeah, two nice shots still though. Carries a yard. It’s perfect. Yeah, it’s the wrong hole to be looking for a birdie. 3 minutes goes fast nowadays. Can’t find it. Now Shane’s going to play. It’s like the second time. 176 just like his shot at 18 that he nearly hold. That’s a fine play. Good shot. It’s actually a good place to putt from too back uphill. Meanwhile, the clock ticks. We got to be past 3 minutes or what number are you playing? 33. Yeah, I got it. I mean, you got to have a clock on it. Good. Yeah. No, you’re fine. I think we got it, gentlemen. Ed, it sounded like you just found it. I believe we found her. Yeah. Over here on the driving range. 33 with a black line something. Yeah. So, we’re going to swing it on an equal distance. Yeah. I guess he could play from here. Swing out this way. Yeah. Then you’ll have a one going toward the water. Drop it. Okay. I’m surprised he’s not considering this as an option. The lie is perfect. Band up over there. And where I think he’s going to take a drop, guys. He’s going to have big tree trouble. We just got it. hit the path and then went over. Yeah, I saw it. Yeah, we do now. Yeah. You say about here? Yeah, it was right across from here. Yeah, I had this kind of mark. So now put a key right here. You actually measure one club like you get your driver, put it right, you’ll measure one from right against it. Okay. And then you’ll get me a driver. Yeah. Actually use any club in the back or club length. By the way, I mean when I was over there, I thought about that second corridor. the sand wedge out. Some great camera work here to give us an idea of what he has left. And I’m with Ned. I am very surprised that he would not go over to where Ned found his ball and play from there. He has a much more open path to the hole from there. Go there. The there’s the back end of the range that he could play a draw over towards the green. They may not be allowing it. Is that right? Yeah. Well, when it’s all said and done, I’ll unpack this for you. Talk to the rules official. Well, remind him he can use he doesn’t have to use a driver when he’s doing the club length measurements. If he doesn’t have an option, then then obviously then you play this. And if you want a souvenir, there’s a Brooks Kepka 336 Frixon hanging out on the driving range right now. Huh? Yeah. That’s the only other shot in front or something. Even if it comes up short, it’s all right. And it just thread it. A lot of hit and hope here. [Music] By my count, that’s the third trees right through the middle of today. And that’ll be a challenging third shot that’s left. So, you’re going to dissect what went on there, Ned? I’m alongside Jesse Barge, who’s the referee here. What, Jesse? What is the situation? We found the ball in the range. Can he not play it from there or could he have played it? He could have played it from there, but he’s also entitled to relief. Everything over there is still in bounds. And this fence and the fence there are both, this is a tio. It’s on his line. So, he gets to come out on the equidistant arc. And then we measure a corridor, one club length, which he cannot drop the ball in. Second club length is where he drops the ball. But he, to be clear, he could have played it from where it lied on the range. He could have played it if he had chosen to. Yes. Thanks, Jesse. appreciate your good work. Outstanding work by you too, Ned, to get that information. And I again, now I’m really shocked. I understand walking around there and how much time it takes and all of that and getting yardage, but you do get distance measuring devices to figure that out. And like Ned said when he found the ball and and Ned, you saw what he had left for his second over there that he decided not to play. I mean, it was a much more open angle. Correct. I would have given him a 50/50 finding the green. He had a perfect lie on an ups slope trees. Yeah, I had to go over them, but they weren’t a problem. The only issue was going to be could they find the target? Because again, they couldn’t see the green. All they could see was clouds in the top of the pines and the hardwoods. But given the choice between those two, it was a complete no-brainer. Didn’t didn’t even walk over. So either they assumed that they didn’t go look or as you were saying, Brooksie, as he took some time over that short putt back at the second, maybe there’s a little soup that’s boiling. Some local knowledge here. Mr. Michael’s good friend, Mr. Golden, has a house over there right of the third green. You just aim at that house, play a little draw, and you go say hi to Cam Cam. That’s right. And meanwhile, there’s three at top the leaderboard at four under par, including Captain Donald. The third for Kepka here. Tough angle from 55 yds. He’s giving himself a chance to save par. Pretty darn good there. Yeah, Mark, just as you said it, Ryan Fox made a bogey at the par 36th. So, it’s just Donald and Steven Joerger at four under and a big group of players at three under, including Keegan Bradley, Ryan Fox, that big three group, top three in the world are going over to the first TE after playing nine holes. Sheffller even Maroy one over, Schoffley two over. You know what? We’re do. We’re do. It’s uphill. A little ripple in the green here and then works from right to left. Just under 35 ft. Ricky currently two over on his round. These players have primarily been out of position or andor defensive with most of their shots so far. Lowry can be aggressive here though. needs to shake off that last putt. That will be one of the weakest effort he makes all week, maybe even all year. That one never had a chance. This one might surprise you, though, with how much it’s going to break. It’ll curl towards the bunkers that flank the front left of the green. There we go. Really nice birdie there. And birded 18. It’s a lot of break right there. Good three feet of break. Now kept good to save par. Clearly moving left. Just not quite enough. That is a nasty stretch of holes for Brooks right there. Bogeied 18, doubled one, bogei two, and now a bogey at three. That’s officially on a train that you do not want a ticket to. Ticket on the crazy train. That’s the one. That’s Fowler saves his bar. Well, Mark, I may or may not be speaking from experience here. I’m going to assume you’ve never been over there, but this is what we were talking about. So, that is where Brooks’s T-shot was. So, if you play along the cart path and draw it towards those skinnier trees that are up near the green, you have much more of an opening instead of in the trees, which is where Kepka dropped from. Terrific job by our team here to give you an idea of what Brooks’s options were there at the third. Probably been like a five or six iron big old high sweeping hook. Interesting. He didn’t go at least check on his options and it did take a long time by the way. I’m not like throwing a flag at him, but it took forever to identify that ball. You’re supposed to have three minutes. Mark, something else of note is that no one came to identify the ball. I was the only one over there. So, they’re essentially taking my word for it. And I don’t know that how much I count in that situation, but I guess you had a black line. It was a 33 strict. It was his, but just curious that you don’t have to at least go identify it. I guess it’s kind of like ground under repair. Yeah, I think well that’s what we I I kind of thought maybe he couldn’t play from over there that it was like a hit and hit hit it. You know, if you hit it over the bleachers or something like 17 here, we know that if you’ve hit it, you know, well in the bleachers the right of the green on the par three, you don’t have to even go find your ball necessarily, but he could have played it from over there. So, he probably should have identified that. 186 186 This needs to hang on. This out to the right. Caught a piece. Another birdie putt. That was if Oh, we’ve seen a number of those lengthy Lowry putts today. He did have 22 putts through 11 holes, but that last hill counts as a zero putt since he was on the fringe. So, does that make sense? trying to reach you. There’s no help. [Music] [Music] There is a touch of help. I do have a little help. You might just have to do too much of it. It’s just a good song. Okay. kind of get the sense that