PGA Championship Round 1 Recap | Leaders, Course Conditions, Notables

The boys are back to talk about the Thursday round of the PGA Championship!

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The Second Cut gets you everything you need in the world of golf on the PGA Tour and more! Tournament previews, storylines for each week, and in-depth players reviews. Hosted by Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood). Joined by Greg DuCharme (@therealGFD), Mark Immelman (mark_immelman), and Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS).

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome in. It’s the second cut. I’m Rick Gaming and this is the round one recap for the 107th PGA Championship. We’re going all four days this week. Joining me to break it all down. Greg Ducharm is here. Hello, Greg. What is going on, Rick? Fired up to be here. our first um round one recap of the Second Cut podcast. Hopefully many more to come in the future. Uh so I’m fired up about that and it’s it’s a good day for a round one recap because there’s a lot to discuss. There is a lot to discuss. Broadstrokes first. This was a major championship where it was incredibly highly anticipated. You had a bunch of the best players in the world coming into the perfect form at the right time. And as I look onto the big board at the media center, I see a group of names that a casual golf fan would not necessarily be familiar with. Greg, what’s going on? Well, um, look, this is a couple of factors at play here. Okay. Number one, it the golf course has taken on five inches of rain, right? or or somewhere thereabouts leading into this week. So, it made the fairways really soft and that is a tendency of bringing a lot of different players into the mix. Um and and I think we saw that today and you know another thing that I always like to keep in mind in round one is that any one of these players that makes it into this field, even the club pros is capable of going out and shooting a 65 on any given day. So I it doesn’t surprise me when a great golfer goes out and plays a great round of golf. Doesn’t surprise me in any way. Now you do it four days in a row. You do it with leaderboard gravity going on. Now that’s when we get into territory where it can become surprising. Now the other interesting thing, and I know we’ll take a look at the odds later on in the show, but if you go to the the current live odds, uh it still looks a whole lot more like the leaderboard that you expected. So, um, these players, like it’s also log jammed, Rick. So, the leaderboard that you look at, there’s only so much space, but Scotty Shuffler’s three shots back. He’s right there. You know, if that was sec, if that was second place, if he’s three shots back in second, it looks totally different. He’s only three shots back. So, there’s there’s a lot of time left in this tournament. And uh you wouldn’t think that if you just quickly glanced at the leaderboard. And uh also if you look on golf Twitter today or X, you would think this is the 3M open or something. I I don’t see it that way personally. I I think there’s a a big change coming in the next couple of days. Yeah, I’m probably going to wait at least until the weekend before I start before I start complaining. 5 54 more holes. 54 more holes to go. The golf course played uh nearly two strokes over par in the opening round. But let’s get the Oh, round one recap is very very good. I feel like we’re back in our element here. So, let’s get let’s get started with the way the day started. That was basically with the morning super group of Scotty Shuffler, Rory Mroy, and Xander Schoffley. Craig, they started on the back n so they started on 10 and things were generally fine until everybody got to number 16. But before we get there, we saw um we saw Scotty Sheffller make a an eagle on. Let’s just go with Scotty first. So I mean to throw up Scotty’s scorecard here. This was again they started on 10. So he makes birdie on 12. He makes an eagle on 15 and then that double on 16, which we’ll talk about the mud ball and how that became the story of the day. Yes. So, um, you know, a little bit of a sloppy start quite frankly for Scotty Sheffler. Even the that birdie on number 12 was a chip in. Uh, he made a couple of swings at 10 and 11 that were very concerning. You know, he hit I think he hit them both a lot lower than he expected and a lot lesser than he expected. Although they were cutting, they weren’t hooks by any means. They were low uh you know, he was hoping that they were going to slice, you know, like skirting the trees kind of shots and then I I think he got things under control a little bit until number 16, which we’ll hold on to that for a minute. But this is what this is the kind of round that big- time players do in major championships. You know, this is why Scotty Shuffler is the number one player in the world because he probably had his C game and he’s able to get it in the house at uh in with around a 69. You know, his his iron play wasn’t sharp. Wasn’t terrible except for one shot. U but it wasn’t the typical Scotty that we see. He had a couple of shaky drives like I said, uh, but his short game was was very strong and was really able to carry him around this golf course for the most part and keep him very squarely in the mix and and he’s still the favorite to win this tournament. Well, we’re going to lump these three together. So, Amina, give us Rory Mroyy’s scorecard. He birdied 10, bogeied 11. So, he is even par through his first two holes. He hit we were actually uh Patrick and I were were caught up with this group by then and Rory hit this this uh beautiful touchy pitch on 14 the drivable par4 from kind of an awkward position and left himself with I don’t know what the official number was maybe five feet or so for birdie. he would go on to miss that putt. And even before he got to 16, which is kind of the turning point of the round for for these guys, um you know, a couple of left misses off the tea, Greg, the the ball, the t-shot he hit on 15, which is the par five, was lucky to stay up. That could have very easily have been wet. What was Rory Mroy or your assessment of his game today? Oh, the driver was way off like you said at 15. I mean, coming