These notes are provided by pool reporters Jeff Babineau and Bob Denney. The photo is courtesy of Darrenn Carroll/PGA of America
***Martin Kaymer, who won the PGA Championship 10 years ago at Whistling Straits, didn’t play much golf during the Covid-19 pandemic back home in Germany. Courses were closed for “two or three” months,” and he said he spent time just being a “normal person,” helping his father with odd projects around the house. (“We built a terrace, stuff like this,” he said.)
Kaymer, 35, putted great on Thursday, which helped him to a terrific start, shooting 4-under 66. Having not played much and having missed the cut at last week’s Barracuda Championship, played opposite the PGA Tour’s WGC event in Memphis, Kaymer said he teed it up Thursday with pretty low expectations. On the eve of the tournament, feeling a little melancholy, he decided to go on YouTube and watch the final nine holes of his 2014 U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst No. 2, which delivered good vibes. He said he hadn’t seen it in four or five years, but watching it made him feel good. During the pandemic, he also watched the wild finish of the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits, which he won in a playoff over Bubba Watson.
“So I like to go back to those moments,” he said. “I know you shouldn’t live in the past, but if the past can help you in the present moment, I’ll take it.”
***Tiger Woods began his quest for his fifth PGA Championship title with a steady if not spectacular 2-under 68, his lowest opening round at the PGA since 2009 (67), when he finished second. He made five birdies against three bogeys. Of note, Woods put a new putter in his bag. He says the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS putter he has used for 14 of his 15 major victories needs to be benched every now and again, and this week he has a similar Scotty Cameron prototype putter with weights on the bottom of the sole that can be adjusted to react to different green speeds. The putter he has used with success for years is 35.25 inches in length, and this one is longer, though he didn’t specify the length.
“He’s got a little more length on there, and that’s just so he can practice a little bit more without back pain,” explained his friend Steve Stricker, who played nine holes with Woods on Wednesday. Woods had 28 putts in his opening round, including a 33-footer made at 13 (his fourth hole of the round) and a 20-footer for birdie at 18.
“Most of the guys on the Champions Tour have gone to longer putters as they have gotten older, because it’s easier to bend over, or not bend over,” Woods said. “And so this putter is just a little bit longer and I’ve been able to spend a little bit more time putting. It’s also very similar to my sand wedge. I putt with my sand wedge all the time at home. I like the feel in my right hand. I like blading putts and hitting the ball in the equator.”
***Those players who start on the 10th tee on Thursday and Friday face a rugged finish on the front nine. The par-3 eighth hole measured 237 yards Thursday, and the ninth, which was a par 5 when the Presidents Cup was here in 2009, was a 518-yard par 4. They ranked second and first, respectively, in difficulty. Justin Rose (66) was one of the fortunate few to make birdie on the eighth hole, ripping a 4-iron past the hole and making a 20-footer.
“To walk off with a 2 there is definitely a big bonus,” he said. “No. 8 is a golf hole if you play it in 1-over par for the four days, you’re picking up shots on the field. That was my attitude towards it.”
***After some chilly and windy days during the practice round, Thursday’s early rounds brought warmer and much calmer conditions. It certainly was an opportunity to make some birdies and score, though for some, the course (7,251 yards, par 70) played pretty long.
***Jeff Hart, a club professional from San Diego, said he was about 50 yards behind PGA Tour pros Brian Harman and C.T. Pan off the tee most of the day, and neither of those two would be considered among the circuit’s longer hitters. On TPC Harding Park’s longer par 4 holes, Hart said he actually hit driver from the fairway “five or six times.”
“There just aren’t that many birdie holes for me,” said Hart, 60, who was pleased after shooting 77. At 5 feet 9 and 150 pounds, he competed on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour. “I mean, maybe five holes that I can get the ball close to the pin, maybe six. Other than that, I’m hoping to kind of roll something up on the green, It’s a tough test for a 60-year-old man … It’s like pitching in the in the major leagues with a 60-mile-an-hour fastball.”
***Scottie Scheffler, a PGA Tour rookie playing in his first PGA Championship, hit the round’s first tee shot of the day off the 10th tee, birdied his opening two holes, and shot 4-under 66. He was surprised how mild the weather was, expecting some of the chilly winds that blanketed TPC Harding Park over the practice days.
“I mean, I expected it to be really cold when we started,” he said. “The sun had barely come up. It was pretty cold but luckily there was no wind. You don’t really know what to expect out of the weather here. The first day I was coming over from my hotel and it was sunny and I get a text from my trainer, he’s like, “Hey, you still coming out? I can’t see 10 feet in front of me. And I was like, “We’re halfway there, I’ve got to do something.” So you don’t really know what to expect out of the conditions.”
***Danny Balin’s opening-round 74 at TPC Harding Park was easily lost in the clutter of scores in the season’s first major, but it meant much more to the PGA Head Professional at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success, New York. Balin’s seventh PGA Championship appearance was the first major where he arrived having just one previous competitive round of the season. That came 24 days ago, on July 13, in the appropriately-titled “Met PGA Back to Golf” event at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase, New York. Balin won the 18-hole event that day with a 67. “It’s nice to get back to competitive golf,” Balin said. “We are doing five times more rounds at our club this season. It’s that busy.”
Balin, the runner-up in the 2019 PGA Professional Championship, still has confidence he can make the cut on Friday. “I didn’t get behind the eight-ball early,” he said. “I just missed a bunch of fairways and you can’t do that out here.”
TPC Harding Park, the fourth municipal golf course to host a PGA Championship, follows Bethpage Black in 2019, where Balin and his Metropolitan PGA peers have plenty of practice.
“I think they are both pretty much monsters, and very similar,” Balin said. “I think the fairways at Bethpage are narrower than here. For being a municipal golf course, they are both in phenomenal shape and a great test of golf.”
***Etc.: Nobody in the field got off to a faster start than Canada’s Adam Hadwin. After a 310-yard drive on the first hole, he holed out from 74 yards for eagle-2. … Bryson DeChambeau was picking up his tee on the par-4 seventh hole when he leaned on his driver and the head snapped off. A local rule in place allowed him to replace the shaft. An official brought one of his coaches to the parking lot in a cart, and by the time DeChambeau teed off on the long ninth, he had a new shaft to play. He promptly birdied two holes. …Tees could be moved up on the par-4 16th hole at some point this week to give players a go at the green (players were laying up on Thursday, with the hole measuring 341 yards). Scott Piercy still managed to make an eagle-2, holing a shot from 88 yards out of the right rough. … World No. 1 Justin Thomas, 2 under with seven holes to play, made two double-bogeys on his second nine (Nos. 3 and 7) and finished at 1-over 71. … Jason Day’s opening 65 tied his low round at the PGA, shot twice previously. … Bud Cauley, who got into the field as an alternate, shot 66, and Alex Noren, who got in on Wednesday when Vaughn Taylor (injury) withdrew, shot 67.