this is an important shot in their mind. They have studied it thoroughly. The wind, if there’s any up there, might be hitting it a little bit. 177 to cover the bumper. This could be a hard seven. Stay there. Stay there. Short in the bunker. Good song. Good solid right on that white flag. Good. It’s likely an eight iron for Brooks. And that’s Ricky Elliott, his longtime caddyy trying to give him some confidence. Well, this is right at it. Was a big backwards bounce. That was strange. Strange. Very soft. ESPN Plus has feature group coverage of the PGA Championship. The PGA of America coaching center powered by T-Mobile in Fris, Texas features state-of-the-art technology from Trackman, Top Tracer, Swing Catalyst, Putt View, and Sam Putt. T-Mobile’s 5G network powers everything from PGA golf coaching to delivering tour van club fittings across all major equipment manufacturers. PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Ricky Fowler in the bunker at the par 34th. Makable four or five ft below the surface. should come out. Release. [Applause] Tasty. Matt. How about the condition of the golf course with fortunately no rain here on this Thursday yet? Sorry, Taylor, if you don’t mind saying that again. And I was talking with Johnny McInness about what just happened with Kepka over. I was just saying thankfully we had no rain this morning and I was asking you how the golf course is holding up. You know, this morning it still had moisture. A lot of it was from the overnight dew, but it has uh started to dry out. It’s still playing exceptionally soft, but your your socks are staying dry. That certainly is a good thing. Deluge of rain on Sunday, Monday, good amount of it on Tuesday, shower yesterday. Shane Lowry has been making full shoulder turns on the putting green this morning. Yeah, this one’s no fun either at the hole. It’s got a lot of movement and actually picks up some pace from 68 ft away. Bingo. [Applause] All you have to do is just keep practicing them. [Applause] How about those two back fringe on three and then the bomb at four had the birdie at 18 please motoring and the body English yoga Yeah, the yoga pose kept for birdie. [Music] [Music] [Music] A welcome par to softly step off that train. And after beautiful shot from the sand, Fowler taps in for par as they head to the fifth T. [Music] Suddenly Shane Lowry has a little pep in his step. A beautiful approach shot at the 18th. His ninth hole of the day. Stream left portion of the fairway. Great angle. Carved it in [Music] there. Converted. And then after a nice approach at the third from the back fringe and a good drive, set that up by the way. 311 yds right down the middle. He’s had five putts so far outside 50 ft. Eventually one of them will go in. Boom. [Applause] eventually might be one out of a 100, but we’ll take [Music] it. Lowry at one over par. [Music] Yeah. Off the wind mode. Off the wind mode. [Music] That’s what we’ve seen from Shane most of this season. That was a confident swing. Rick, he’s been sweet off the tea today. He just seems confident. It’s been the iron play and the places that he’s missed it around the greens and down after the tea quickly here. Rick, that’s nine of 11 fairways. Ned probably hit more fairways than he has greens. Confirmed. That’s not a good stat. Well, I mentioned that Kefka the last two days on the range was just thumping the driver. It was artwork, but it hadn’t quite cooperated much today. Okay. And this one to the [Music] left. Meanwhile, Luke Donald, Alex Norin, and Steven Joerger are at the top of the board at four under par. It’s the 107th PGA Championship from Quail Hollow Club on ESPN Plus. T- shots at the fifth for our featured group. Threetime champion Brooks Keepa struggling off the tea today. And that continues. He’s in that fairway bunker. Fowler and Lowry with beauties. [Music] high iron or a wedge into the screen today. You can play from that fairway bunker though, that left fairway bunker towards the green. This fifth fairway does sit much lower than most of the fairways at Quail Hollow. And we’ll see if there’s anything on Fowler or Lowry’s golf balls. Mark, what about the decision to play the ball down today from the PGA of America? I don’t think it was there was any decision to be made. It’s just not done. I mean, it would take extreme casual water situation for them to have to invoke that that rule. And do you like it? 2016 to your point, the last time we saw it was 2016. It bought us all and that was almost wash out. Fortunately, we were able to finish, but did finish in lift clean and place conditions. As a player, you probably wanted this, you know, you wanted your hand on it if it was going to be buddy. Mhm. And we know that’s not why the rules there. It’s not, we you’re not supposed to invoke the lift, clean, and place rule just for mud mud gathering on the golf ball. It’s intended for casual water situations. and can’t give you an update that debris on both of the golf balls, but nothing of note. Nothing that would affect the flight of the ball. Yeah. And it doesn’t feel like Ned has been much of an issue yet today. Correct. We can look at the leaderboard and know it’s not a major issue, but to my point about a 450 yard hole being kind of normal. I mean, this was kind of the old old the 400y hole from right 410, you know, 412 from 30 years ago. 153 Kepka and this going just a few feet left of the hole. Really nice there. See that collocation tuck behind the front right bunker sort of middle right just past center right in a nice little pocket. There should be a green light right here if you had any control of your golf swing today. The flag was just starting to flick about back into the player’s face. So tack on a couple. You need all of 145, call it, to cover the bunker. This is out to the right. He didn’t hit it well. Well enough though. There is a roll off there. And to Ned’s point, short irons have been the problem for Fowler today. All right, Mr. Lowry, time to show us something. Time to do a little stone work with a short iron in his hand, and it sets up perfect for his ball flight. Drip it in there from left to right. Ball below his feet. Mark, this is tailor made for him. Yeah. Just left the hole in camp. There you go. There’s a reason he’s in the top 10 in the world golf rankings. And don’t count him out early. He’s even better than number 10 when it comes to approaching the green so far this year on the PGA Tour. He’s eighth. Again, we want to show you what we have offered to you from around the course. Maroy, Schoffley, and Sheffller are on the second TE. Mroy and Schoffley both two over par now through 10 holes. Scotty Sheffler is even on his [Music] round. Rahm, Kentlay, and Fitzpatrick in your bottom left. And the Green Mile in the bottom right. All of this available. Four different feature groups and the featured holes live on ESPN Plus. Suddenly Shane Lowry is smiling after a slow start. Birdie at three. Birdie at four. Putting for birdie at five. And he has one for redemption. Going back to the second when he had that little uphill corkcrew that he left woefully short. Almost the same putt here for Lowry. A little less break, but it does require some firmness, some pace. But first, Ricky Fowler, right? He’s gonna What do you think, Mark? take a little something hood it down and scrub the speed using the bank or will he go up top? Well, that slope comes at you probably three good a good solid three steps onto the green. I think he’ll use it. That’s putting service I’m talking about. just drove it in there low. That’s more like it. These are certainly not complicated conditions to be playing under at the moment. That’s being borne out by the majority a lot of the scores. No, it is a optimal spring morning. Just about 20 ft there, Ned. Downhill, left to right. That is everything you said is accurate. Only thing you have to worry about here is running it five feet past. Does tend to try to run itself out after it gets to the hole. So still out here right now. You can just about hear yourself thinking that got airborne off the face. Well, if you can hear yourself thinking out there, I’m glad I’m in here. You can hear some frustration uh coming out of Brooks Kepka’s head right now. Yeah. Yeah. It’s It’s so frustrating, Mark, when you’re struggling on the greens, but when you hit putts like that that never have a chance of going in. By the time you look up, it’s already 2 ft off line. That will really burn you. Bowie’s had a better putting year this year than he had last year or the year prior to that. And as Ned was saying, the the longer the putt is, the better he’s been. Just outside 10 ft. Not enough speed. [Applause] This is one you throw down the first putt when you come out to practice. 