down the stretch there, Rick, uh, at at 15, he very nearly hit it in the water. At 17, he very nearly hit it in the water. Uh, at 18, he well, at 16, he very nearly hit it in the water as well. And at 18, he very nearly hit it in the water. So, you know, he goes through that stretch in one over par um 15 through 18 and and he could have hit it in the water on every single hole. you know, he’s like a a good break away from it staying dry. So, this was a a terrible round for Rory Mroy. It it was it was not very good in any stretch of the imagination. And, you know, I I have a couple of questions about this. I wonder if he was get if he got here and he really wanted to, you know, air it out the way that we all thought he was going to, you know, and take advantage of his distance off the tea. Perhaps he got a little amped up, a little excited and missed a couple left. Very real possibility because I will say every he hit a couple of low cuts during this round today that were beautiful right down the middle of the fairway. And you know, he may have to if he’s not feeling it with his driver, if he’s not on full command, he may have to go to that low cut just to put the ball in play and make the cut tomorrow. Um, and I got one last thought on Rory. Um, I just I I can’t help but feel that after everything that happened at the Masters, it this year, this major season would have been it would go much better for him if this tournament was in August, right? I I just think there’s not enough time for him to settle down and get back into competitive mode. and and so the quick turnaround to May I think hurts him in this case. I like the move to May personally. I just think it hurts Rory in this case, right? This very unique situation which doesn’t happen very often. Um that leaves us with Xander Schoffley here who was even par uh stepping onto the T of 16. Uh he did not take advantage. He wasn’t able to get up and down from a greenside bunker on 15. He hit it into the water on 14 and had to drop kind of before the water. I don’t know what the maybe 80 yards back. Hit a very good shot. Gave himself a chance to make par there, but missed the putt. It it was um we’ll talk about it, but Xander had basically two bad swings to No, probably had one bad swing today. The the the drive on 14. One swing that you could argue was unlucky or bad. We could discuss that. And those two strokes basically cost him four shots. He was still able to get this in with a 72 and one over. Yeah. Yeah. Um you’re right on the button there, Rick. If you look at what happened on 14, he he lost um in strokes gained off the tee, he lost over a shot on number 14. One po that one swing, he lost 1.38 shots to the field. Um, and then approaching the green, he lost one. He lost over one shot approaching the green at number 16 on that one shot. So, when you start to look at these stats, he gains.7 strokes off the tea. Well, you know, 1.7 strokes off the tea looks a whole lot better. He gained point4 strokes approaching the green. Well, you know, 1.4 strokes approaching the green looks a whole lot better. And it’ probably be more like 1.7. So, um, and that’s just if those shots are are not gain evens, you know, zeros. So, um, I think Xander played a whole lot better than this scorecard indicates. And I do believe that he’s still a factor in this tournament. I think he hit the ball quite well, Rick. He He didn’t make anything. 31 putts. Um, I I I think Sanders in pretty good shape. The big three uh got to number 16, which is the beginning of the green mile. If you’re not familiar, the green mile is the uh most difficult stretch on this golf course at 16, 17, and 18 for today. Those three holes played as three of the four most difficult. The only one that kind of infiltrated that was number nine. That is a par4. So, this is a very difficult stretch. But the number one, number two, number three player in the world walked off 16 green Greg with three double bogeies. They each made double. That that is just insane to think about that that one of them made double, let alone two of them make double, let alone all three making double. For for Rory Mroy, it was another left miss and a shot on a pretty steep hill that he literally slipped on. bottom foot comes out and he advanced at about 10 yards. For Xander and Scotty, it was from the middle of the fairway. And this is where the conversation about mud balls, organic matter, and how fair that is uh really began. Oh my. Oh my. Um mudball. Oh, mudball. And I I will say this, it’s it’s very difficult to tell watching on TV if a golf ball responds the way it does because of a mudball or not. But in all the years that I’ve watched Scotty Sheoffller play golf, which is like the last, you know, four years, almost every shot, I mean, we watch almost every shot that the guy hits. That ball flight just doesn’t come out. He doesn’t hit that shot. He ne He has hit some pulls and like I said earlier, he hit he hit some like low lefts that were cut in. He doesn’t hit snap hooks, which is what this was. This was a pretty vicious snap hook. Um, so I I I uh also don’t think that Scotty Shuffler is afraid of criticizing himself, so I I don’t think that he would be making this up by any means. So, he’s he gets a mudball and he’s upset about it. Should we be playing the ball down in a tournament like this? Um I I think in hindsight after what happened today, it’s probably a mistake. Well, I’ll tell you. So, the the PJ of America, they they announced this Wednesday night. I’ve never seen this before. They released a statement Wednesday night and said, “We are not playing preferred lives tomorrow.” Which I’ve like never the preemptive we are not playing preferred lives. I don’t think I’ve seen before. Um the quote Scotty went on a pretty uh significant rant after his round in his presser about whether preferred lies or not should have been played. We have the quote on a graphic here that mean can throw up onto the screen right now. And Scotty Shuffler amongst other things would say quote I understand it’s part of the game but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player. You spent your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball and due to a rules