Photo courtesy of Darren Carroll/PGA of America
Day one of the PGA Championships at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco is in the books with two players tied for the lead.
Jason Day recorded his 5-under score in the morning session, with Brendan Todd battling through changes in weather – wind gusts – in the afternoon session for their scores. Brendan Todd was one of the last players out on the course Thursday and after saving par with 9-foot, 7-inch putt on his final holes, ended tied at 5-under.
It is a compact leaderboard at the end of the first 18 as there are nine players one shot back at 4-under, with another eight at 3-under. Finally, there are 13 players just three shots back at 3-under, including Tiger Woods.
Day’s score was a bogey-free and was his first bogey-free round at a major since the third round of the 2017 Open Championship, breaking a streak of 33 major rounds without going bogey free.
Going out in the morning at Harding guarantees a cold round of golf, something that could bothers players with back issues like Day. Even when the sun broke through the fog late in the morning session, the temperature did not rise much.
“It’s still pretty cool. I mean, obviously it was nice to be able to have the sun for a change. I mean, it’s been kind of overcast and gray here,” said Day. “But it has been cool — you’ve got to be careful. It is a lot colder; 50 degrees pretty much to be precise from last week. So, it was nice to play in the hot weather last week and then this week you’re always cautious of doing certain things, bending over.”
Todd is a tremendous story as it has been five years since he last played in a major. The putt on his final hole was a big one for Todd.
“Every shot in a major matters, so I was happy to make that putt,” said Todd. “I think it really helps me going into tomorrow. It allows me to spend the next 12 hours before my second round feeling really good, like I’ve got momentum still. So I would say it’s really just, for this moment, it means a lot but after that, it’s just going to be another, you know, another score at the end of the week.”
By Dennis Miller