PGA Championship 2016: Leaderboard updates, results and more from Thursday’s round

Last year, the rollicking trash fire but salvaged event that was golf’s reintroduction to the Olympic Games forced the PGA Championship out of it usual second-week-of-August time slot, ahead two weeks to the end of July. The result was a major championship schedule that looked something more like horse racing’s triple crown, a nearly untenable travel schedule for players, and a fourth major championship that many fans might just look over due to the temporary, crammed-in date. This year, it’s back in the normal slot -- but it seems to be heading to May in 2019. (That’s dumb! But more on that later.) Just enjoy it in August, for now.

For casual golf fans that only tune in for the four major championships, the PGA often gets overlooked anyway. This ranking, from Deadspin’s Drew Magary, is the common one among casual fans.

Andrew “Beef” Johnston has been the star this week, first in New York on his personal burger tour, and now in Jersey at the PGA Championship. The media cannot really get enough of the affable Englishman, and shots like this will generate even more fans of his work on the course.

After a wild approach shot left his ball behind a PGA Championship scoreboard, Beef refused a drop that would not have given him much of an advantage and decided to just hit it over (or maybe through) the damn thing and up on the green to just a few feet. The chants of “beeeeeffff” came down and he high-fived his way up to the green.

Throwing a golf club is considered to be very poor form on a golf course. Punting a golf club would likely also be frowned upon, but if you do it as well as Patton Kizzire did here you should get a pass.

Kizzire missed a short putt during his first round of the PGA Championship. That’s a frustrating moment at any time and even more so in a major. It resulted in him showing off some punting skills that could have NFL teams interested. It has to be pretty hard to punt a putter. Even with a short stride, Kizzire got some pretty good distance on this kick. He clearly has the pooch punt down.

Hey, remember when we told you yesterday how awesome the PGA Championship usually is because the set-up generally allows stars to excel and play like stars?

Uh, well, sorry. It’s usually like that, promise.

The PGA Championship is often referred to as the fourth major. Not only because it is the last of the four major championships, but also because it sometimes seen as the least important. And while that may or may not be true -- we’ve got one argument for why it’s the best -- this tournament does not lack excitement and drama.

How about the last decade or so? Last year, we saw Jason Day set an all-time major scoring record and bring home the Wanamaker Trophy for his first major championship. Or how about two years ago when Rory McIlroy battled Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler in the dark to make for a spectacular and wild finish. Unknown Y.E. Yang took down Tiger Woods, DJ grounded his club in a bunker, the list goes on and on, but you get the idea. This tournament is always super entertaining, even if doesn’t get the publicity it deserves.

You have 10 seconds to wait out your golf ball if it’s tantalizingly close to falling into the cup. John Senden stared at his ball, stalked the cup on his circuitous route, stared some more, and used just about all of that 10 seconds as TNT commentator, and Senden’s putting coach, Ian Baker-Finch told him it wasn’t going to drop. But it worked and he mind tricked this one into falling in the side door.

Rory McIlroy started his week at the PGA Championship saying he was “running out of patience” with his game. The four-time major winner operates under a different standard than almost every other golfer in the world, set by both himself and the media that covers him week to week. There immediate reaction to his 4-over 74 start at Baltusrol will not be kind. It will probably be an overreaction, as is often the case with Rory. But this was a shocking run and could not have been helpful for that patience Rory said was getting low.

A lot of late money had pushed Rory to the 7/1 favorite this week, and why not? This is the major the best suits his game and one he relishes. This course was a long par-70, on the softer side, and some target golf that should play right into his hands. It was so easy to see him just lighting it up and posting multiple mid-60s rounds to run away with his third PGA.

Nooooooo, it’s the last major of the season. How is the PGA Championship here already?

This is the one major that the Olympics forced out of its usual spot on the schedule, moving the PGA from its mid-August date to just 10 days after that incredible Sunday at The Open. It doesn’t seem appropriate for what is arguably the most exciting major championship, but here we are catching our breath and ready to dive back in. Some picks and predictions for the week at Baltusrol.