The change every player at the PGA Championship are said to have wanted tournament organisers to make on day one but did not happen

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Few would have ever imagined just how the top of the leaderboard would look after the first morning at the PGA Championship, with the likes of Ryan Fox and Alex Smalley amongst the leaders at Quail Hollow.

Of course, many would have expected the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to lay a marker down in the early stages of the first round at the PGA Championship. It was hard to look beyond the pair when it came to those out earlier on Thursday.

But while they toiled, a number of surprise names took full advantage. Luke Donald showed that it may not only be Keegan Bradley pushing for a place on his own Ryder Cup team later this year.

Meanwhile, Ryan Fox continued his fine form after winning the Myrtle Beach Classic to get into the field this week. And it was a similar story for Alex Smalley, who was fifth in the opposite field event.

Ryan Fox reacts to the PGA of America not allowing preferred lies at Quail Hollow

The pair posted rounds of four under par on Thursday, which was particularly impressive given that Quail Hollow was playing even longer than usual after the dreadful weather from earlier in the week.

Despite the conditions, the PGA of America did not introduce preferred lies for the first round. And Fox admitted that it was slightly disappointing that a change was not made.

“Yeah, I was expecting it not to be. I think probably all of us would have liked it to be. But you know, it is a major championship,” he said.

“You know, you do expect it, and yeah, hopefully there’s not too many and obviously looks like we’re going to have good weather today and tomorrow, and that should dry the course out for the weekend really nicely.”

Players surprised by the course conditions at the PGA Championship

Smalley had a slightly different view, noting that he was a little taken aback by how the course had coped with the conditions given how much rain had hit the area in the days leading up to the tournament.

“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t like we had the whole — a whole quarter or half the ball that was covered. It was only a couple specks here and there, and it wasn’t anything too significant, but it was enough to definitely affect the flight some,” he said.

“It wasn’t like it was going to turn 20 or 30 or 40 yards on you. I think I had one on 18 that got me a little bit, and I hit a little long left that I was kind of surprised by.

“For the most part it was pretty good. Given, like I mentioned, the conditions in the practice rounds Tuesday, Wednesday, we were stepping in the fairways and there was water coming up with every step. I think that’s kind of what surprised most of us.

“It will be interesting to see if there’s a significant difference between the morning and afternoon wave. I think the afternoon wave might have it a little bit better but they still might have to deal with it a little bit.

“So overall, I didn’t think it was a bad decision. I think most of us were just a little surprised given the conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday, but like I mentioned, it didn’t really affect a lot of the shots out there.”

Meanwhile, Donald suggested that others may have bigger problems than the early starters.

“I didn’t have any mud balls, per se. When it starts to dry out even more, you could get some this afternoon. It was tricky. I was a little bit surprised yesterday when I heard the news yesterday evening just because of how wet it was, but it had dried out quite well, to be honest,” Donald said.

“Two times I had to take casual relief from the fairway, which helped. You know, you can clean it. The rest of the time, it was just sort of a watery, muddy residue on it, at times. It wasn’t really lumps of mud, which that’s when it gets very dicey.”

Despite hoping that preferred lies would be allowed, Fox also suggested that he was really impressed by how the course conditions improved from the practice days.

“To be honest, the golf course, I played at 7:00 yesterday morning, and I think we may have struggled to play yesterday morning if it was a tournament round because it was that wet,” the New Zealander added.

“So the golf course has dried out amazingly well. There wasn’t any standing water. And you know, it is what it is. It’s going to be a few guys complaining about them, obviously, over the first couple of days, but I thought the golf course played really, really well considering how much rain we’ve had Monday, Tuesday this week.”