decision, all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.” End quote. Sounds pretty dramatic to me, Greg. Yes. Um, now this was a long answer. He said it first. You know, I’m not going to answer this again, and it’s my job to deal with it. And um it’s my job to deal with the rules that are made. He also said at the end that the way he handled it, he was proud of the way he handled it and he only allowed it to cost him two shots instead of if he let it get to him, it cost him five. He still goes on and and shoots in the 60s in this round. So, um I I don’t think that he was whining, per se, but he shared his thoughts. He was honest and I I think he brought up some really good points like you’re you’re not going to get a bad line in the fairway at Quail Hollow. So playing it up isn’t really changing the outcome. I think that’s an interest I think that’s a really interesting point. You know what what are we trying to do here? Um and part and I am just so you know like a traditionalist like I don’t think we should be moving the ball out of a divot kind of a thing. Well, okay. So, so I’m glad you brought up the traditionalist thing. There there has been one major championship round in recorded history in with preferred lies. It was the final round of the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltroll. Uh that is it. This is this is generally not done at major championships to play the ball up. No. No. Uh and I understand that. But we had five inches of rain the day before this tournament. that is just so it’s so significant and you you don’t want it to affect you don’t want it to affect the tournament uh in a negative way. So the question is if round one of a tournament is played with preferred lies if round two is played with preferred lies are you going to look back and and think differently about the winner of this tournament uh because they played preferred lies? I don’t know. Oh, I mean I I don’t think Jimmy Walker won the one at Balty because they played Preferred Lies. You I don’t take anything away from him uh for that win in 2016. I didn’t even know that what you just brought up. So, you know, it’s a it’s a hard thing for me. Yeah. Now, at the same time, you’re not going to look back and say, “Well, Scotty Sheffler didn’t win the 2025 PGA because they didn’t because they didn’t play Preferred Lies.” So I I uh I I understand that it’s a difficult thing. I just I I believe that you have a way to solve a problem like this of a a very simple way. It’s a very temporary situation. Uh it it’s a very rare situation. And I’m okay with being tough on this, but it seems like it seems like the wrong like a better decision could have been made in this time around. Yeah, I it was definitely it’s definitely a very unique scenario. Um I I tend to think that, you know, play it as it lies. Everybody dealt with the same thing. Play better. See what happens. We’re going to play 72 holes. I don’t know. I don’t know. I I tend to think that I’m fine with that, too. Yeah. It’s not It’s not a huge deal. But it’s strange when you bring up that we’re not going to do that. That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought was so interesting. It’s like uh we and I also thought it was like we made the decision. We made the night before no matter what. Like what if what if they sent that out on Wednesday night and they got out here Thursday morning and it was like, you know, it’s weird. There’s one other thing that I find strange. Uh if you heard Xander, he said in Xander’s comments, he said, “This is only going to get worse.” I I didn’t understand that. You know what? I I guess it there’s a point where mud gets its stickiest. Okay. So, it’s going to be soft. It’s still going to be soft but dry. Like like if they played yesterday where there’s literally water in the fairways. I I don’t think you’re going to get a There’s too It’s too wet to get mud balls. It’s too It’s too It’s actually too wet for mud to to form. Yeah. There’s like too much water, you know? Like it it hydroplanes. Yeah. Now, as it starts to dry a little bit, they become a little more prevalent. Um, overseed makes a it’s a strange it’s a strange thing. So, it’s uh it’s it’s very complicated, but it was clearly a factor on those shots. Oh, that that I 100. But but also, I mean, how many shots did we not we’re talking about it because it came from the the the the super group and led to two double bogeies out of the middle of the fairway. How how many shots did Michael Kim hit that we didn’t see that had mud on them? Well, he said he got at least five. He tweeted about it, you know. But so here here’s the final question on this. Um, is there something because this is this is a very real possibility. Uh, and it could it could change my mind on this to where I say, “Hey, toughen up, Scotty.” Did he make the wrong decision? If there’s mud on it, do you like like throughout this round today? Is there mud on it every time? And he’s just guessing and hoping. Do the best I can. Hope that it works. And in this case, it it went way left. Or could he have played a different shot? Could he have aimed somewhere else? Like, do do you would see there’s mud on it. Okay, I can’t go at this green with water all the way up the left side. And and everybody knows mud on the right side, it makes the ball go left. So, aim more right. Yeah. Yeah. It’s uh seems like that could be an option. Anyway, to put a cap on what these guys finished at, Scotty Sheoffller got this thing in at two under, which which was splendid. That’s, you know, 3.7 strokes or so to the field. Xander Schoffley, as Greg mentioned, really salvaged this thing and and did not make um did not make another bogey. Play played the rest of his holes after 16 at one under. It was Rory Moy that kind of that moment went the other way for Rory. kind of lost the momentum after stepping onto the 16th green or excuse me 16th T under par may double there made two more bogeies coming in so he’s at three over so Greg he is currently outside the cut line Rory Mroy I’m referring to you mentioned it he’s going to have to obviously play better tomorrow uh to make the cut but I you know I just want to put a bow on that on that super group yeah for Rory it had uh well nothing to this this performance