3 ft straight uphill. [Applause] And they walk to the big par 36th. First, let’s tell you about our outright leader. Alex Norin now is five under through 15 holes. And the Swede just made birdie at 14 and at 15 leads by one over Luke Donald and Ryan Fox. That’s seven birdies on the card already for Alex. Scotty Shuffler five behind Norin at even par. Xander Schoffley and Rory Maroy each seven behind at two over. Shane Lowry comes to the 6T at one over par on this big par three. Plays a little bit downhill, nine yards to be exact. It’s 230 to the front edge and that whole occasion is only another 11 steps. You can see the first I don’t know I’m going to say probably five yards up the middle is actually a will repel the ball back off the surface. You can see they’re beating this one to death. It’s had two full birdies made today and it can get confusing at times with the wind here Ned. The tea is protected and the green is exposed and the ball hangs in the air for a long time. So if there’s any type of movement or microclimate, it will be magnified here. It’s almost like a thumb print taken out of the like the front center. It’s a classic piece of architecture that’s been employed here. That came right out of the center of the face. strike to the center and cutting. Absolutely fabulous golf shot. [Applause] Finished about 18 ft or so above the hole. Beautiful. Mark, remember what I said earlier about Ricky Fowler shortsiding himself on par threes more than he should this season? Yes, sir. This would not be an ideal time to shortside yourself. Guess there really never is. But here, everything is so fast from right of the green. It’s leaking. And guess what? Good news, Mark, is that he came up short of the green, so he’s got some uphill that he can use to slow things down a little bit. Pretty straightforward. a second. Yeah. Big ball. Brooks is fighting with that full swing at the moment. Alex Norin one clear of the rest in the PGA Championship. [Music] Brooks Kepka made for the majors over a fiveyear span, winning five of them. But not the same case the last two years, finishing outside the top 10 and he did not finish in the top 25 in any of them last year. He’s won five times on live which is tied for the most. But outside of one performance in Singapore where he finished second, it has been a disappointing year there too. And it’s due almost exclusively, Mark, to his full swing. He has fought his driver all year. He’s tied for 38th in driving accuracy on Liv this year. That’s out of 53 players. And he’s 32nd in approach play. No, not up to his expected standards. This one is highly manageable. Some light fluffy rough around the ball, but get plenty of club on it. Plunk it out. Let it release. left for par to remain at five over. Well, Mark Brooks again, do not accuse us of not doing our homework earlier in the week. We hit the exact same shot that Ricky Fowler faces to virtually the same pin. We puted it. It was manageable. Ricky’s gonna perhaps use the same tactic he did back on the fifth. Little checky. Well, you guys are right. The right of the green is very quick from there. It’s almost like he was in between shots there, whether he wanted to go low and and take speed off with the slope or whether he wanted to carry it a little farther and higher. Yeah, it just came out a little low. Didn’t carry near as far as he thought. Probably missed his landing area by several feet. Scotty Sheffller just with a birdie over at the second now in red figures at one under. The lead is five under. Ryan Fox and Alex Norin five under. Fox is playing his last hole, the ninth. One last Sunday in Myrtle Beach and now is tied for the lead in Charlotte. Shane Lowry trying to get back to level par. It was a threeiron off the tea. This one has caution tape on it. Be very delicate. Put the blinker on about 5t away. Really good par though. What a really nice three iron he played in there. He’s sort of stacking good swing on top of good swing and that’s sort of a good thing to to do. Start stringing them together. Has some birdie opportunities coming up too. Lucky This one would be good for the scorecard. That one helps the scorecard. and catch one or both of the next two holes. Still put something decent up. That’s your job. You’re a professional. Yeah, the 14th and the 15th typically play as the easiest two-hole stretch, but seven and eight would be another option where you can make a birdie or two. save there. The par five seventh coming up next. And then it’s the short par4 eighth where Ryan Fox was just a moment ago. Fox with his second shot. He laid back to a number to give himself a full swing in here to this front left hole location and hit a beauty. And now he’s playing his last hole of the day, the ninth, after making birdie there. Tied with Alex Norin at five under. Allen or Alex rather has the green mile to go. Anything stand out to you here? Mark Moy and Schoffley both at two over. Can’t at four over. Lowry at one over. Seems like being out of position is a real penalty today. I think it’s going to prove prove that theory the rest of the week of being out of position is difficult to score here. It’s soft, man. I mean, these guys, we’re watching these drives. They’re not bouncing more than a few yards. Makes the fairways wider to be honest with you. Uh, and they’re not overly tight fairways here. And they definitely play a little tighter when it’s, you know, a little more bouncy. Rory Maroy two of 10 fairways hit. That’s missing a fairway. Need to hit it here. If you hit it here, Mark, you got a chance at birdie or even Eagle. So, I’m going to defer to you or you know this golf course very very well. Front hole location front left on both these next two holes. You like bird or they I really like the one at eight. Okay. I figured you might. The one here as you see those arrows that they put in our graphic. Yeah. There are also arrows that could be right to the left of that flag that go off into the collection area. So that is on a tiny little shelf there at seven. Lowry first to play headed to the bunkers. Come on. Come on. Just a matter will it cut. Oh no. Oh, for sake. That was Irish for it. Didn’t cut. So, that’s a layup. That’ll be a layup. Yes. Just a nine iron or a wedge out of that. Ned, you uh already gave one of our buddies a shout out. Another buddy, Webb Simpson, lives just to the right of Ricky Fowler. It’s a good pool situation over there. I think I noticed. Oh, careful. This came off right quickly. Trying to drop trying. might be able to see the leaves and the trees behind the tea here dancing around a little bit. Just a slight breeze now back into the player’s face. Kind of makes you want to press a little harder. There are pickle ball courts over there. Struggles continue for Kepka. [Music] Lowry and Fowler maybe with a chance to get home at Quail Hollow Club on ESPN Plus. [Music] The course doesn’t move. The opponent does. Ahead, behind, around the course, up and down the leaderboard. Both are the enemy. Not either or. Yes. And to win a major, you’ll have to beat the course and your fellow [Music] competitors. Isn’t that the truth, right? Especially here at Quail Hollow Club, especially today for Ricky Fowler and Brooks Kepka. Kepk 5 over and has been a rough start and he has been out of position off the tee and approaching the green. Eight underpar won this back in 2017 when Justin Thomas won the PGA championship. But Mark, that was in August, not in May. How different do you think this golf course will play the next few days than what we saw in the other PGA Championship here? Well, lest we forget, it rains in May. Okay, that’s why it’s raining. It’s May. It rains everywhere in May. They’re going to I wouldn’t count on it being like 15, 16, 17 under. I mean, I think this place is going to show its teeth as the week progresses, but it may