Scottie Scheffler got his PGA Championship campaign off to a solid start on Thursday with a round of two-under-par 69.
As things stand, Scheffler is finely poised after day one, just three shots adrift of leader Ryan Gerard.
Whilst the 28-year-old American’s rivals toiled around Quail Hollow, he managed to post a really solid number to open his 2025 PGA Championship account.
Rory McIlroy posted a three-over-par 74, whilst Scheffler’s other playing partner Xander Schauffele ended up shooting a one-over-par round of 72.
Sungjae Im’s caddy said before the tournament started that Scheffler looked ‘unbelievably good’ during practice.
However, he wasn’t at his magnificent best by any means around Quail Hollow on Thursday.
His round of 69 proved just how good he is though. Even when the two-time major champion isn’t on top form, he’s still more than capable of shooting under par.
Scottie Scheffler suggests the PGA Championship organisers made a mistake on day one
Scheffler’s opening round at Quail Hollow definitely could have been a lot better.
However, it could have been a whole lot worse as well.
He double-bogied the 16th hole, his seventh, after hooking his approach shot into the water to the left of the green.
And Scheffler told reporters after his round how he felt extremely hard done by in that particular instance.
He said, “By the way, this is going to be the last answer that I give on playing it up or down. I mean, I don’t make the rules.
“I think when you’re looking at the purest forms of golf, like if you’re going to go play links golf, there’s absolutely no reason on a links golf course you should play the ball up. It doesn’t matter how much rain they get. The course could be flooded under water and the ball is still going bounce somehow because of the way the turf is and the ground underneath the turf.
“In American golf it’s significantly different. When you have over-seeded fairways that are not sand capped, there’s going to be a lot of mud on the ball, and that’s just part of it. When you think about the purest test of golf, I don’t personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.
“On a golf course as good of conditioned as this one is, this is probably a situation in which it would be the least likely difference in playing it up because most of the lies you get out here are all really good. So I understand how a golf purist would be, oh, play it as it lies. But I don’t think they understand what it’s like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.
In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down. When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion maybe the ball today should have been played up.
“But like I said, I don’t make the rules. I deal with what the rules decisions are. I could have let that bother me today when you got a mud ball and it cost me a couple shots. It cost me possibly two shots on one hole, and if I let that bother me, it could cost me five shots the rest of the round. But today I was proud of how I stayed in there, didn’t let it get to me and was able to play some solid golf on a day in which I was a bit all over the place and still post a score.“
Scheffler keeps up the pace as his rivals stumble
The Dallas native could not be better placed after the first round of the second major of 2025.
Sure he could be leading, but his position right now will enable him to go under the radar over the next day or two.
Meanwhile, McIlroy is a long way back on three-over, with Schauffele just two shots better off than the Northern Irishman.
Justin Thomas is currently struggling out on the course, whilst Bryson DeChambeau is having some issues early on in his round as well.
A round in the 60s tomorrow will set Scheffler up perfectly heading into the weekend at The PGA Championship.
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