had nothing to do with the mud balls, right? He he putted terribly and he drove it terribly and and and those were two of the things that I thought coming in could be real advantages for him cuz he’s having his best putting season of his entire career and drives it so well at Quail Hollow historically. Uh so this was I I think about as bad as you could see from Rory Mroy. I imagine he will turn around and make this cut and, you know, work his way into a respectable finish. Um, but I I think his chances of winning this tournament are I know Justin Thomas was two over in 2017 when he won, but chances of winning this thing now are are likely gone. Okay, I’m I I I want to move away from the super group, but at the same time, I have a lot more to talk about. I think I said the same thing on Thursday night at the Masters when he when he basically played himself out of that golf tour. Now, there’s a difference. There’s a huge difference. Tell me. Okay. At in round one at the Masters, um he played great golf. Yes. He was like four under and then made two kept it in the water. Yeah. At 15. uh it you know makes a silly double at 17. He played a great round of golf. Yeah, this was not the case. This was a terrible round of golf. So, you know what’s the likelihood of him? That’s what we look at, right? That’s the model. What What What did he do to Green? Nothing of of note. It’s not if he just puted poorly, you know, I could see where you’re coming from. He was bad. He was bent. He was bit. Okay. Well, that’s that’s a very valid and astute point. Um, let’s get you to the we’re got plenty more notables to go, but let’s get you to the leaders. And we’ve got two leaders in the clubhouse. And we have a guy who is currently playing his final hall of the day that might shake this entire thing up. So, let’s get to the guys who are already in. And we’ll start with Ryan Gerard and his five under 66. Greg, he played uh Quail Hollow basically the way you’re supposed to play it. you know, the first six holes, uh, difficult, hang on. He played those at at even par. And then seven through 15, those are your opportunities to score. He made birdie on seven. He made four in a row from 10 to 13. He made an eagle on 15. And then he got to the green mile and he had to hold on again. Um, I was actually seven under at one point before making two bogeies, one on 17, one on 18 to post that 66. Uh a really impressive round obviously um you know he plays a a sixhole stretch in six under par. That’s a very rare and unique thing in a major championship and it’s something that you put in the bank. What I really like about Ryan Gerard is he well one he he leads the field in strokes g to green. So you know he did this the right way. He putted well but it wasn’t out of his mind. He only made 72 ft of putts. um you know he um he he did a lot of his damage with his iron play. who’s third in the field in in strokes gained approach whi which is kind of the mo of Ryan Gerard right this year where in a season where he has six top 25s he was second at the Valero Texas Open he’s played a lot of really good golf and and he did it in this round the way that he did it this year which is on on the back of really strong iron play um and hitting a lot of fairways hit 10 fairway 10 of 14 fairways today it’s it’s Really solid stuff all around. The opposite of Ryan Gerard being really great from TA Green was Cam Davis who leads this field in strokes gain putty. Picked up a nearly just a shade under six strokes with the flat stick alone. And this was a little more spread out. He gets a a birdie uh early. He started on on 10. So he gets a a birdie on number 10. That’s the par five. and then another at at 14, another at 15 and 18. So these were kind of all spread out. He only had one stretch where he made back-to-back birdies and and two bogeies on the card for Cam Davis who has been mired, Greg. Meired in a pretty significant slump. Yes. Now, um I would say if I wasn’t looking at recent form, if two years ago, you know, I was uh frozen and woke up today, you know, you asked me who would play well at Quail Hollow, Cam Davis would be on my list. He’s This is kind of the Rocket Mortgage Classic theory that you have. He’s It’s a golf course built for him. This is kind of in that mold where you can just blast away, utilize the length off the tea, utilize speed, which he has. Um, but the thing is that he’s been playing so poorly lately. That’s kind of a stretch. He said he felt a lot better with his swing today, but really the real reason he played well is he rolled in so many putts. He switched to a mallet putter and he made 164 feet of putts. But you’re talking about you said uh Gerard made what? Basically half that. Yeah. 73 which is like tour average, right? Tour average is right in that neighborhood. 70s low7s. He made on 10 29footer, 16 to 24footer. Uh he made a a 14footer on three, a 15-footer on four, a 21footer on six, a couple 9-footers, a 10-footer at 12. like he was just hooping it from everywhere. But I’ll remind you of one thing. He won the Rocket Mortgage last year. He was playing terrible heading into that. I I don’t know what it is with this guy. I’m a huge fan of his. I don’t see I look at this and I think fade all day. Um but he’s surprised me before. Yeah, he he has he has been able to win completely completely out of the blue. I have some breaking news, Greg, because that that five under 66 has been now shattered. Uh and 5 under 66 is no longer good. And Mina, I hate to tell you this because I’m not sure if you’ve seen it yet. I’m watching the world feed. Johnny Vegas is now seven under par. Speaking of hooping them, he just hooped a 25-footer on nine. his final hole of the day that was going about 30 m an hour wrapped all the way around the cup and went down. A lot of body English for Johnny Vegas who opened up with a bogey on the par 510th. So that means Greg he played his final 17 holes at eight under par around Quail Hollow including five birdies in his final six. And now and now I’m looking at it on the board is taking a twoshot lead into Friday. It it’s incredible. Um you know I was thinking when we were getting ready to do this show Johnny Vegas was at five under the he had just gotten to five under. Now