After a brief weather delay, the 2023 PGA Championship is underway at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, the fourth time the course has hosted the championship.
Although Tiger Woods is not in the field, some of golf’s biggest names are teeing off Thursday morning, including 16 players from LIV Golf. There are 156 players in the field, and they will play the first two rounds Thursday and Friday in groups of three.
Golfweekthe Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and USA TODAY Sports will provide the latest news, updates, analysis and more throughout the day.
Stallings makes first birdie of the week
Warren Little, Getty Images
Scott Stallings began his round on the 10th hole which, most golf analysts believe, will play as one of the easiest of the week on the East Course. Stallings proved that as he striped a drive down the middle at the 423-yard par-4. With 128 yards left to the flag, Stallings likely hit some type of wedge and he two-hopped it into the hole for an eagle-2.
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The 38-year-old is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, the last in 2014. He has said that if he wasn’t a professional golfer, he’d be a pediatrician. Stallings has struggled this season as he has no top-10 finishes in 16 starts.
Hole of the day (No. 7): The ideal tee shot is a draw, but starting at the creek
The seventh hole at Oak Hill Country Club is tricky from tee to green and offers several examples of the challenges players will face at the 2023 PGA Championship.
A cluster of large trees guards the left corner of this slight dogleg left par 4, but players who hit their tee shot to the right side of the fairway to avoid those oaks bring a creek into play. The ideal tee shot is a draw, but that means starting your drive at the creek, which makes many golfers uncomfortable.
If a player finds the fairway, it will be critical for his approach shot to stay below the hole because the green tilts from back to front. Hitting an approach shot too far past the flag will mean a lightning-fast putt for birdie, but a large bunker will swallow up any iron shot that comes up short. So, while the green is expansive, with Thursday’s hole location being in the middle-right portion of the green, a player who wants to make a birdie has to hit a very small area over the bunker but short of the hole.
Story originally appeared on GolfWeek