be where we have someone at 10 or 11 and maybe 11 or 12, 13 wins the golf tournament. Mhm. That would be my guess. I was distracted a little bit because I’m I’m trying to, you know, we talked about how much trouble Brooks has had lately. I I can’t help but think his It definitely coincides pretty shortly after he left and went to play the live tour. He’s had well how about struggles in these majors. He’s got a break here bouncing off of a hardwood net and he’s going for it at this point. Why not? It’s down the left side. Took a full wall up at it. Yeah. Gets into the bunker. That’s a good place to play from with this whole location. It’s just got to be lack of lack of reps, lack of starts. Not going to talk about his motivation. I don’t know. I don’t know him near well enough to make that kind of call, but I think lack of reps is pretty fair. They’re fairly exacting tests when you start talking about these majors and you need to be very, very sharp. It’s under 150 yards down to the end of the W’s edge there, Ned. So, this should be a short club in Lowry’s hands. No thought of taking anything more. Oh, that one. Did that hit the lip coming out? It did. You know, I thought he was he was waiting on Ricky and then he looked like he got a little impatient and said, “Fine, I’ll hit.” I’m not sure the focus was there. There’s not much of a penalty though for at least in that situation. He pretty sharp faces faces on these bunkers. Fowler biggest breeze of the day just kicked up right into his face. Needs all of 250 to cover it. It appeared it’s in that front bunker. Here’s another look at Lowry catching that lip. That was skinny. That’s a good break. Actually, he was hitting more club trying to get advance that a little further down the left side of the fairway. It’s like a nine iron scalded. He just wasn’t paying full attention there. But he’s fortunate that ball kept going. He’s got a nice little rally rally happening. Ryan Fox is not on the green and two at nine. his last hole of the day. Wait till you see that hole. 531 yards debuting today. This is the first time they’ve used that new T- box on the ninth. Alex Norin is over on the green mile playing the 16th hole right now and he’s about to fall out of a tie for the lead. He’s putting for bogey. And if you’ve just joined us this morning, Scotty Sheffller’s, Andrew Schoffley, and Rory Maroy all made double bogey at the 16th today. The Green Mile showing its teeth. Sheffller currently one under. Maroy and Schoffley are two over as they play the third hole. And Ricky Fowler is in that greenside bunker. So Fowler and Kept both in good position to have a chance at birdie. Lowry having to play the hole the oldfashioned way. 103 yds left. Paying a little just enough wind has kicked up. Should be in off the right. It is, but at times it’s straight in and then at times it’s dead off the right. 103. Give me 106 past the flag with a little bit of action. Just like that. I wonder if Chain can hear Ned. I don’t know. But Darren can caddy. I mean, that was a a Tony Romo like situation from Ned Michaels right there. Call to perfection. And that’s exactly what Lowry ended up doing, giving him a chance to get back to even par. You would think Ricky’s in a better spot if we were going closest to the hole. Maybe they have a little something riding there. Kepka does have a lot of green to work with, but it will be a speedier bunker play from there. Well, Ricky’s probably going to wait because as he walked up to it, he gave the professional signal for how did that happen? That’s the hands out, one hand on the hip, kind of look to the heavens. His second shot plugged in the bunker, fellas. Oh boy. So, he might need a little time. Ka will go ahead. Could get healthy in a hurry right here. Everything straight down a funnel right to the hole. [Applause] You can see a lot of the golf ball, but it’s got it’s that fried egg where there’s a little space between the back of the plug mark in his ball. You’d almost rather it be straight plug. Number one thing here is you must get it out of the sand. If it stays on the green, terrific. Oh my. Oh, do it again. That was absolutely magic. Boy, amazing. Went all the way under the fried egg. threw the hash browns out there and everything with that one. What’s the key, Mark? And when you have a lie like that, be fortunate enough there’s enough sand under there that it won’t repel. You got to figure out how to get that golf club all the way underneath that fried egg. That was very well done. Of course, this is a beautiful spot on the golf course on any golf course. The magnificent homes that surround this hole and the lake that and the bunker that guards the green is a popular spot. If it weren’t for those collections of of holes on the back net, this you could maybe say this was the signature hole. Yeah, I might say that it’s pretty close. Larry needs this. Needs it. Needs it. Well, Mark missed a makeable one on two. Hold it at three and four. Missed one at five. Missed one here or at six rather. And then here at seven. Are you suggesting his afternoon activities might include money? That it. Yeah. Or he only the player knows if he’s if it’s speed or if he’s just misreading it. Well, you can always practice reading. Yeah, it’s part of your routine. Squeaky little one here for Brooks. Has some pace. There’s a birdie for KCO. Get up and down there. Not to disparrage anyone or discourage anyone, but the top two or three players in the world, there’s a pretty large gap between that group and the group that’s, let’s just say, nine through 20. There’s a big gap right now. Um, and those guys are fighting the far easier to go from 10th to 30 or 40th is than it is for somebody to crack that top three. two or three. Two particularly and he needed that after that terrific bunker play from the fried egg lie that he had. Both Lowry and Fowler missing from short range here at seven. That just stinks. Everybody here was ready for a good cheer for Fowler and I think he just hit it too hard. It was ripped. I have I’ll agree with you 100% there. It’s not the read, Rick. That was That ball went 3 ft past the hole. Just smoked it. Let’s update you on what’s going on here. Ryan Fox did not get up and down at eight at his last hole of the day, the ninth. So, he shoots four under 67. and he’s tied for the lead with four other players that are still on the course at four under. Scotty Sheoffller is even par now. Xander Schoffley and Rory Moy both two over. Sheffller just bogeied the third to fall back to even as we go to the short eighth. It’s short, but it’s not uh like number 14 311 short today. It’s 342 yards. Most of the players could reach that front bunker. However, I think you believe laying up’s not a bad play to this little bowl, front pin bowl. Yes, because everything feeds towards that hole location. referenced that front bunker. That tree to the left of the target line you see is also in play off of the tea if you elect to hit driver. It’s one of those swings, Mark. If you felt like you were organized in the sequence of events in your golf swing, you widen the stance out and try to get that extra 10 or 15 yards. But the way he’s swinging at the club a little stuck behind him, I don’t know that he has that gear right now. gorgeous. Right at the big oak to the left of the green. Would you like it there to this whole location for him? Yes. Okay. Get a fairway. He is now four of 13 hitting fairways today. Keep Yes. And if I had Shane Lowry’s short game, I would want to send it up there as far as I could, just like he’s elected to do. Ned, I kind of thought that was going to be the bullet slap cut that finds the fairway, but that was the full treatment. Should have found the short grass down the right. It did. Fowler. He’ll be laying up. It’s just long iron. Unless he changed overnight. Longest iron he had in his bag was a four iron, which should leave him a full swing for his second there at the eighth, which is I know what he was trying to do. Our feature group just has two holes remaining here in the first round of the PGA Championship from Quail Hollow Club. [Music] Where’s that coming up? Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas. and Colin Morawa here on ESPN Plus. Each of them winning two major championships. There’s Dustin Johnson who received a special invitation from the PG of America. It’s coming up at 1:14 Eastern time right here on ESPN Plus. Here are the T-shots at the eighth. Kepka and Lowry will use their one of their most lofted wedges. And Ricky wanted a full swing and that’s what he gets. Just inside a$120 for Fowler 15. Ned, this is my favorite hole location at the eighth because I think it’s the easiest. Well, the only thing you can’t do is come up short of the green. We’ve got a good six or eight paces long of it. Little bit of a wet area down here. This should be spinning. And it did. It did. That was a beautiful little three quarter shot there. I was almost afraid he might have too much coming in there to that whole location. Kepco went all the way up there to take a look as he goes back to his ball. I need a referee and Shane. Oh, there you go. Calling in a ref right on hand. Right. I’m just when I sat in it, it’s quite wet here. Okay. So, when you Okay. When you stand and take this shot, if I can see water around your shoes, you are getting If I can’t see water around your feet, you’re not That’s what they want to try and find near the spot where you’re going to be able to stand no. You’re not going to have Sorry. We have to be higher. Yeah, obviously there. Well, no. What? The water has to be visible. You take your stance. There you go. We have to be able to see. I can’t see you now. No, there’s no water. Yeah. And then the board. Perfect. Thank you very much. Good communication from two people from the same area. Best man on tour to get casual water relief. Shane appreciates that an Irish official came over to help. Thank you very much to come back into British water. No, no, the water was down there. Come there. Okay, fine. There’s no war up here. They’re pretty. Okay. Okay, that’s fine. Thank you. Thank you very much. Makes a difference. You have a little more confidence of how the club’s going to interact with the turf. Interesting to see him laser this. Normally, he’s such a field player. Doesn’t get yardages from short range. most of the time. You know, Ned, I’ve been wondering this since they’ve started using these devices last few years. If they’re when they do that do that from here, are they looking around just as much as they’re shooting a yardage? It’s possible. Yeah. They might trying to make sure where the grain is growing, use it as a binocular as much as a measuring device. This is low and spitting paint. [Music] There it comes. It’s coming. Kelk has been ready for a few [Applause] minutes. Pretty sporty there. So, three good looks at birdie here at the eighth. This is their their 17th hole of the day. Four under is the best score turned in. And on the course, Ryan Fox shot it, 67 this morning. Luke Donald is on the 18th hole right now. He is on four under par. He does have a lengthy par attempt on that hole. Alex Smallley, the last man in the field, got in this morning when Sah Tagala withdrew. He’s playing the ninth right now. Also at four under J2 Poston and Steven Jagger also at that mark. Don’t really even have to make a backstroke here. Just kiss it. Nudge it. Ricky’s just struggled to get momentum. today. Mark, above the hole, putt like this. Did you ever use the toe of the putter? Were you one of those guys? Or try to hit it, you know, on the bottom rung of the putter or something like that? I didn’t go bottom rung. I definitely went toe a lot. Never heel. Thing could just dive left on you if you tried to come out of the heel. I just don’t see the modern this modern era player do that much. I don’t know if it’s the technology or but I I still think that’s a nice practice just to deaden the hit a little bit. Well, it has been the story of the day. This club inside 10 ft has not cooperated. And for Shane, if you go back through the misses, they’ve almost exclusively been on the low side, especially on left to righters. It’s backto-back parties for Brooks. [Applause] Ned, the toe to toe, you know, hitting it out on the toe. Of course, you know, the all the technology as you mentioned, the MOIs and all that that they’re probably not as dead as they used to be when you struck them on the toe, but if you had a downhill right to left putt, for example, if you hit it on the toe of the putter, the ball’s going to start more to the right with less energy, but you can make a little bit bigger stroke, if that makes sense because it was actually, you know, you intentionally mishit the putt. But that was that we saw that stroke again, which we may not have time, but it it’s it was a like I like I like an an assertive stroke, but that one was a little bit quick. I I thought on Shane’s attempt at birdie there, a little flashy on the backstroke. I would agree with you. And that usually happens when you have less you’re you’re just not very confident about it. Just just the rhythm and the pace of the stroke. It’s pretty quick. And that’s in slow motion, so it’s going to be hard to see in that. And sometimes they’re misreads, but not all the time. I mean, pe I hear people say all that, “Well, you know, it’s misread.” I go, “Wait a minute.” And we said it, you’ve seen this a zillion times where there’s some putt that somehow everyone seems to miss the same way. It’s because they all read it the same. Yeah. So, you speed can be off, but as far as a pure misread, it’s a little more rare these days than than people try to blame. Mark, Ned, and our producer Joe and our director Chris and the two of us had fun walking around the other day and checking out this new T, the ninth, not far from the eighth green. It’s 25 yards behind where the T used to be. It used to be on that brand new path in front of Brooks Kepka. The only thing it’s far from is the hole. The cup. the cup on the hole. That would be 531 yards today. You can see not much roll out. There was the 17th, excuse me, 2017. Mhm. Do that math. Last year, they actually moved it back one time before this, but last year on the PGA Tour, it was 25 yards ahead of where it is now on that path. But yeah, back to 2017, it was 45 yards ahead. want to hold this pocket or maybe just neck it a little bit. Yeah, I was about to ask you, Ned, if you thought any of these guys, Lowry or or Fowler really, if they could get to that fairway bunker that’s over 300 yards out there. It looks like a country mile from here up at by the tea. If you hit that necky little slider, you’re not getting there. That’s for sure. Interesting for Fowler. This is the mini driver. He must be trying to throw it out to the right and draw it, but this is dead straight down the right side. Just a couple of feet into the step cut. One last big hole to go for these three in the first round on ESPN Plus. [Music] Beautiful look at Quail Hollow Club around the water here. Four under is the best score in the clubhouse. Luke Donald, the European Rder Cup captain, shot it this morning. So did Ryan Fox. Steven Joerger’s now five under. He has three holes remaining. Our group is on its last hole, the massive par4 ninth. [Music] And look how far Shane Lowry and Ricky Fowler still have to go on a par4. That’s some acreage right there. We had a fun conversation with our ESPN colleague John McInness who has been out there walking with Ned this morning. I was telling him about how you marked off what it was to cover the rough to get to the fairway here at nine. John, who is right there in your picture in the pink shirt, uh told us that he played at Beth Paige Black once and didn’t carry it to the fairway and he had some fun telling those stories last night with us. Brooksie, that was the 10th hole at Beth Page. I don’t remember how it was like 240, but this one’s approaching 260 from the back cut back of the back of the back tee from the back of the back tee. Great to have Johnny out here in his home state of North Carolina. Now, this is where the rangefinder comes in handy because your kind of gives you the number and you go, “That’s no way.” Or, “Excuse me.” Or if you’re of a certain age, you need the rangefinder just to be able to see the green. 