in 2017 the lead was four under. So there were a lot of similarities brewing which I was planning to get into. And like you said Rick it’s uh it’s been shattered. So, Johnny Vegas, just like I said with Cam Davis, fits that mold. Really long hitter. Uh, but he hit some great iron shots today. He had some kind of sloppy moments as well, but he when he after he chipped in on 18, he really got it going on the front nine. He started to hit some iron shots right at the flag. Even though some of them were at the right distance, they went right at the flag. And this one on this one on nine was some sort of long iron from 228 yards. He landed it right in the middle, you know, right in between the bunkers and rolled it up on the green to 22 feet and pours it in. Uh just a kind of one of those playing with your hair on fire rounds today. Uh they just threw a stat up there. Johnny Vegas is the first Venezuelan to ever lead or co-lead after any round in a major championship. And that is exactly what he’s going to do with a two-shot lead. So it is going to Johnny Vegas in at seven under, Ryan Gerard and Cam Davis in at five under. And a handful a gaggle of golfers at four under that include Luke Donald and Ryan Fox. Those two could not be any more different. Alex Smallley, Steven Joerger, and Aaron Ry. I mean, I’m looking at a board, Greg. Like you said, it’s a log jam. Um Joe Muso earlier on CBS Sports HQ said you might need a glossery for some of these guys. as you might not be familiar with. And and it is international. There are so many different flags on the top. It it looks like the United Nations up there. This is an incredible board that’s brewing and I I I I don’t know what’s going to happen here. I don’t know either. Um, now I’ve been taking a little bit a heat on a very small amount of heat with this online and I just saw uh Paul in the chat ask, “You think this is still going to be the greatest major of all time?” Uh, and I just want to clarify something. What I said is that it’s the highest anticipated major that I can remember, which has nothing to do with how the tournament plays out. Um, that being said, I still think this tournament is going to turn out to be fantastic. I think it’s going to turn on its head rapidly. Just to give you an idea of what happened in 2017. Um, now I know this looks different now cuz Johnny Vegas is at seven under, but the lead was four under. Uh, there were 14 rounds in the 60s in 2017 after round one. Only four of them finished inside the top 10. there there were 12 players T9 or better. So, a lot of those guys, you know, uh threearters of them fell off fell off the map. They they fell out of contention. When you look at this week, we have 29 guys in the 60s of thereabouts. Tom McKibben still on the golf course at two under. 29 guys in the 60s. How many of them end up near the top of the leaderboard? And and if you go to Las Vegas, it’s not many. It’s not many. The you gota you got to go to the second page of this before you go into your glossery or start complaining. You got to go to the second page of the leaderboard and see that all the guys that are still in the mix that you’re familiar with, that you’re comfortable with, who I think actually have a a very good chance at winning this thing. Yeah, this is a um this golf course especially, it’s a it’s a golf course of runs, right? there is that that eb and flow, but if if if you’re on, you know, if you can play one through six and 16, 17, 18 at even par, you’re picking up a ton of strokes to the field and then there’s plenty of scoring opportunities out there. Besides that, um, if you’re watching on YouTube right now, we are potting through. This is our way of playing through, but instead of going to commercial, we pod through. I was able to hit the merchandise today. So, you’re looking you’re looking at the names of uh some of our our patrons on Patreon who support us monetarily to help us do this uh roundby round recaps and hopefully take our futures and dreams of this podcast very very high. And if you if you can’t or unwilling or don’t want to support us financially, that’s fine. You know, give us a retweet, leave us a fivestar rating, review, all that fun stuff. But we’ve been doing some giveaways and I’ve I’ve got some stuff here. So, Mina, if you want to make it a little bit bigger, I can show you what I picked up today. And this this will be we we gave away some stuff from the truest um uh to we we drew four names on the Patreon. This will be uh our next drawing. So, I’ve got a couple of items here. I’ve got this nice little bag from Quail, which could be which made that just made Patrick McDonald go, “Oh.” Um which could be used. This could be a toiletry bag, a travel bag. I thought it was very versatile. Maybe a pencil case. Maybe a pencil case. a lot of pencils. I’ve got the standard hat here. Also, I didn’t buy anything that needed sizes because I don’t know who’s going to win this and I don’t know who are going to be the sizes. We’ve got uh a uh bottle opener. We have this, which I want to steal or maybe I’ll get one myself. This very nice um corksicle. It is a sport canteen. We’ve got Oh, that’s for me. Um and we and a bag tag. And a bag tag. So, we’ve got we’ve got all this Yeah, we’ve got all this stuff. Patrick would tried to just steal the the pencil case. It’s much bigger than a pencil case. Uh he’s not going to get it. I’m gonna fight him. I’m gonna fight him for that. But that’s that will be part of our next giveaway. So, if you want to make sure you’re involved, uh join the Patreon and uh if you’re already in there, then you’re already in the draw and that’s how we support this thing. Uh I love that, Rick. Uh great choices. Great job shopping and thanks to all of you get for getting involved. um you know a lot lot more cool stuff to come. So that’s it. It’s it’s going to be great. I hope that everybody appreciates what we have here with uh Quail Hollow. I know that it’s taken Quail Hollow has taken a beating online this week and I I I don’t really think that it’s warranted quite frankly. No, it’s and it’s like a very it’s a very cool golfer. It’s in phenomenal shape all things considered. It’s in it’s it’s pretty mint out there and I think it’s a gorgeous golf