Notebook: Thursday, PGA Championship
By Doug Milne, PGA TOUR staff
Weather: Due to fog, the start of the first round was delayed from 7:00 a.m. CT until 10:10 a.m., a total of three hours, 10 minutes. Play was then suspended for six minutes at 10:53 a.m. CT until 10:59 a.m. due to lingering fog.
• This is the 19th event of the 2010 PGA TOUR season to be impacted by a delay/suspension of play. Specifically, it is the second event of the season to experience a fog delay. The start of the second round at the Greenbrier Classic two weeks ago was delayed one hour because of foggy conditions.
• Play was suspended for the day at 8:54 p.m. ET due to darkness. The first round will resume at 8 a.m. ET Friday morning. None of the 78 players from the afternoon wave completed their first round.
• The 2010 PGA Championship is the 13th tournament this year in which a round was not completed on its designated day.
• At the time of the suspension, current FedExCup points and money leader Ernie Els was tied for the lead at 4-under at the 15th hole. Els, winner of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year (in consecutive starts), has led the FedExCup points race for the previous 20 weeks.
• Els is making his 18th consecutive PGA Championship start, dating back to 1992. Of the previous 17 starts, he has missed just three cuts. His last missed cut was 1999. Since then, he has finished no worse than T34, and has amassed three top-10 finishes in that span. Last year, Els finished T6.
• Matt Kuchar was on the sixth hole (his 15th) at 4-under when play was suspended for the day. Kuchar joins Bubba Watson, Francesco Mollinari and Els atop the leaderboard before the first round resumes Friday.
• Kuchar is making just his third start in the PGA Championship this week. He missed the cut in his previous two starts of 2002 and 2009.
• So far in 2010, Kuchar has collected eight top-10 finishes in 20 starts, four of which have come in his last six starts. His most recent was a T9 at last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
• Bubba Watson made six birdies and two bogeys en route to a 4-under 68 in the opening round of the PGA Championship. He is making his 18th start of the year.
• Of three previous PGA Championship starts (eight rounds), his 4-under 68 marks the first time Watson has posted a sub-par round. In his only made cut, he finished 70th.
• Watson, who claimed his first PGA TOUR two months ago at the Travelers Championship, posted a 6-under 64 in round one of last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational en route to T22 honors.
Italy's Francesco Molinari posted a 4-under 68 in round one of the PGA Championship, the same event in which he claimed his first major championship top-10. He finished T10 at Hazeltine National GC in 2009.
• Molinari is making his eighth start on the PGA TOUR this week. His best previous finish of the year was ninth at THE PLAYERS Championship.
• Molinari has made 18 starts on the European Tour this year, having posted six top-10 finishes. Of those, his best was a T2 at the Open de France ALSTOM.
• The first-round leader of a stroke-play event has gone on to win seven of 35 times this year, most recently Matt Bettencourt at the Reno-Tahoe Open.
• The last player to hold at least a share of the first-round lead at the PGA Championship and hang on for the victory was Phil Mickelson (67/Baltusrol) in 2005.
• In his 20th start of the season, Jason Day opened with a 3-under 69 in round one in his first PGA Championship appearance. 2010 is his third year on the PGA TOUR.
• Day claimed his first PGA TOUR win earlier this year at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in his 13th start of the season. He has yet to miss a cut in the six starts since. Among those six made cuts are a T9 at the AT&T National and a T22 at last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
• Defending PGA Champion Y.E. Yang posted an even-par 72 in round one. Yang is currently 33rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, one better than what he jumped to after winning last year's Championship.
• Last year, Yang came into the PGA Championship with four consecutive top-25 finishes. He has just one (the Memorial Tournament) in his last four starts coming into this week.
• Only five players have ever successfully defended their title at the PGA Championship.
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• Tiger Woods birdied three of his first four holes in round one en route to a 1-under 71 It was his 29th sub-par round in what is his 13th PGA Championship start. Of his last 17 PGA Championship rounds, Woods has posted sub-par scores 14 times.
• Playing in just his fourth career major championship, 2009 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Michael Sim posted a 2-under 70 in round one. He previously finished T18 in last year's U.S. Open and T51 in the PGA Championship. This year, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open.
• This is the second time the PGA Championship has been played at Whistling Straits and the third time in Wisconsin (1933/Milwaukee/Blue Mound CC/Gene Sarazen).
• Whistling Straits was the eighth most difficult course on the PGA TOUR in 2004, playing to an average of 73.163 (1.163 strokes over par).
• The toughest hole on TOUR so far this year is the par-4 17th hole at St. Andrews. It averaged 4.665 for the week and yielded 174 bogeys.
• Whistling Straits is the third and fourth longest venue in the history of the PGA Championship:
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• Five players who led the field in greens in regulation have won (dating back to 1983, when official statistical records began being kept): Y.E. Yang (2009), Tiger Woods (2006 and 2000), Paul Azinger (1993) and Wayne Grady (1990).
• Kevin Sutherland currently leads the TOUR in greens in regulation.
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