104 on that. Yeah. What’s your angle? It’s only 224 front. That’s the number to focus on. [Music] It’s that same three iron that he hit back at the sixth. That was a well struck searing cut. Oh, god no. Go. This doesn’t have the heat on it. Left bunker did not plug. You can see it bounce around in the sand. If it would have been online, it was it was the right weight. Ricky has a fivewood in play today. Told me he carries at 255. If that gives you an indication of what we’re after here, towering left center of the green. Yeah, maybe that’s why he hit the smaller driver. He wanted to have that left enough of those irons. And right between a five and a sixiron for Keepa, Ricky Elliot steps in, calls him off. He’s picked up at his back. So, some kind of audible. Can’t imagine he would have gone to the seven iron. That’s a 194 club with this breeze. Call it 200. Right edge of the green. It’s deep. Carried the backside of a little null there that propelled it a little more forward than it needed to have needed. Just through the green that intermediate cut. Meanwhile, Steven Joerger is the first man or at least the only man that is at five under par. We did have a couple that got there earlier in their rounds but were unable to finish at that mark. Donald, Fox, and Smallley all turning in 67s, but Joerger five under on his round currently. Steven is now playing the 16th hole. So, three holes to go. Five under and one ahead of the big group at four under par. Let’s look at some highlights of the German. The par three [Music] fourth. Steven has become a world class player, a winner on the PGA Tour. Approach shot at the fifth. We know where this whole location is. Back right. Near perfection. Awesome shot. Made birdie on seven. Made birdie on 10th. Did get one back at 12, but a birdie at the 14th and then just a moment ago made another one at 15. He’s the outright leader right now. [Music] the green mile to go. Yeah, I think Brian Fox bogeied the last. Alex Dornne got to five and he’s bogeied 16 and 17. So the the mile is exacting its toll on some of these guys. As expected, all of them Mark and especially the best three in the world, they all made double bogey. Sheffller, Maroy, and Schoffley on the 16th hole earlier today. What do you make of how they’re playing? She’s even. Mroy and Schoffley both two over as they play the par 3 six. They have four holes to go. Again, no offense to anyone. I I hated the pairing. I did not like that pairing for those guys. Why is that? I mean, just you put two big dogs out running with each other, you know, they get worn out a little too quick. They could run each other out. I just I don’t know. I And I know they get along fine. It has nothing to do with personalities. I’m just I think with all the hype and everything going on, I I would have loved to have seen them split up. I think that makes good sense. And you’re right, they do. They all get along incredibly well. They’re they’re good friends, but there’s all the people around them and all that comes with it. Yeah. It could be a little exhausting. Yeah. Lowry in this front bunker with a lot of real estate in front of him. Ned is one of the most eloquent shots in golf as Shane Lowry with a long bunker shot. He normally likes to play him flat and chase it to the hole. That’s what he did. Yeah. Thanks, Mark. Just a hair too much check check on it. It’s almost he just hasn’t made the adjustment for the softness of the golf course or the the lack of speed. At least it has seemed in his mind on the greens. No, I think you’re right. And there had to be something going on, you know, upper respiratory, whether it was maybe got some I don’t know. He definitely looked like he was having some struggles on the front nine breathe allergy wise. I I’d agree. And you think Justin Rose withdrew last week. Something going around spreads in the locker room pretty quick if that were the case. It’s May. It rains in May and a fever blooms in May. Perfect little stab. Probably weakest pitch of the day. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff in the air poll wise. It’s just a hard golf hole right here. No question about it. It’s just a It’s a ball striking test. There’s nothing tricky about it. Nothing unfair. I hate that word tricky. Don’t allow me to use it again. [Laughter] He could slap me anytime. You hold yourself. Oh, I’m going to hold myself accountable for that one. Ricky for one over 73. Look at the box. Just never could find any momentum today. Ned. That goes for the whole group. Just wasn’t much energy. Came out flat. Yeah, you’re good. Don’t worry about Lry gave us something to write home about. It’s almost like Ricky carried over the flat Sunday from Philadelphia down here. That’s right. Yeah. 74 today. Did find a 11 of 14 fairways, but just nine greens from there. And now some par saves for the other two. This is outside 20 ft for Lowry. Then again, another one left to right. It’s been his nemesis today. whether it’s not enough borrow or not quite enough speed. He’s missed him on the low side. Not enough speed. He made a putt off of the green and he made a putt over 60 ft and he still had 33 putts. The big reason why he shot 74. No doubt. And it wasn’t as if they were all 25footers with a lot of break. He had some pretty looks. More of the same from Brooks. Yeah, this is the other way around though. It, as you’ve been saying, Ned, only five fairways and only hit seven greens. Lowry and Fowler with 74. And the three-time PGA champion Kepka shoots 76, excuse me, 75 today. Yes. 73 for Lowry and Fowler. Two over. 73 for Lowry and Fowler and 75 for Kepka. You’re forgiven because you play a par 72 here. You get that little gimme off the first. So yeah, when you play here, y you get to open with a handshake. When these guys play here, they get open with they get to open with a left cross. And Mark, it was a stern major championship test for these three this morning. No doubt. They made it look tough. And it is tough, but it’s very fair. I mean, the board is proving it. Perfect weather. did enjoy working with our friend Ned Michaels this morning. Terrific job from him as we put a bow on today’s coverage. Let’s look at Shane Lowry. The approach at 18 of beauty preview. Keep your eyes open. Oh, teased you. 3′ 9 in. Are very few birdies at [Music] 18. Another 23 23 ft. And then the big highlight was this outside 60 ft at the fourth. [Music] [Applause] Yeah, it’s the putter. The ball striking was about as solid as what we’ve seen all year. Well, he got turned around. He didn’t hit it great out of the box, but he he finally started hitting some solid shots from really 18 in. You know, his last 10 holes. They could have been better than that. Those guys will play tomorrow [Music] afternoon. We have quick math 36 minutes to see three twotime major champions. Justin Thomas winning each of his majors in this event. Dustin Johnson winning the Masters in the US Open. Colin Morawa won this five years ago and then the open championship the following year. [Music] At the top of the board, Steven Joerger is five underpar playing the par4 16th. European Rder Cup captain Luke Donald with a 67 this morning. Myrtle Beach champion from this past Sunday, Ryan Fox shoots 67. Alex Smallley, the last man in the field, shoots 67. Hickory, North Carolina’s JT Poston is one shot off the lead. North Carolina grad Ryan Gerard also at four under. Egan Bradley, the American captain, just one back. You can switch over to one of our other feeds right now with the top three in the world playing together. Scotty Shuffler is even par. Rory Maroy and Xander Schoffley are both two over. They’re playing the par 57th. Just about to tee off there. Three holes to go for those three. Is that a typo? It’s not. It’s the truth. Two overpar for Mr. Mack. He does have a couple birdie holes in front of me for sure. Always great to be with you, my friend. You, too. It was [Music] awesome. Always learn something new. Every day you watch these guys play. Golf continues with Will Hask and Carl Pollson for Mark Brooks and Ned Michaels. I’m Taylor Zarzer. It’s been a great morning that’s turned into afternoon here at Quail Hollow for the first round of the PGA Championship on ESPN Plus. [Music] launch monitors, swing coaches, constant analysis. Today’s golfers are looking for constant data and feedback. As Marty Smith tells us, golf has become a game of math. Golf’s beauty, its place in nature, the fluidity of a swing is a calming presence on the outside. But inside the minds, inside the ropes, it’s a complex numbers