course. Yeah. And the greens are in. The greens are awesome and they’re going to get very spicy the rest of the way. I think it’s also getting hot out there. My god, it’s getting hot. I need to get you notables. We’re not We’re not done. We are not done just yet. We’ve got to get to the notables here. And we’re going to start with Justin Thomas. This was one of the guys coming in, Greg, where you know, you were looking at the players who who were uh in great form coming off recent victories. And of course, it was Rory Mroy, it was Scotty Sheff, it was Bryson Dshambo. We were throwing Justin Thomas into the mix as well thanks to his his great play, the win at the RBC Heritage as well. And boy, things were bad out of the gate. He doubled number two, he bogeied three, he bogeied six, he stepped on he got he didn’t even he did he didn’t even birdie seven. So he played that that first sevenhole stretch at four overpar and then the tide started to turn. He gave us a little bit of short game magic. The highlight was the three birdies that he made uh on 14, 15, and 16. He had unbelievable shot on 18 with his shoe off in the creek. Couldn’t convert the the the par putt. But all in all, when the dust settles, it’s a two over 73 for JT, which is going to be just a touch just a quarter of a stroke below the field average for the day. Yeah. and he’s um you know in a tie for 73rd which is the this is the concerning aspect of this. I thought if he had got that up and down on 18 by the left side of the creek by the rock I thought he was crazy for hitting that shot and he gave himself you know he gave himself a puff for par. I thought that would have been big. So it’s not the number of shots back that he is at this point. It’s how many guys there are in between he and the lead that’s a concern. Um but the other concern, Rick, is that he just didn’t play very well. He he hit Justin Thomas, one of the best iron players in the game, who is coming into this week so highly touted by me included because of this iron play, hit four of 18 greens in regulation. Yeah, it put a lot of pressure on the the short game in the scrambling. Also, four fairways, you know, like I’d like to say, well, he hit four um four greens. It must have been mud balls. He even if it was preferred lies, he wasn’t getting any of that because he wasn’t in his own fairway. So, this this was um another instance of poor play, but hard fight. I that’s a good call because he’s he’s like a pretty darn good grinder and did not give up on this round. He is going to get the he was in the afternoon. Yeah, he was in the afternoon today. So, he is going to get the quick turnaround. He’s going to go out tomorrow morning and see if he can take advantage and shoot something low. He played alongside Colin Morawa and this was another slow start. Morokawa was two over through his first five. And then he really kicked it into high gear with birdies on seven, eight, and 10. He also had birdies on 14, 15, and 17. But Greg, Greg, Greg, what happened on 18? Did you see what he did? Or do I have to look it up? Oh, his his he laid up into the water. Yeah, he he like was just trying to advance it uh 100 yards maybe and ran it across the fairway into the water, didn’t he? Yeah, that’s a that’s a I I consider that to be an inexcusable mistake. You can’t punch out into the water. I I mean, it’s kind of similar to TPC Sawrass in that sense where if you play away from the water off the tea and you get into the trees on the right, you kind of get handcuffed, but you have to take your medicine and lay back far enough where you know you’re not going to hit it into the creek. You just you have to you’re taking medicine anyway. So that was silly. The you know the other thing is what I like about this round is you mentioned the way you’re supposed to play it. He birdies all the par fives and birdies the two short par fours. That’s it for birdies. But what’s kind of concerning is he we didn’t really see any of the Korakawa. We didn’t really see his strong suit, his iron play uh in come to the come into play at all. You know, there weren’t really any laser iron shots where he’s throwing it at the flag. He wasn’t giving himself great birdie putts all day long. He took advantage of the holes he needed to made a bad mistake on 18. It’s a good way to play the golf course. You just got to be a little cleaner. You got to be a little better um with your short putting, especially if you’re going to play that play it that way. Is it just me or is he making a lot of doubles or worse this year? I I just feel like he’s always good for like a big number to stop the move out of at some point. He He’s making some mistakes. He’s shoot He’s shooting high rounds, too, which this isn’t a high round, but And he’s still very much in the mix, but he h he’s been making some mistakes. And I just think to what Mark was saying, Rick, like he’s been fighting his swing. It it would have been I mean to go from three under and I know I know 18 is very difficult do not get me wrong but like you said Greg is kind of an inexcusable mistake um take your bogey there and you know let’s just go home to make a double there and go from three under to one under is like oh it’s killer especially because you you know you could you could have been tied with Scotty going into Friday and now you’re already a shot behind. Yeah. and and a course you don’t want to be playing from behind on. Yeah. If you’re calling Ora, right, we’re going to talk about some of these other notables here. There are some uh big time names, but like he he he hits he lays up into the water 100 yards away. Uh yes, that you’re going like across the fairway. Just get it into the fairway. Leave it 120. You can get You’re Colorawa. You can get up and down from 150 yards in the fairway or not and make a bogey. You can’t make that mistake. All right, couple of big boys. Uh John Rah and Bryson Dshambo. Where do you want to go next? Your call. Uh let’s go to Bryson. Bryson Dshambo played in the afternoon and he over the course of the final handful of days leading into this tournament was getting a ton of run in Las Vegas. His odds went from I think like 14 to1 down to 7 to1. He was solidified as one of the top three favorites to win this