PGA Round One Quick Roundup: Stars Struggle, Rain Coming

Jimmy Walker torched Baltusrol early and watched as many of the world's best struggled with the Lower Course.

Michael Shamburger has this roundup of the tough day for favorites and stars, beyond Henrik Stenson, Day and Fowler who both posted nice scores. As Dave Kindred writes, sometimes it's a cruel game for even the best, sometimes they get lost and there are so many opportunities to struggle .

Stenson continued the trend of epic ballstriking, and according to Golf Channel's Justin Ray, he's hitting 79.8% of his greens over his last six major rounds.

Martin Kaymer played beautifully and lit up after the round talking about his upcoming Olympic experience, reports Alex Myers.

Less pretty was Dustin Johnson's round of 77 with the Stenson group. Jason Sobel on DJ's struggles.

Sam Weinman with some of DJ's quotes after the round. It was a short discussion.

Brentley Romine with the Spieth (70) roundup.

Romine also has notes on Brooks Koepka and Chris Wood making Ryder Cup pushes.

Rory McIlroy had 35 putts and Brian Wacker suggests it may be time for McIlroy to make a change. All his putting stats according to this Golf Channel tweet were...awful.

This was an interesting revelation from Bob Harig's report, which suggests that some of the confidence woes may be green reading driven. At least at Baltusrol.

"With the poa annua greens, you start to look a lot into them. You read it from behind the ball and you see one line; you read it from behind the hole and it looks slightly different. You put yourself in two minds sometimes."

Ian O'Connor at ESPN.com followed Phil Mickelson and also considered the evolution of his career since the last time Phil played Baltusrol.

Durability might be the most underappreciated part of Mickelson's career. When Woods was pummeling people in his dynastic prime, most contenders dropped on command and never got back up. Mickelson at least staggered to his feet and kept working the problem. "And once Phil got over the hump," his caddie, Bones Mackay, said Thursday, "it got to a point where he couldn't wait to be paired with Tiger."

Mickelson claimed 33 of his 42 PGA Tour victories after Woods' first two victories as a pro late in the 1996 season. Mickelson also won all five of his major championships after Tiger's most dominant stretch -- the seven majors he won in an 11-major stretch from the 1999 PGA to the 2002 U.S. Open.

Golf Digest's Birdies and Bogeys gives a quick roundup of day one.

The weather forecast overnight stinks. The long range has some electricity issues as well.

Bill Raftery, Baltusrol member and beloved announcer, stopped by the booth.

Justin Thomas went with bold pants, but Horschel lurks Sunday with some doozies.

The legend of Beef Johnston grows, writes Weinman.

The most unique golf shot you will see today. https://t.co/LlGokNjRLW

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 28, 2016

Johnston's post-round interview at Golfweek.com

Patton Kizzire is ready for football season!

Golf is (still) hard. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/L7EENIm4kZ

— PGA.COM (@PGAcom) July 28, 2016

Nice to see Amanda Balionis on the TNT broadcast doing interviews. Jeff Newton posts a Q&A about her role this week.

While the Zurich lie-detector ads continue to spiral, surpassing the lame "your wife's cooking" campaign, I'm at about Defcon 3 with the new Omega HOF ad. I have trouble seeing ever reaching the status of the prior Hall of Fame spot. But it's only Thursday...

"I know everyone hated the hall of fame commercial, but hear me out. What if we had a creepy kid sing the song?"

-Omega marketing team-

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) July 28, 2016

Comments

[mcaron]

Re: commercials.....Pay attention PGA of America FLA staffers - ironically paid to monitor comments on such a prestigious site. This is why you have a job. They have to spend the money on something. We all know PGA members don't have any pension...any health insurance through the organization....

THIS TOURNAMENT IS / AND HAS BEEN UNWATCHABLE. The ONLY way to get your major fix (no, not PGA Tour, perhaps the worst website in the world for navigating, ads, useless crap) is to wait two hours, tape it and then FF through the ads. BUT, TWO HOURS WASN'T ENOUGH THIS YEAR! Oh my!

And, I thought the PGA of America was a not-for-profit. What then can explain the fact that there is MORE COMMERCIAL time than golf time. Juxtapose that with the Masters, even the Open (ouch) and you will find that the PGA of America is either extremely hard up for cash (see: Ryder Cup too) or they intend to hire Slick Willy (who cheats at golf too, BTW) for some speeches this winter. We are not surprised, just disappointed that once again, year and year, this major will never rise to any higher level of prestige as long as we (some, not me) have to watch dozens of the same commercials minute after minute, hour after hour.....Never did see a commercial....sorry Mr Corporation person. I guess I will wait 3 hours tomorrow to begin watching.