game, a mathematical equation the pros are constantly trying to solve. Numbers define my whole game. I I use numbers in every situation whether it’s putting, chipping, driving, iron play of downhill slopes, uphill slopes. The higher pressure creates an application of force upward, which makes the ball have lift. Science helps. The more you kind of think like a scientist, you try to problem solve in a logical way. I have a guy on my team who just does stats. If I can make two or three decisions a week that help me a tenth or a couple ten of a shot, it can add up. I love looking at the numbers. To me, that gives me the answer as to what I need to do to get better. At certain times, you can be kind of have five or six numbers in your head. And so, it can be pretty confusing. Golf is best played with freedom. Freedom of movement and mind stealed by preparation. These days, preparation is a number and then another. So that begs the question, at what point does it become paralysis by analysis? It’s certainly possible to over complicate things in your mind. There’s a point where you could get a little bit too drawn into those numbers. factor total distance is carry distance. Average dispersion is Can I even stop a six before the water? As far as the statistical numbers, I’m looking at ball speed. I’m looking at um club head speed. Looking at spin rate a lot. That’s a that’s a big one. If I have an eight iron with a 8 knot wind, if I draw it, it’ll affect it 12 yards. If I cut it, it’ll affect it 26 yds. One yard can mean a ball in the water on 15 at Augusta to tap an eagle. You can improve by just understanding the math and physics of what you’re doing. There is essentially a formula to become the best player in the world. You get some guys like Bryson that are talking about, you know, completely different stuff. How much wins into us? How much is the ball going to bounce and roll out? You have to look at it and be very diligent. I mean, I could give you 35 different stats numbers, but they’re all going to lead to the same place at the end of the day. Thinking too much. It’s a little white ball that doesn’t even move. Come on, Marty. You’re an athlete. Just hit the ball at the [Music] hole. I never was good at math. The course doesn’t move. The opponent does. Ahead, behind, around the course, up and down the leaderboard. Both are the enemy. Not either or. Yes. And. To win a major, you’ll have to beat the course and your fellow competitors. Course perhaps beatable today. We’ve seen some good scores, which means if you’re just revving up for our next featured group here of Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, and Colin Morawa, you know that if you were in control today that you could win that battle with the golf course. Quail Hollow Club playing to a stroke average just about two over, but rounds of 67 certainly available. And Carl Pollson, this is exactly what this trio is hoping for later this afternoon. Yeah, obviously a couple of question marks in our feature group. Is this course going to play too long for a Col Colin Morakawa who’s the most accurate player on off of the tea? Very good long iron player, too. So, you would think it would set up nicely. And Dustin Johnson, we haven’t seen a whole lot from Dustin Johnson. Not exactly sure how he’s going to get off today in this 2025 PGA Championship. And so much discussion of what type of player would be successful this week, but that is a leaderboard right now that shows there are many different ways that you can play golf and shoot a number right now on this golf course. Yeah, Ryan Fox really the only bomber on this on this list. Now, all of these guys are not short to the hitters, but uh keeping the ball in the fairway is always important. I don’t care how long a golf course is, especially when you have grass that still has moisture in it and you’re playing out of that rough, it’s going to be tough today. Steven Joerger’s gotten more speed in his game recently as well. One of two tied for the lead. Ryan Gerard, a PGA Championship rookie at the top of the board as well. Lots of feature groups for you here this afternoon on ESPN Plus. Obviously, our group getting set to go in just under a half an hour or so. We’ve got three men with two majors each, including a couple of PGA champions. Justin Thomas has won this major twice, including the first time it was here at Quail Hollow Club. That was back in 2017. Dustin Johnson, twice a runner up at this PGA Championship, looking for major form, now at 40 years old. Is this the week he turns back the clock? And Colin Morawa burst under the scene by winning this championship back in 2020. The first of his two major championship victories. All three of these guys know what it takes to win a tournament like this. After they tee off, it’ll be Jordan Speed, Patrick Reed, and Ludvig Oberg in the 125 group. We’ve already seen a career grand slam completed here in 2025. Can Jordan Speed be the next to win all four major championships? Patrick Reed’s been playing some sneaky good golf this season in 2025. And Ludvig is going to win a lot of majors in his career before it’s over. Yeah. And I wonder where Ludvig’s game is. Didn’t play all that great last week. got together with his coach for the first time in person since the Masters. Uh sounded very confident yesterday in his press conference. So, we’ll see how he does. But you’re right, Patrick Reed has his name has popped up a few times, let’s say, after he goes major champion in Hideki Matsyama. There you see the cut streak. How about that from Hideki always in the mix. Windham Clark has won on this golf course. He has the superpower necessary to be good here. Yeah, the big question is current form for both of those guys. Obviously, Hideki got off to a great start in 2025, but where are we with Tom Kim? You know, it’s uh it’s a little bit of a question mark for this group. And then you want to talk about guys that can move the golf ball. Three of the best in this one, including Bryson Dambo. When we showed up here this week, many wondered if this might be the perfect setup for Bryson to win another major. Well, everybody else thinks so. People have been on him all week long leading into this uh into this major championship. And then what are we going to get from Victor Hofflin? You never know. Uh you certainly can’t listen to him talk about his game and get any idea of where he is with his game. You just never know. And of course, what a story Gary Woodland would be if he could get into contention just a few weeks back in Houston. He got in contention and the golf world lost his mind. That will be one of our other featured groups. And again, they’ll be telling that story as well with our trio still warming up. Doesn’t take a whole lot to warm up today. It is humid. It is hot. The sun is out. This golf course is trying to dry out. And Justin Thomas, maybe nobody in the world as consistently good as JT over the last couple of months. And I know that’s saying something because of what Scotty Sheffller has done winning because of what Rory Mroy has done winning. But if you look at the metrics compared to those guys who obviously steal a lot of the headlines, JT is vintage in 2025. Yeah. And I don’t think he is all the way back yet in his mind, let’s say. He has played some great golf. Uh we’ll talk a lot about his putting uh over the next few hours, but he looks awfully good right now. They are warming up. We are warming up. We’re inside 20 minutes from that trio heading to the first tea here on day one of the PGA Championship. [Music] [Music] There are thousands of golf tournaments. the infamous six-man at the Clarksdale Country Club and the member guest at Cherokee and proams and amateur matchplay events. But really, there are only four golf tournaments for the victory at Belmont racing the championship champion golf of the year has his masterpiece. This is the PGA Championship. ESPN Plus and the PGA of America proudly welcome you to the first round of the 2025 PGA Championship from Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Nearly 5 ines of rain have fallen on this property in the last week or so, but we have been blessed with sunshine the last couple of days. It is warm. Scoring is good for what is going to be a challenging week as our feature group continues to go through their final tunings on the range. Dustin Johnson twice a runner up at this major in his history. Making yet another PGA championship start. His 16th start in this championship. 