CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Two of the world’s top three players stood in the middle of the 16th fairway Thursday at the PGA Championship and had no idea where their second shots might land.

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele had passed the first test of Quail Hollow Club's "Green Mile," finding the fairway at the brutish par-4 16th, but their jobs were already harder.

A deluge of rain over the last two weeks has left Quail Hollow (unavoidably) sopping wet. And while the greens have firmed up thanks to the course’s sub-air system, the rest of the course is still soft. When the fairways are soft, one thing is often unavoidable: mud balls.

That was the case for Scheffler and Schauffele, who both had a clump of mud on their golf balls and guessed wrong on how it would affect the flight. One after the other, they dumped their approaches into the water left of the green and failed to get up and down, resulting in a pair of double bogeys.

“I don't know, we had to aim right of the grandstands probably. I'm not sure,” Schauffele said. “I aimed right of the bunker and it whipped in the water and Scottie whipped it in the water, as well.”

The frequency and impact of mud balls was a prominent storyline Thursday at the PGA Championship, at least among several notable players who spoke after the round about the impact of playing conditions.

The PGA of America opted not to implement preferred lies for the first round, largely consistent with the history of the PGA Championship and the rest of the three major championships. Multiple players said an exception should have been made on Thursday.

“I understand how a golf purist would be, ‘Oh, play it as it lies,’” Scheffler said. “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.”

Schauffele said it impacted a significant number of his shots in the first round. For some shots, the effects were marginal. On others, like the 16th, it played a major role in the shot’s result. Schauffele and Scheffler’s opinion, though, wasn’t unanimously shared.

Ryan Fox said he was not expecting the PGA of America to implement preferred lies and that only one of his shots was significantly affected by mud. Fox shot 4-under 67.

“I think probably all of us would have liked it to be. But you know, it is a major championship. You know, you do expect it,” Fox said. “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.”

Alex Smalley shot 4-under 68 and said, “It didn't really affect a lot of the shots out there.” Luke Donald had to take relief in the fairway twice because of casual water, but otherwise didn’t have any mud balls.

“I think the PGA of America referees know what they’re doing. They know a lot more than us as players,” said Aaron Rai, who trails by one after an opening 67. “I think it’s extremely dry around the greens, and the runoffs are extremely tight. I think without playing preferred lies, it brought in the challenge of the short game a little bit more, which I think is an important part of the course.”

With hot and dry conditions expected the rest of the week, it’s unknown whether the PGA of America will maintain the same strategy of playing the ball down for subsequent rounds. However, Schauffele believed the prevalence of mud balls could get worse before it gets better.

“They're going to get worse as the plays dries up,” he said. “They're going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it's kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through.”