PGA Championship 2015: Updates and scores from Thursday’s 1st round

The first round of the final major championship of the season is in the books and the names we expected near the top of the leaderboard are there. Perhaps the least surprising development of the day was Dustin Johnson setting the early pace and going to bed with the 18-hole. It’s a spot he’s enjoyed all summer at the major championships, and he was always going to be in it at this PGA on a venue where he’s succeeded.

Johnson immediately challenged every hole at Whistling Straits off the tee, telling his coach Butch Harmon he planned to “send it all day.” He used his length to cut corners and push the limit that other players can’t touch. He opened with two straight birdies and then poured in an eagle at the 16th to go out in 32 on his first nine. When DJ has it working, Rory McIlroy is really the only player out there with the talent to keep up with him. The issue for Johnson, of course, is putting it together for 72 holes and keeping it together on Sunday. The tee-to-green game will be there all weekend -- it has been all summer. But if his putter is steady, and he can roll in a couple bombs like that eagle, he’ll get his first major championship.

The afternoon at the 2015 PGA Championship is proving to be more difficult thanks to wind that has picked up throughout the day. The result has been a struggle for the afternoon wave with many players having difficulty successfully navigating the course. While a host of players posted red numbers during the morning action, that’s been harder to do in the afternoon.

Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are prime examples. The top two players in the world are off to up-and-down starts as they try to dip into red numbers. Spieth opened the round with 10 straight pars, while McIlroy mixed two bogeys with two birdies to also sit at even through 10 holes. Scrambling has been a key for both as they’ve recovered well from poor shots to stay level.

Phil Mickelson hasn’t had a great season this year, but his short game is still among the best in the world. We’ve seen him pull off incredible shot after incredible shot countless times, but he outdid himself on Thursday at the PGA Championship.

Even with a normal stance, that would have been a difficult shot because he didn’t have a follow through thanks to the lip of the bunker. When you add in a steep slope and an incredibly awkward stance, that shot should be close to impossible to get anywhere near the pin. Gary McCord speculated Mickelson could swing and miss because the shot was so hard. Instead, he stuck it to a few feet.

Rory McIlroy is making his return to competitive golf on Thursday, following an extended break after ankle surgery. He didn’t have much time to shake off the rust, as he found some challenging situations early on. The most dubious came at No. 5 when McIlroy opted to play a shot out of a shallow water hazard.

For whatever reason, McIlroy chose to roll up only one pant leg. Maybe he liked the look, or maybe he was keeping his surgically repaired ankle out of view as the announcers speculated. Either way, it worked. McIlroy avoided a penalty stroke by playing the shot and followed it up with a made putt to save par.

Tiger Woods appeared to fix some of the big misses off the tee with his driver but his putter stayed as frigid on the back nine of his opening (and, likely, penultimate) round of the season as it was on the front at Whistling Straits.

Woods, who failed to parlay decent ball-striking into anything better than a 3-over 75 score on Thursday at the PGA Championship, started out on track, with a par on his first hole, the par-4 10th on the links-style course on Lake Michigan. For those who witnessed the foul balls Tiger had hit for much of the year, Tiger’s work with his big stick was a welcome sight.

“F***king Christ, what the f**k is wrong with you!?” was the refrain from four-time PGA Championship winner Tiger Woods on the third green Thursday morning at Whistling Straits.

Woods is actually playing better golf than what we’ve watched at his last two majors. He has been keeping the ball in play, but unfortunately, his putter has been awful. A birdie try from off the green at the par-3 third hole came up some eight feet short, and Woods had had it with all his putting troubles up on the green -- deciding to drop the string of expletives in a day full of them.

It’s Thursday at a major championship so that must mean Dustin Johnson is on top of the leaderboard. While he doesn’t have the wins like some of his peers, DJ is arguably the most talented player in the world. It’s no surprise to have him keep popping up at the top of these boards early at major championships, and on the weekend, too.

He started his PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, site of that controversial 2010 sand trap misfortune, going out with a 4-under 32 on his first nine. Johnson has a distance advantage over everyone in the field, and we keep hearing at almost every major venue how much that helps his chances. The same goes for Whistling Straits and we know it’s a course where he’s succeeded in the past. He started his championship with back-to-back birdies on his opening holes, then moved to the top of the board by pouring in a 27-foot eagle putt at the 16th.

Relative to what we’ve seen this summer, Tiger Woods’ ball-striking was solid through his first nine holes of the PGA Championship on Thursday. But he could get almost nothing going with his putter.

The 14-time major champion, who has struggled mightily with his driver, didn’t hit them all well with the big stick off the tee, missing a couple of fairways to the right. But he was able to minimize the damage by finding his first seven greens -- which is where it all went awry.

The CSI: Whistling Straits episode starring Rory McIlroy’s ankle officially jumped the shark Wednesday when commentator John Feinstein compared the injury that the world No. 1 recently suffered to his own accident decades ago.

“I had almost the exact same injury in college because I fell down a flight of steps -- sober,” Feinstein, 59, said on the Golf Channel after McIlroy answered several questions about the ligament he blew in a friendly soccer match with pals on July 4.

It’s rare to have a player at a major championship bow out the morning of the first round, but the PGA Championship lost a man bright and early Thursday. Gary Woodland, maybe the longest hitter in the field, withdrew just before the start of the first round with neck issues.

The PGA made the announcement around 5:30 a.m. local time in Wisconsin, so it is likely that Woodland was trying to give it a go at the last minute but couldn’t play through his injury. Less than a week ago, Woodland was on site at Whistling Straits playing a practice round with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. He is a world class talent and a second-tier, up-and-coming American. He has relatively no history at the majors, however, something that is bound to change once he is healthy purely based on his length off the tee.

Update: Friday’s tee times at the PGA Championship.

The final major of 2015 has arrived with the 2015 PGA Championship set to begin at Whistling Straits. With Rory McIlroy ready to make his return from injury, the field is once again stocked with the best players in the world. There is plenty of intrigue heading into the first 18 holes with Jordan Spieth gunning for his third major of the year while McIlroy will attempt to shake off the rust quickly and defend his PGA Championship title.

There are just four more days of major championship golf left this year, which is awful news. But at the start of the week, we have an amazing set of circumstances amplifying the hype for the 2015 PGA Championship.

Jordan Spieth is going for the American Slam, the world No. 1 ranking, and perhaps the “greatest season ever.” Rory McIlroy makes a sooner-than-expected return from a nasty ankle injury to defend his title and protect his No. 1 status. The PGA paired them together for the first two rounds! Whistling Straits may not have the history or the cachet of other venues, but it may be the prettiest August setting for golf in the United States. The players love it and it will be wonderful for TV. There’s so much here to be excited about for these last four rounds. Maybe an improved and competitive Tiger would be the only thing that could make this week, as it looks at the start, any better.

Tiger Woods brought a new game plan with him to Whistling Straits. Needing to play like the Tiger of old at the PGA Championship for a chance to make it to the postseason, Woods went off his “I’m here to win” script Tuesday to instead claim that he was in Sheboygan to prepare for the long haul.

“I’m just trying to get my game better for years to come,” Woods said two days ahead of Thursday’s start to the men’s final major of the year.