US PGA: Pádraig Harrington rolls back the years as Corey Conners leads at Kiawah

The beast was appeased to an extent before a ball was struck in anger, as sympathetic number crunching shaved some 216 yards off the Ocean Course’s length so that the 156 players in this 103rd edition of the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island on the South Carolina shores were presented with a reduced examination – of 7,660 yards rather than its full 7,876 – which, nevertheless, asked serious questions of patience and shot-making.

As ever, though, someone will always find a way to unlock the code. And, as the easterly wind in off the Atlantic remained constant at around 15 miles per hour sufficient to make for second guessing of club selection, whether downwind or into it, Canada’s Corey Conners put on a ballstriking exhibition to sign for an opening round of 67 and lead by two at five under par.

However, a six-strong group – featuring past champions Brooks Koepka and Keegan Bradley along with Viktor Hovland, Aaron Wise, Sam Horsfield and Cameron Davis – are all breathing down Conners’ neck after opening round of 69 for three under par.

Collin Morikawa, the defending champion, bogeyed his finishing hole, the ninth, to finish at two under. Rory McIlroy was out-of-sorts in opening his championship with a 75, the same mark as world number two Justin Thomas. World number one Dustin Johnson also failed to impress has he opened with a four over par round of 76.

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But just four shots off the lead after an opening round of 71 is 2008 US PGA champion Pádraig Harrington.

The Dubliner has fond memories of Kiawah Island having won the World Cup on the Ocean Course with Paul McGinley in 1997 and those good feeling were definitely to the forefront of his mind on Thursday as he stood up to the examination very well indeed with six pars in a row to start before picking up a birdie at the seventh.

His first bogey of the day came at the 10th but he followed that with a brilliant eagle at the Par 5 11th after finding the front of the green in two and rolling in the putt. A bogey six at the Par 5 16th did put a slight blemish on the finish but pars on the tough 17th and 18th meant Harrington got to the clubhouse under par, rounding off a good day’s work.

For Shane Lowry, a stroke of bad luck in the form of a plugged ball in a waste area on the Par 3 17th means he has a work to do on Friday after a round of 73 but his response at the 18th could bode well.

Throughout the round there was frustration on the greens as six birdie putts inside 15 feet burned the edge before disaster struck at the brutal 17th. After showing off some impressive iron play the whole way round, finding the middle of most greens, one bad swing on the 17th saw his tee shot turn left and bury into the face of one of the waste areas.

From there he could only knock his second shot down into the flat of the sand before catching his third shot a little thin. With that, two putts from the fringe added up to a double bogey five, dropping the Offalyman back to two over par. However, the 34-year-old showed just how much grit he possesses by knocking his approach at the 18th right down the flag before holing the birdie putt to sign for a battling round of 73, one over par. Who knows, that strong finish may just give him the momentum to kick on tomorrow. On a historic day for the men’s Major game, with range finders allowed for the first time, such an alteration to the rules didn’t provide for any speedier play.

Indeed, with rounds extending to five and a half hours, mental fatigue as much as physical demands became a factor in keeping the mind on the task at hand.

An indication of the course’s ability to penalise any lapse was demonstrated by no less a person as the so-called Scientist himself, Bryson DeChambeau, who incurred a run of four successive bogeys at one point (to his credit ultimately signing for a level par 72), while the flipside was delivered by a run of Martin Laird who ran off four successive birdies (in opening with a 70).

“Mentally, you have to show a lot of resolve out there. Mental fortitude to just push on when things aren’t going well,” explained DeChambeau of the challenge faced by any player getting on the wrong side of things, adding: “This is the most difficult golf course that I’ve played on tour and that’s a straight-up fact for me. That requires a lot of energy.”

The course’s ability to give with one hand and take with the other was, perhaps, best exemplified by the fate of Koepka.

Prone to injuries in recent times, to the extent that he gingerly made his way around Augusta National last month for over two rounds in suffering a missed cut, and again failed to make the weekend in last week’s Byron Nelson, Koepka’s opening steps in this latest examination of his fitness were rocky in starting with a double-bogey six on the 10th.

Koepka’s woes had nothing to do with the water running down the right of his opening hole, but rather with the grassy sandhills that devoured his drive. In attempting to play out, his recovery hit the mound and came back to him.

“The first rule is, ‘if you’re in trouble, get the hell out’. I couldn’t reach the green, it was bad lie, I didn’t know what I was doing. So a mental mistake, and I deserved every bit of the double bogey,” confessed Koepka of that car crash of an opening hole.

