Oak Hill Country Club’s famous East Course gave the best players in the world all they could handle Thursday in the first round of the 2023 PGA Championship, and that was with nearly perfect playing conditions.
Yes, the start was delayed nearly two hours due to frost, and it was a chilly beginning for the early groups, but the day turned out to be absolutely perfect, yet no one was out there tearing things up.
Bryson DeChambeau gave it a good try, shooting 4-under-par 66 to grab the early lead. PGA Tour rookie Eric Cole is atop the leaderboard at 5-under through 14 holes but his round was suspended due to darkness.
“It’s a fantastic round of golf at Oak Hill,” DeChambeau said. “It’s a prestigious place. Very difficult golf course. As I was looking at it throughout the week, I’m like, ‘man, I don’t know how shooting under par is even possible out here on some of the golf holes.’ But, luckily, I was able to play some really good golf, hit a lot of fairways, did my job and made some putts.”
Here are a few things to know as Friday’s second round approaches:
What to know about: Parking and getting there | Merchandise available The weather | How to watch | Where the players stay | Other things to do in Rochester | Where to eat, drink
What is the leaderboard to begin the second round?
Eric Cole is 5-under but has to finish four holes to begin Friday.
DeChambeau’s 4-under 66 was due mostly to a nice finish. He was even-par through his first eight holes but then came home with four birdies, the last a beauty on the difficult par-4 sixth.
Scottie Scheffler, a two-time Tour winner this season, shot 67 as did Corey Conners and Dustin Johnson to sit two strokes back, while Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Ryan Fox and Adam Scott shot 68.
Round 1: Slimmed-down Bryson DeChambeau impresses at PGA Championship; darkness halts play
More: Tom Kim gets covered in mud after stepping in a creek at the PGA Championship
How many players didn’t finish Round 1?
Thirty of 156 players were unable to complete Thursday’s round when it was suspended at 8:30 pm Play will resume at 7 am on Friday.
Friday tee times for the PGA Championship
There are 156 players in the field, and as they did on Thursday, they will play in threesomes on Friday. Half the field will start at No. 1, the other half on No. 10.
The morning tee times will begin at 7 am with 11-minute intervals between each group. The afternoon tee times will start at 12:25.
1st tee
7:00 am – Sam Ryder, Gabe Reynolds, Brandon Wu7:11 am – Sadom Kaewkanjana, Ben Kern, Thorbjorn Olesen7:22 am – Webb Simpson, YE Yang, Danny Willett7:33 am – Sepp Straka, Harris English, Robert Macintyre7: 44am – Thomas Pieters, Keith Mitchell, Pablo Larrazabal7:55am – Lucas Herbert, Brian Harman, Callum Shinkwin8:06am – Tom Kim, Sam Burns, Abraham Ancer8:17am – Sungjae Im, Chris Kirk, Seamus Power8:28am – Si Woo Kim, Stephan Jaeger, Anirban Lahiri8:39 am – Victor Perez, Aaron Wise, Jordan Smith8:50 am – Chris Sanger, JJ Spaun, David Micheluzzi9:01 am – Thomas Detry, JJ Killeen, Matt Wallace9:12 am – Nick Hardy, Greg Koch, Eric Cole12:30 pm – Trey Mullinax, Josh Speight, Kazuki Higa12:41 pm – Adam Schenk, Colin Inglis, Thriston Lawrence12:52 pm – Min Woo LeeAndrew Putnam, Emiliano Grillo1:03 pm – Harold Varner III , Scott Stallings, Nicolai Hojgaard1:14 pm – Steve Holmes, Adrian Otaegui, Davis Riley1:25 pm – Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland1:36 pm – Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa1:47 pm – Shane Lowry, Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland1:58 pm – Matthew Fitzpatrick, Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm2:09 pm – Luke Donald, Adrian Meronk, Yannik Paul2:20 pm – Kenny Pigman, Davis Thompson, Maverick McNealy2:31 pm – Keegan Bradley, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau2:42 pm – Jesse Droemer, Matt NeSmith, Rikuya Hoshino
10th tee
7:05 am – Matt Cahill, Taylor Montgomery, Cam Davis7:16 am – Michael Block, Hayden Buckley, Taylor Pendrith7:27 am – Alex Beach, Brendon Todd, Sihwan Kim7:38 am – Patrick Reed, Rasmus Hojgaard, Nick Taylor7: 49am – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, John Somers, Chez Reavie8:00am – Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Hideki Matsuyama8:11am – Adam Scott, Max Homa, Tony Finau8:22am – Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson8:33am – Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson8:44am – Alex Smalley, Russell Henley, Mito Pereira8:55am – Adam Hadwin, Matt Kuchar, Talor Gooch9:06am – Justin Rose, Billy Horschel, Francesco Molinari9:17am – Russell Grove, Patrick Rodgers, Ben Taylor12:25 pm – Shaun Micheel, Braden Shattuck, Steven Alker12:36 pm – Ben Griffin, Chris French, Joel Dahmen12:47 pm – Wyatt Worthington II, Nico Echavarria, Wyndham Clark12:58 pm – Tom Hoge , Ryan Fox, KH Lee1:09 pm – Paul Casey, Adam Svensson, Beau Hossler1:20 pm – Zach Johnson, Kurt Kitayama, Sahith Theegala1:31 pm – Corey Conners, Ockie Strydom, Joaquin Niemann1:42 pm – Kevin Kisner, Jimmy Walker, Padraig Harrington1:53 pm – Alex Noren, JT Poston, Mackenzie Hughes2:04 pm – Lee Hodges, Callum Tarren, David Lingmerth2:15 pm – Taylor Moore, Denny McCarthy, Brendan Steele2:26 pm – Jeremy Wells, Justin Suh, Adri Arnaus2:37 pm – Anthony Cordes, Mark Hubbard, Dean Burmester
How many golfers will make the cut at the PGA Championship
After Friday, a 36-hole cut will be made to the top 70 players plus ties, so there could be more than 70 players qualifying for the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday.
What’s the weather forecast?
Unless Mother Nature throws a nasty curveball, there won’t be a delay in the start times Friday. The overnight temperatures are expected to remain in the mid-50s, so no frost when the sun rises. And throughout the day, there will be a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures perhaps reaching 80 degrees with only a slight chance of a shower.
How to watch the PGA Championship on Friday
The entire first round will be available to watch. From 7 am to 1 pm you can watch on the ESPN+ streaming service, and then from 1 to 7 pm it switches over to ESPN.
An ESPN+ subscription costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. It can also be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $12.99 per month. ESPN+ is separate from ESPN so to watch time slots on the ESPN you’ll need a cable subscription or streaming service that includes ESPN. The ESPN app allows you to log in to watch ESPN+ and ESPN through your provider.
What is the PGA Championship purse for 2023?
There will be $15 million in prize money awarded. The winner will take home $2.7 million.
What did some of the big name players shoot?
Masters champion Jon Rahm had a rough day and finished at 6-over 76, his worst of the season in relation to par. He also shot back-to-back 76s at Bay Hill in March, although that was on a par-72 course, so 4-over. Rahm birdied his first hole, then had a stretch where he bogeyed five of six holes, then had a bogey and double bogey before a birdie at his 17th hole.
Rory McIlroy was 3-over through 10 holes but played well afterwards as he made three birdies on his second nine (the front nine) and finished at 1-over 71. Brooks Koepka is a stroke further back as he made only birdie and shot 2 -over 72, as is defending PGA champion Justin Thomas who birdied his first hole and never made another.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal’s newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: PGA Championship at Oak Hill: Day 2 leaderboard, tee times, TV info