Scottie Scheffler rallies, but big three names sputter out of gates at Quail Hollow

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It took four days, but the sun finally shone brightly upon Quail Hollow Club as the 107th PGA Championship got underway. That wattage, however, didn’t translate to the marquee group of the opening round.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele were the big-ticket draw Thursday morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. The top three in the latest Official World Golf Rankings, they have combined to win four of the last five major championships. On a long course that got wetter with early-week rain, they were viewed as some of the biggest favorites among a top-heavy list of likely winners.

Quail Hollow had something different in mind.

The leaderboard got turned upside down early in the opening round, with all three players struggling to build early momentum. Scheffler got the most out of his round, with birdies on two of his final three holes – including the difficult par-4 ninth – to card a 2-under 69 that left him three shots off the early lead.

The other two players in the 8:22 a.m. ET starting time were not as fortunate. Schauffele, the defending PGA champ and a runner-up at Quail Hollow each of the last two years at the Truist Championship, sputtered to a 1-over 72. McIlroy’s first major round as a Grand Slam champion went even more sideways, as he carded a 3-over 74 on a course where he has won four times prior.

The struggles reached a nadir on the par-4 16th, where all three players made double bogey as Schauffele and Scheffler both hooked approaches from the middle of the fairway into the water and cited the impacts of mud balls after the fact.

“I kept the honor with making a double on a hole,” Scheffler noted. “I think that will probably be the first and last time I do that in my career unless we get some crazy weather conditions.”

Scheffler’s double on No. 16 followed a chip-in eagle on the par-5 15th, emblematic of a roller-coaster day as he had two other instances of birdie following bogey, or vice versa. But thanks to his late surge over the final three holes, he’s the one still left standing with a very real shot at his first major title outside the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club.

“Today I feel like I did some good things out there and did some things I could improve on,” Scheffler said. “Overall I did a good job battling and keeping a level head out there during a day where there were definitely some challenging aspects to the course, and did a good job posting a number on a day where I didn’t have my best stuff.”

Given the convergence of his watershed triumph at the Masters and his affinity for all things Quail Hollow, McIlroy was the starting point of ample pre-tournament discussion. The man who played Thursday, though, had little resemblance to the one who left Augusta wiping away tears of joy. McIlroy’s driver was amiss all day, as he found just four of 14 fairways and struggled with a left miss early that became a two-way miss as the round progressed. He couldn’t convert much on the greens, losing more than -2.4 strokes to the field with putter while ranking near the bottom of the 156-man field.

The 74 was the highest score at Quail Hollow since a second-round 76 in 2018 for McIlroy, who has won three times this year but declined to speak with the media after the opening round.

Schauffele’s title defense took a hard left on the par-4 16th, his seventh hole of the day, the low point of a 15-hole stretch in his opening round without a birdie. But he finally put another circle on the scorecard on No. 8 to get back to 1 over and within six shots of the lead.

“I think there’s a lot more good in there than bad,” Schauffele said. “Besides that shot on 16, if I take that away, was able to hit the green and two-putt, I shot 1 under and probably would have been a decent start to the tournament.”

Schauffele is more within reach of the leaders than is McIlroy, but both can take solace in a recent trend at this event: Four of the last eight PGA winners were sitting outside the top 30 after the opening round. That includes 2017, when eventual winner Justin Thomas opened with a 73 at Quail Hollow and was T-44 heading into the second round.

While the path to the top may still be present, it has certainly narrowed for Schauffele and McIlroy. The margin for error has thinned considerably. Schauffele’s streak of 12 straight top-20 finishes in majors isn’t a sure thing to continue, while McIlroy has work to do simply to make the cut. His game appeared in pieces in the opening round, but this is still the place where he owns multiple scoring records and can go ultra-low at a moment’s notice.

The marquee group didn’t play up to their collective billing in the opening round, one where the top of the leaderboard likely sparked a few head turns and double-takes. But they’ll run it back on Friday, flanked by plenty of eager fans hoping to watch the top three players in the world find their footing and make a surge toward the standings.

“You had a guy that just won the career Grand Slam, another guy that won two majors. Last year, and then I won a major last year as well. It was a fun group, the crowd had great energy,” Scheffler said. “Hopefully tomorrow we’ll play a little bit better.”