To: Mike Weir. You are too nice a guy to do this job and please speak up!
To: Derek Sprague: ditto

[Ian McAllister]

The PGA of America cannot handle a major. They simply use the tournaments Major status to sell endless amounts of commercial time. And it looks like Jacks minor comment about Tiger generated more buzz on this site.

[OWGR Fan]

No excuse in this day and age for TNT and/or CBS to not have a replay of the round available.

[meefer]

From the sounds of it, I missed nothing by missing the broadcast :-)

35 putts for Rory? His year's average is 29 on the PGA Tour; good for 99th position overall. During the Open I'd commented on the 'Stockton' effect and how I didn't think it fit Rory's game. Whether correct or otherwise, Rory has to find a way to improve his results on the greens. It's not like he has the yips, he's just not a good putter right now and you can't compete when you're not holing putts. Hell, even his average would have seen him post a 68.

Good drop kick by Kizzire.

[OB]

Geoff, remind us again why this PGA couldn't have been played in the fall?

I know you wrote about that somewhere on the site but couldn't find it. What a shame that storied Baltusrol has to try to lose its greens and golf jammed this PGA into the summer mess when it might have been more welcomed in the fall. No one gave the impression that they wanted to be there.

[Colin MacGillivray]

If Dustin Johnson misses the cut the majors aggregate total scores become interesting, after 12 rounds:
FYI
1 Dustin Johnson 845
2 Jason Day 856
2 Sergio Garcia 856
4 Lee Westwood 859
5 Jordan Spieth 861
6 Danny Willett 863
7 Rafa Cabrera-Bello 868
7 Emiliano Grillo 868
7 Bill Haas 868
10 Kevin Na 869
11 Justin Thomas 872
12 Adam Scott 874
13 Martin Kaymer 876
14 Bubba Watson
15 Harris English
16 Charliy Hoffman 883
17 Kevin Kisner 886

Previous years http://www.golf-majors-champion.com/

[Take technology out of the game]

Rory is playing with Phil this week, and Phil is having some success with the claw, or at least the pencil grip. I would love to see Rory try that grip - it helps neutralize the right hand.

[John Matthew IV]

OB, the reason why the PGA cannot be played in the Fall is because of football. No one wants to go up against it.

[Standup Guy]

Geoff, I'm with you on the OMEGA ad. As soon as I started to hear Hayley Joel Osment's Sixth Sense character start to sing that tune, a tic appeared on my cheek, my throat went dry and within two hours I was suffering from hives. What idiot on the OMEGA marketing team approved that ad, let alone green-lighted it's concept? And to think that we'll see it a couple hundred times through the broadcast and then several hundred more through the Olympics. Thank God for the mute button.

[Greg B.]

I was busy yesterday so I only caught a bit of the 1st round and at that only the featured group coverage online. It was just awful, Michael Breed wouldn't stop talking and both the other (unknown to me) guy in the booth and the lady on-course following them were terrible too. Made me long for the halcyon days of Bobby Clampett. That needs fixing.

Perhaps I am a minority but I LOVE the Zurich lie-detector ads. The woman playing the part of the lie-detector technician is absolutely hilarious in a low-key way.

However, I also loved the original Omega "hall of fame" ad with the original will.i.am music. This replacement is completely, utterly, totally vile. The kid's voice creeps me out. It must go.

[RLL]

Rory's joy and weight lifter flex pose for the crowd after thinking he won the long drive contest tells you all you need to know about where his head is at these dayz. And the humiliation he must have felt when being bested by a scrawny unknown ten minutes later must have weighed on him doubly.

Note to McMuscles: if you spent the gym time practicing your putting, you might have a chance at getting back to the player you were before falling into the dumb, narcissistic, Tiger Woods self-destructive iron man addiction which has done absolutely nothing for your game.

[Real Talker]

Baltusrol is a classic course, looks great on TV. Beautiful green and health rough, fantastic tree-lined holes. The two par 5s to close is unique and sets up a potential exciting finish on Sunday.

[PA PLAYA]

Aside from Stenson playing well, not a whole lot to talk about. I wouldn't be surprised if he wins this one, too.

[JJBeck]

No commercial can compete with that HSBC ad. The one with the chopped motorbike somewhere in Asia....and the miserably bad "music" .....and strange Asian people slapping at golf balls. What are they selling ? Whatever HSBC does , I must make sure NEVER to do any business with them. Missed the golf yesterday . Rory is a really lousy putter , but he looks good missing all those putts.

[Chico]

@RLL- your second para nailed it. Rory needs a Mentor with a wise head.

[RLL]

Agree, Chico. And he's still young enough if he'd listen.

[Griffin]

So Mickelson cranks his drive OB on the first hole (by a mile) and Gary McCord says do they announce your name again when you have re tee on the first hole and Ian Baker-Finch deadpans 'no they don't, I know'.

Funny line but coming from a horrible experience.