63rd major start for the two-time major champion. And as we said in the last segment, Carl just trying to turn back the clock to find a little form this week for DJ. Yeah, here’s a guy that is super athletic and uh as you near the age of 40, that athleticism drops off just a little bit. He’ll be trying to tackle this major venue for the second time, hosting this PGA Championship. Quail Hollow Club, the fourth longest layout in PGA Championship history. It is the longest par 71 we have ever played in this championship. It is playing slightly below that number today, just under 7,600 yards when you look at it. We’ll see the water come into play, especially on the back nine when we wrap things around and head into the green mile. And how about that? Eight of the par4s this week. Tipped out at 450 or longer, which is why we’ve talked so much about length being a huge factor, especially when it comes to this green mile stretch, 18, and then won the second hardest hole here some eight years ago. Yeah. I mean, you’re going to look at the the long hitters and then who’s hitting it the straightest out of them? They’re going to have the best opportunity for scoring. Best scoring so far with three rounds of 67 in. Two players on the golf course. Joerger trying to survive the green mile right now at five under par. Ryan Gerard heading to two scorable holes on the back nine. The drivable 14th and the par five 15th. So a real chance again. Four underpar led at the end of the first round in 2017. We’ve got three in the house at minus 4. But a couple of players there especially with Gerard. You can make a case with some good golf coming in. he could post maybe even around in the mid60s when it is all said and done. Speaking of Jerger in the middle of that green mile right now, this is a guy that’s been playing some really good golf, rounding into being a guy that could be a factor in major championships. This is how he got the day started at the par three fourth coming off pars of 1, two, and three and then taking advantage of the par three. Yeah. And putting himself in a position where he can be aggressive with the putt. That is very important on championship golf courses, major championship golf courses. So that was the shot of coffee to get the round going. This was the double shot of espresso over at five for backto-back birdies. Yeah. And another green that you need to put it in a perfect spot, but if you hit it that close, it doesn’t matter where you hit it. He would make that birdie to the par five, seventh as well. He was three under making the turn. A birdie and a bogey starting the back. And then that stretch 14 and 15. Get close to the green down the hill. Makes that for birdie to get back to four under par in the round before he headed to the par five. He birdied that and now has one hole to go at minus 5. Ryan Gerard, the PGA champion rookie, just his third ever major start. And what a start it has been for the North Carolina Tarheel. No doubt he’s been playing some great golf here in 2025. And his golf is traveling. Here he is at the 13th going right after this flag stick on that left hand side. What a shot. He has made four consecutive birdies on the back nine. 10, 11, 12, and 13. Those aren’t even the easy holes, and he’s birdied all of them on the back. Out very early today, Ryan Fox won last week on the PGA Tour. Has the length to overpower some of the holes in this golf course. But if he’s dripping in putts like that, the New Zealander can be dangerous. He made a boatload of birdies last week as well. That’s going to serve him well in this major championship. Speaking of putters, maybe one of the best to ever do it with the flat stick, but you don’t even need the putter when you can lace them like this one at that par three fourth for Luke Donald, the European Rder Cup captain. Yeah, extreme left the hole location there and he keeps it underneath the hole. Boy, he is uh as you mentioned, such a great putter. At this time yesterday, Alex Smallley was not in the field. It took a late afternoon withdrawal from Sah Figala to get him in. And then why not take advantage of the start by roaring it in from 50 plus for Eagle for Smallley. That was on his inward nine. He would birdie eight to shoot that round of 67. So we have seen that if you’re in control of your golf ball today, there’s a number of ways to get to a number on this golf course. Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. Real quickly on Alex Smallley, he was by far the best player that was not in this field. Glad to see him get in the field. Yeah, if he stays at the top of the leaderboard, you’re talking about a top 10 player this year from a scoring standpoint on the PGA Tour. And of course, very excited for the Duke Blue Devil, not too far away from where he played his college golf to be in the mix here this week. Justin Thomas knows what it takes to be successful around this place as he’s working his way up through the bag on the range to get set for this one as they’ll be making their way over the tea here in under 15 minutes or so. Jake T, DJ, and Colin. Three names synonymous with major success over the last decade or so plus. And we cannot wait to see what they are able to do on this golf course this afternoon as they continue their warm-up. We continue ours on the other side. [Music] Sanders with victory at Valhalla. Last year’s trophy buys you nothing once the tournament begins. The scoreboard is blank. The fear returns a new and all the golfers stand on the first tee. A lonely place where a reputation can’t help you at all. Welcome back to the PGA Championship. It’s time to do it again. Xander Schoff trying to defend his PGA Championship title while two PGA champions look for that Waker trophy again. And that includes Justin Thomas, part of our feature group headed to the first TE here in about 10 minutes time. The 2017 and 2022 champion. It’s been near and dear to his heart. Third generation PGA pro JT on a very familiar place trying to become just the second player all time to win two PGA championships at the same venue. That’s a trivia question that we’ll hold for a little bit later on in the broadcast today. is you see Justin Thomas putting his final work together here again, a proven champion. And we’ve talked so much about the play, the form on the golf course this season, but it may be off the course that has been the biggest turnaround to Justin Thomas on it. I’m definitely in a better place. I think there’s something in me that enjoys the challenge of figuring out this is my new lifestyle. I want to make sure that I’m helping my wife as much as I can with Molly and now it’s like, okay, hey, I’m practicing X to Y tomorrow. I wrote letters to both my parents before Molly was born because I think I’ve definitely viewed them differently than I have. They weren’t just mom and dad. They were who raised me. And it was like I was about to go into this life of I’m about to raise this human being and however Jill and I decide to raise her to an extent is how she is going to be. It just it made me appreciate them. Just took me almost 32 years to figure that out, but I finally realized it. It’s all about the natural maturization. You get to a point where you are now in charge of somebody else’s life and your priorities change and a lot of people don’t deal with that very well. But, uh, JT seems to be in a a fantastic spot off the golf course, a great headsp space, which has converted, uh, to the golf course. He has been playing some really good golf. Just a couple of years ago, decided uh, to tell his dad, Mike, that he wanted to own his own golf swing so he can understand how to get out of any kind of funks that he gets in in the golf course. And I think that’s served him well. uh they still have a great relationship and he is still his main set of eyes, but uh the way that JT’s been playing this year, it’s uh he’s back, baby. Yeah, the perspective of fatherhood certainly changes any of us that have experienced that. And certainly it has for Justin Thomas. It’s amazing what happens when you’re the focus