golf tournament. And he started he played this in the traditional order. So he started on one made the turn in 36. That’s one over. He birdied the par five 10th. And it was really just um a birdie here, a bogey there. It ends up being even par. Greg. The highlight is the shot that he hit on 17. in the par three inside the green mile where um it looked I don’t know how it didn’t go in the hole the the it ended up three inches away was the uh was the final number but it was three inches behind the hole like directly behind the cup so it like swooped right around it um but Bryson is going to pick up about two shots to the field and he’s currently in a tie for 46 and um watching this round today it wasn’t his best stuff he didn’t hit a lot iron shots close. Uh he drove he missed fairways on the wrong holes like he he missed the fairway at uh it was at at seven and eight. He’s not able to take advantage of his length on those holes that should be easy birdie holes. Left himself in some tough spots there. He doesn’t get number 14 either. There’s a lot more juice to squeeze out of this cuz he hit some T- shots, Rick, that he’s hitting at 350. Uh, and he’s changing the he’s changing these holes and um I’m you know I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does tomorrow because I’m he’s he’s only five shots off the lead and watching him today, you know, with all these players on top of the leaderboard that you’re not used to seeing in majors. I can see the gravity pulling them down and and Bryson wearing the field out with his driver. So, this wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad. I would have liked to see him get in get it get this round in under par. Um, but he is still very much a factor in this tournament in my opinion. Do you know or do you want to guess what his driving distance was today? His average driving distance was 3 337. 347. That’s pretty good. 347. So that is 15 yards longer than the guy in second, Xander Shaw. Xander Schoffley, which by the way, Xander a ton of distance. A ton of distance. Um, so that’s a great point because I was looking at Rory’s and Xander’s final round last year to see like Rory could take some lines that Xander couldn’t. It was a big separator. Xander took took all the same lines today. Yeah. And was roasting it. Anyway, Bryson could Bryson hit some T- shots that were Did you see what he did on 16? Yeah, I just Yeah, I did. I just saw It just the you know when the cameraman has to like quickly turn because he doesn’t know where it’s landing and he hasn’t seen a shot there all day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 362. Yeah. 362. It’s um ridiculous. So 15 yards between him and the next longest. So then 15 yards from Xander down is 332 down to 317 which is about that’s Dustin Johnson 19th. So, that’s the gap. Bryson’s gap between one and two is the same gap in yards between two and 19. Um, yeah, that’s that’s the play. And I I agree with you. Uh, juice to be squeezed big time. Yeah, he’s a great putter. Uh, he get he finds the fairways on the right holes. these become very easy and and all the holes these long par4s that are not birdie holes maybe 16 and 18 are exceptions they they become wedge opportunities nine iron opportunities you know 160 yards in kind of thing. So he he has he has a lot of opportunity in my opinion to really open this golf course up and if the conditions get more difficult it it plays right into his hands. John Robo had himself a little bit of a two pencil day. Started on number 10 and it was uh two under par by the time he made the turn. And then this is how he played the front nine of the golf course. He went bogey birdie bogey bogey birdie bogey par. that was on a par five and then birdied eight before he parred number nine. So, a lot of uh a lot of different shapes on the scorecard. It ends up being a one under round of 70. If you look at the stats, Greg, um he wasn’t particularly sharp anywhere. He he drove it he drove it well. He really struggled around the greens and he was about 50th um on both approach and uh oh, excuse me green. He was 26th with the putter for the day. the short. He really struggled with the short game. Now, the stats say he was two for six up and downs. I I think the um there’s a couple things they’re leaving out. He got it up around the green on 14 uh and wasn’t able to get his second shot on the green. I know it was a tough shot, but um you know, he’s hitting it to 8 ft when he’s missing a green. even on some of the par fives and the short par4 fours like I mentioned just not very good pitch shots. He was 0 for four out of the sand. So I think the only two times he got it up and down were with uh putter in hand. But you’re talking about some pretty doable up and downs that he not all of them but you know he left probably three four shots on the table wi with short game alone. um close to it, you know, close to it. So, it was just a little sloppy in that regard. I I think he hit the ball well enough to shoot a really good score today, but you just in these major championships when you when you do miss the occasional green, you know, like he hit 12 greens today. That’s not terrible, but you got to be able to save you got to be able to make some saves. Um and he wasn’t able to do that today. Is there anybody else that you want to talk about before we contextualize this from a odds perspective? We can talk about guys in that sense as well. Yeah, I think we’re good to go to the odds perspective here. So, just to recap here, we’ve got uh Johnny Vegas at seven under, Ryan Gerard and Cam Davis at 500, Luke Donald, Ryan Fox, Alex Molly, Steven Joerger, Aaron Ry at four under. Here are the threes. My gosh, there’s a ton of them. Tons. Al, Alex, Norin, JT Poston, Rio, Nicoia, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert McIntyre, Rasmus, Keegan Bradley, Terrell Hatton, Michael Thorbjorn said that takes up the whole board almost Rafaampos. Those are the three unders. They’re at T9. So, they’re at T9. One shot back. Scotty Sheffler is T20 along with a bunch of other guys. So, that’s that’s the that’s the board. Scotty Shuffler is the favorite to win the 107th PGA Championship. He is three uh 3.3 to one plus 330. So from about five to one or