PGA Championship leaderboard: Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson have rough start at Baltusrol

Rory McIlroy must believe it’s Saturday, because since carding a third-round 77 at the Masters in April, the four-time major winner has put up stinkers in his third rounds at various PGA Tour courses. Not unlike the 3-over 39 he carded after nine holes to open up Thursday’s PGA Championship.

With slumped shoulders and an overall body language telegraphing his displeasure with the way he started his attempt to earn a third Wanamaker Trophy, McIlroy had problems up on the greens, and this coming on the easier half of the course to put up decent scores. A missed shorty for birdie on the par-5 17th (he, Jason Day, and Phil Mickelson began on No. 10) was a microcosm of his woes on the putting surfaces.

Having to settle for par on the 650-yarder that should be the type of hole the big hitter favors likely had McIlroy wondering what putting stroke he needed to deploy to find the bottom of the cup. He had been driving the ball beautifully, but three misses from just inside 10 feet left the two-time PGA Champion quite frustrated on his opening nine.

Things went from bad to worse, when McIlroy hit his worst drive of the day way right off the 18th tee.

What ensued was yet another birdie putt that came up short.

“Pace, pace, pace,” the PGA.com announcer intoned as McIlroy came up short on yet another birdie putt before making the turn.

Mickelson, who left it all out on the course in his epic final-round duel with Henrik Stenson at the British Open 11 days ago, looked like a guy who was “running on E,” which is how Day described himself on the eve of this week’s final major of the men’s season.

Starting and ending his outgoing nine with bogeys, and adding another on the 16th, Lefty was also looking for better things on the second nine. Day, meanwhile, seemed able to block out the carnage of his playing partners and, with one birdie and the rest pars, went to his 10th tee of the day just four shots behind the early front-runner Jimmy Walker.

Here’s your leaderboard with only the morning half of the draw out on the course.

1 -- Jimmy Walker -- -5
2 -- Brian Stuard -- -4
T3 -- Emiliano Grillo -- -3
T3 -- Jamie Lovemark -- -3
T5 -- Hideki Matsuyama -- -2
T5 -- Harris English -- -2
T5 -- Rickie Fowler -- -2
T5 -- Chris Wood -- -2
T5 -- Marcus Fraser -- -2
T5 -- Paul Casey -- -2
T5 -- Jason Day -- -2
T5 -- Ross Fisher -- -2
T13 -- Jon Curran -- -1
T13 -- K.J. Choi -- -1
T13 -- David Lingmerth -- -1
T13 -- Victor Dubuisson -- -1
T13 -- James Hahn -- -1
T13 -- Justin Thomas -- -1
T13 -- Brooks Koepka -- -1
T13 -- Lee Westwood -- -1
T13 -- Robert Streb -- -1
T13 -- Ryan Helminen -- -1
T13 -- Jhonattan Vegas -- -1
T24 -- Bradley Dredge -- E
T24 -- Jason Kokrak -- E
T24 -- Zach Johnson -- E
T24 -- Branden Grace -- E
T24 -- Soren Kjeldsen -- E
T24 -- Rafael Cabrera Bello -- E
T24 -- Keegan Bradley -- E
T24 -- Gregory Bourdy -- E
T24 -- Andy Sullivan -- E
T24 -- Bill Haas -- E
T24 -- Omar Uresti -- E
T24 -- Greg Chalmers -- E
T24 -- Hideto Tanihara -- E
T24 -- Smylie Kaufman -- E
T24 -- Nicolas Colsaerts -- E
T39 -- Daniel Berger -- 1
T39 -- Tyrrell Hatton -- 1
T39 -- Aaron Baddeley -- 1
T39 -- Padraig Harrington -- 1
T39 -- Scott Hend -- 1
T39 -- Brandt Snedeker -- 1
T39 -- Charley Hoffman -- 1
T39 -- Jamie Donaldson -- 1
T39 -- Adam Scott -- 1
T39 -- Kevin Na -- 1
T39 -- Vaughn Taylor -- 1
T39 -- Rod Perry -- 1
T39 -- David Muttitt -- 1
T52 -- Patton Kizzire -- 2
T52 -- Freddie Jacobson -- 2
T52 -- Jason Bohn -- 2
T52 -- J.B. Holmes -- 2
T52 -- Matt Dobyns -- 2
T52 -- John Daly -- 2
T52 -- Rikard Karlberg -- 2
T52 -- Zac Blair -- 2
T60 -- Kristoffer Broberg -- 3
T60 -- Jeunghun Wang -- 3
T60 -- Brian Gaffney -- 3
T60 -- Kevin Kisner -- 3
T60 -- Ernie Els -- 3
T60 -- Billy Hurley III -- 3
T60 -- Matt Jones -- 3
T60 -- Phil Mickelson -- 3
T60 -- Roberto Castro -- 3
T60 -- Rory McIlroy -- 3
T60 -- George Coetzee -- 3
T71 -- Chris Kirk -- 4
T71 -- Darren Clarke -- 4
T73 -- Mark Brown -- 5
T73 -- Wyatt Worthington II -- 5
T73 -- Vijay Singh -- 5
T73 -- Jonas Blixt -- 5
T77 -- Tommy Sharp -- 7
T77 -- Josh Speight -- 7