Scottie Scheffler part of 7-way tie for the lead at PGA Championship

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — The biggest logjam in 57 years after the opening round of a major championship still had one name that stood out above the rest: Scottie Scheffler handled everything Aronimink threw his way Thursday in the PGA Championship.

Scheffler took advantage of two long birdie putts and one big break on the 17th hole for a 3-under 67 to share the lead with six other players — former PGA champion Martin Kaymer perhaps the biggest surprise — on a tough day in the Philadelphia suburbs.

It was the 13th round in the majors that Scheffler has had at least a share of the lead, and remarkably the first time after the opening round.

Joining them at 67 were Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Ryo Hisatsune and Alex Smalley. The seven-way tie was the largest since nine players shared the lead in the 1969 PGA Championship at NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio.

And to think it could have been eight players. Garrick Higgo had a 69, which included a two-shot penalty before he even hit a shot for being 10 seconds late to the tee for his group’s starting time.

Corey Conners, of Listowel, Ont., was right behind the leaders in a seven-way tie of his own at 68, while Nick Taylor, of Abbotsford, B.C., had a 69. Taylor Pendrith, of Richmond Hill, Ont., had a 72 and Sudarshan Yellamaraju, of Mississauga, Ont., had a 75.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy bogeyed his last four holes for a 74 that sent him to the practice range for most of the afternoon.

Not since Oakland Hills in 2008 — Jeev Milkha Singh and Robert Karlsson at 2-under 68 — has the low score to par after the first round of the PGA Championship been worse than 3 under. Aronimink with its severely sloped greens, fast fairways and plenty of wind that shooed away morning clouds was every bit a major challenge.

Scheffler has struggled with opening rounds for most of the year since opening with a 63 in his season debut at The American Express, his only victory. But this was quality work. He missed only one fairway, which cost him one of his two bogeys on the day.

“Definitely the best start I’ve gotten off to this year, maybe besides American Express,” Scheffler said. “Your scores are definitely going to be lower if you hit the ball on the fairway, but it’s still really, really difficult to make birdies.”

He made one from just inside 40 feet on the par-4 seventh, and another birdie from just inside 30 feet on the par-4 10th. And even the No. 1 player in the world needed a little help.

Scheffler was in the thick collar of rough to the right of the par-3 17th, facing a chip over a ridge and down toward the hole. But his golf ball was close enough to a sprinkler cap that he was given free relief, dropped on the fringe and putted it to close range for a par.

Scheffler wasn’t interested in this being his first time atop the leaderboard on Thursday at a major. All he saw was the long list of names next to him and behind him — 48 players within three of the lead.

“At this moment, it’s anybody’s tournament,” he said.

That it includes Kaymer is a surprise. He won the PGA Championship in 2010 at Whistling Straits, giving him a lifetime exemption. Kaymer joined LIV Golf in 2022 and has yet to finish in the top 10 in the few European tour events he has played since then. He is No. 1,160 in the world ranking. He hasn’t been in the top 10 after one round of any major since the 2020 PGA Championship.

During the champions dinner on Tuesday, he said one PGA of America officer asked him if the German planned to play this week.

“I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m not flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys, you know?’ Of course, I’m playing. And that really motivated me.”

Patrick Reed was the only player who made it around Aronimink without a bogey, his two birdies giving him a 68 and in the large group with Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry, who played the two par 5s in 3 under.

Jordan Spieth, lacking only the PGA Championship for the career Grand Slam, bogeyed two of his last three holes — and did not birdie the par-5 ninth, the easiest hole at Aronimink — to join the group at 69 that included Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas.

“Just didn’t quite finish the way I wanted to the last three holes, but under par was a good score,” Spieth said. “It was blowing really hard, and it was cold this morning. The course played very, very difficult. It was a good start. I’m going to need to improve on it, I think, each day.”

Rahm was headed for another rough start in a major until he holed out for eagle from the 11th fairway, chipped in for birdie on the tough par-3 eighth and shot 69. He was told some people thought scoring would be better in the morning. This surprised him.

“People thought it would be lower?” he replied. “Have you been out there? Have you seen this course?”

McIlroy had the toughest finish. He struggled out of the damp, dense rough. He struggled on the greens. He closed with four straight bogeys and described his round in one word that translates loosely to doo-doo.

No one struggled quite like Bryson DeChambeau, who didn’t make a birdie until he ended on the par-5 ninth. That kept him from matching his highest score in the PGA Championship. He shot 76 and now has to work toward avoiding a second straight missed cut in a major.

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Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press