four and a half to one before the tournament started now shorter. Then you get a which is crazy. Crazy. He’s he’s five shots back. Yeah. Right. He’s in what? A tie for 20th. Tie for 20th. Yeah. And and his odds got shorter. That’s Yeah. Crazy. I mean, I’m not going to do it right now, but the amount of wins from those 19 guys above him are it’s probably not a lot of them. Um, then it’s a trio of live golfers, correct? Yeah. Bryson Dshambo is 14 to1. Terrell Hatton is 16 to1. John Rom is 18-1. Johnny Vegas just sneaks in there at 18 to1 as well with that two-shot lead. So, not a lot of confidence in uh him. And then here are your here are your other notables. Ludvig and Colin Morawa are 22 to1. Victor Hofflin is 25 to1. Rory Mroy after that slow start has now dropped from 5 to1 to 30 to1. So that’s that’s really the way the uh our friends in Las Vegas are shaping this up. Yeah. They um they almost think that it’s like a one-horse race. At least inevitable horse race. Yeah. Yeah. like Bryson. Bryson. The reason I say that is when Bryson was at one under before 18, I checked this out because I had three guys in my mind before looking at odds. I was like, “Okay, um obviously Scotty, who I like pre-ournament.” Um I was I Tier Hatton, I was very impressed with his performance today and he leads the field in strokes, Ta Green. And then Bryson, who I liked before the week, I’m looking at him playing. Uh he hits the shot on 17. He’s blasting drivers all over the place. I’m like, he’s going to be brutal. And he was five back at the time. He was Bryson was at 9 to one. I I almost thought that it wasn’t live. It was uh pre-ournament odds and then I realized that it was live and I was, well, shoot. I mean, the three guys I like are the three favorites. They’re not even So, it was um I think this is a tough situation for the Gamblers right now. I think the situation’s gotten worse than it did before the tournament started. Yeah, I think my only comment was like um it’s a very specific type of person, but I do know that there were people who, you know, wanted to get in on Bryson, but they were kind of too late and it was down to seven to one in some places and they were like, ah, I don’t know. But like, now’s your chance. I mean, he’s twice as long as he was before the tournament started. We’ve laid out a scenario in which I think he gets a lot better over the course of the next three days. his last five majors have been awesome. It’s a really good golf course for him. And um there outside of Scotty Sheffler, like there is not a ton of resistance in the top 20 of this of this board. So if you were that guy who feels like you missed out on your chance at at Bryson because he was too short or whatever it was that kept you off of him, he’s available here at at twice the odds. But outside of that, I think I want to see more golf be played. Yes. Um, I think there are a couple of like top 10 plays you could make. Uh, like Xander you could get for a top 10 at plus 280. I I think that’s going to happen. Uh, Taylor Pendrth is like one shot out of the top 10, plus 360 right now. Long hitter. Uh, so there are some plays like that that are available. Bryson, you’re right, Rick. Bryson at 14. I wish he wasn’t seven back, but then you don’t get the number. I think he’s still live right now. I wouldn’t go with Hatton, even though I love the way that he’s played. I I I wouldn’t go with him to win this championship. I still feel like if it was if I thought it was a three-h horsese race coming in, I think it’s a two- horse race now. One of them’s seven back, one of them’s five back. And I still feel that way. It’s crazy. I I I think that Xander top 10 I see it at three to one. So I’m getting I see even better number than you’ve got. Yeah. A little bit a little bit like that my favorite thing I’ve ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s it’s going to happen. He he’s got uh he’s I don’t know the exact number, but it’s over 50% like 56% of his of every single major championship he has played has he has finished inside the top 10. And he hit it great today. Yeah. Two two swings that cost him four strokes. No. Yeah. Two swings. And only one of them was a bad swing. And it’s only going to get harder. Tomorrow may still be pretty scorable, which is a real wild card cuz like some of these guys that played well that you expect to fall off could really separate themselves tomorrow. Like if Johnny Vegas goes out tomorrow and shoots a 65. like the conditions that will be available on the golf course. I believe tomorrow morning the winds start to pick up a little bit on the weekend. We start getting some gusts. You get some 18 mph gusts which is very interesting. But the numbers could scare you after tomorrow. I think the weekend’s going to be really hard. So that’s Xander, especially Xander in a jam-packed leaderboard who’s way back who gets an early tea time Saturday. Like I could just see that playing out perfectly for a backdoor T7. Yeah, he does it he does it does it four times a year. What are we doing? Um All right, Gregors. Well, listen, it’s good to do a round one recap. We got to we got to we’re going to start, you know, listen, we’re we’re we haven’t even started hitting our stride yet and we are rocking into all four rounds uh this week. I’m assuming it’s going to be probably same time tomorrow. The you know, the broadcast goes off at 7 o’clock. I’ll run up here to the media center and I think we’re going to try to shoot for probably something similar like this like 7:30. Uh works for me. Uh like I told you earlier, I just have the Second Cup podcast uh post round to do. So, whatever whenever that goes, I’m ready to go. All right. Much appreciated. All right. Cool. Well, we will be back again on um Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. If you want to take five seconds and help us out in a big way, go leave us a review, retweet it, share it with your friends, whatever it is. Doesn’t have to cost you anything. Um if you don’t want to, but we’re going to we’re going to keep rolling here. Big thanks to producer Mina who is working all the the ones and twos behind the scenes. That right there is Greg Ducharm. I’m Rick Ga. This has been the second cut. We’ll catch you next time.