Yet, as he has tended to do in PGAs, Koepka knuckled down to the task. “It kind of helped me refocus. I can’t play with any mistakes, maybe one a day, and that was my one. I got it out of the way on my first hole,” he said, going on to play his way back into the championship in a quest for a fifth career Major and third PGA.

“I love it when it’s difficult. I think that’s why I do so well in the Majors, I just know mentally I can grind it out. Like when it’s windy like this, it’s not so much putting, it’s more about ball striking and I felt I struck it really well,” added Koepka, who claimed to have suffered no adverse reaction to the knee injury that has affected him in recent months.

While Koepka knows only too well how to get his hands on the Wanamaker Trophy, Hovland has continued to make onward journey into new terrain in terms of his career.

In just his sixth career appearance in a Major, and with a best finish of tied-12th in the US Open in 2019 when still an amateur, Hovland – a two-time winner on the PGA Tour – showed he too had the mental fortitude for the task at hand in his round of 69 with a par save on the fourth probably demonstrating his ability to think outside the box than any of his four birdies.

There, his drive finished on the edge of a bunker.

“I didn’t really have any good options. I was contemplating maybe standing in the bunker. I got the 3-wood out trying to hit maybe a high slice. Then [thought] maybe I could stand on the grass. It dawned on me, ‘well, what if I try to hook it’. I actually had a better stance,” explained Hovland of settling on hitting a five-iron left of the green and getting up and down for a wonderful par save.

Collated first round scores in the The PGA Championship, Ki Golf Resort — Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, South Carolina (USA unless stated, Par 72):

67 Corey Conners (Can)

69 Keegan Bradley, Cameron Davis (Aus), Sam Horsfield (Eng), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Brooks Koepka, Aaron Wise

70 Branden Grace (Rsa), Sung Jae Im (Kor), Martin Laird (Sco), Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa, Kevin Streelman, Cameron Tringale, Gary Woodland

71 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Paul Casey (Eng), Stewart Cink, Jason Dufner, Rickie Fowler, Talor Gooch, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Jason Kokrak, Tom Lewis (Eng), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Richy Werenski, Will Zalatoris

72 Ben Cook, Bryson DeChambeau, Harry Higgs, Adam Long, Jon Rahm (Spa), Justin Rose (Eng), Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith (Aus), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa), Bubba Watson

73 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Charley Hoffman, Matt Jones (Aus), Shane Lowry (Irl), Brad Marek, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Denny McCarthy, Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Xander Schauffele, Jason Scrivener (Aus), Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Andy Sullivan (Eng), Harold Varner III, Jimmy Walker, Matt Wallace (Eng), Lee Westwood (Eng)

74 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Rich Beem, Dean Burmester (Rsa), Joel Dahmen, Jason Day (Aus), Tony Finau, Lanto Griffin, Tom Hoge, Zach Johnson, Marc Leishman (Aus), Ryan Palmer, Ian Poulter (Eng), Patrick Reed, Kalle Samooja (Fin), Brendon Todd

75 Alex Beach, John Catlin, George Coetzee (Rsa), Harris English, Mark Geddes, Brian Harman , Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Chan Kim, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Rory McIlroy (NIrl), J. T. Poston, Webb Simpson, Brendan Steele, Justin Thomas, Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Yong-Eun Yang (Kor), Wyndham Clark

76 Thomas Detry (Bel), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Dustin Johnson, Chris Kirk, Rob Labritz, Thomas Pieters (Bel), Ben Polland, Patrick Rada, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Steve Stricker, Greg Koch

77 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Brian Gay, Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Adam Hadwin (Can), Billy Horschel, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Kevin Kisner, Kurt Kitayama, Matt Kuchar, Sebastian Munoz (Col), Alexander Noren (Swe), Chez Reavie, Robert Streb, Hudson Swafford, Brett Walker, Danny Willett (Eng), Brandon Hagy

78 Russell Henley, Jim Herman, Max Homa, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Peter Malnati, Maverick McNealy, Victor Perez (Fra), Adam Scott (Aus), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)

79 Danny Balin, Daniel Berger, Derek Holmes, Kevin Na, Tim Pearce, Antoine Rozner (Fra)

80 Pete Ballo, Larkin Gross

81 Shaun Micheel, Aaron Rai (Eng), Joseph Summerhays

82 Cameron Champ, Stuart Smith, Omar Uresti

85 John Daly, Sonny Skinner

86 Frank Bensel

88 Tyler Collet