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That was an awesome first day at Aronimink. Let's get into it.

Aronimink proves difficult

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – I almost stepped on Rory McIlroy's golf ball. Twice.

It was accidental, I promise. With the media access this week, you’re allowed to walk within arm’s length inside the ropes. Usually, you are relatively safe doing so. On Thursday, I was not.

McIlroy pushed his ball right on numerous occasions, but he missed particularly widely on the fourth and sixth holes. In both instances, I came within a foot or two of making matters much worse for McIlroy, who was already dealing with lies that were barely visible to my eye as I tried to stay ahead.

This PGA Championship was predicted to be gettable. At least that’s what most conversations with players and caddies led me–and many others – to believe. Aronimink presented a much different, sterner test on Thursday. With winds up and pins tucked into small shelves on the outer edges of greens, the PGA Championship turned into a survival test. McIlroy barely made it out alive, constantly out of position on a course he expected to be able to take over with his length. Predicted as a bomb-and-gouge test, the fairway was a crucial place to be as the greens stayed firm despite overnight rain, and the winds required maximum control of your ball to play through. If your ball was at risk of being stepped on by a media member, you were likely already screwed.

“Certainly is a penalty for missing the fairway,” McIlroy said. “Probably more than what I anticipated.”

The result was a refreshingly difficult test that did what we so often want these championships to do: challenge and flummox the best players in the world without feeling gimmicky. McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau were Aronimink’s high-profile victims. McIlroy shot 4 over, and DeChambeau was two strokes worse. But even those who played it well didn’t take it deep. The 3-under lead is the highest leading score to par after one round of this championship since 2008.

“This golf course, you play a practice round, no wind, and you're like, 'My God, this is a pretty easy golf course,'” said Stephen Jaeger, one of the successful ones who shot 3-under. “Then you played yesterday in the wind, and you're like, 'Oh, my God, I can't break 75 here.'”

Thursday was the sweet spot in the middle. Carnage was out there, the pins were difficult, but there were opportunities to score. The front nine remains the much more gettable side, nearly one shot easier than the back nine, but the scoring average is over par on both.

“There was some chatter where people thought 15- to 20-under was going to win,” Jon Rahm said. “And I think that got to somebody in the PGA, and they did something about it. Because if the golf course stays like this and it keeps firming up, yeah, obviously it's not going to be anything like that.”

Maybe they asked for the pin locations that the superintendents use for their toughest member tournaments, or maybe just enough wind was all that was required. Either way, Thursday was great theater at the PGA Championship. I’m excited to walk the grounds and watch it unfold over the next three rounds. I’ll be paying extra attention to where I step, too.

Playing through

• ⏰ Garrick Higgo was assessed a two-stroke penalty for arriving at the first tee late. He was not happy about it.
• 📜 We’re writing live updates as the play is happening. Catch up on Round 1 here, and tune in Friday for Round 2
• 🤬 Rory McIlroy had a succinct and blunt summation of his frustrating opening round.

Contender check-in

This was hailed as a wide-open major championship, up for grabs with a bevy of in-form, top-flight contenders pushing for the trophy. So how did the horses do on Day 1? Who is in good shape? Which players have alarm bells ringing? Let’s go through them.

• Scottie Scheffler (3 under): Nothing to see here. He’s contending as expected and looks mighty dangerous. He hit every fairway until the 16th hole, part of a clinical display. All systems go on the Scheffler hype train.
• Rory McIlroy (4 over): No feel for the driver sent him careening down the leaderboard. He’s shown he can fix it mid-tournament, as he did between the final two rounds of the Masters. But the deficit might already be too much to overcome.
• Cameron Young (1 over): A round that lacked any rhythm has Young on the back foot but still in it. He struggled around the greens, only getting up and down on three of seven attempts.
• Matt Fitzpatrick (even): He didn't have his best stuff, but he converted timely saves when he needed them and did what was required to stay in the mix. If that's his worst round of the week, I'm bullish of his chances.
• Xander Schauffele (2 under): Disappointing since winning two majors in 2024, Schauffele has finally put himself in the thick of contention again. The best news for him? He putted well on Thursday. That’s been an issue at times this season.
• Bryson DeChambeau (6 over): He’s finished second, tied-second and fourth in the last three PGA Championships. It will take a miracle to conjure a similar result this time. He was out of sync from the jump.

Parting shots

• 🧱 Michael Block is inevitable. The darling of the 2023 PGA Championship laid the foundation for another Cinderella run, shooting even par on Thursday. Block has become a polarizing figure since that week at Oak Hill, but it remains incredibly impressive that he’s able to play this well at age 49. He’s the only PGA professional to be even or under par. Love him or hate him, you will watch.

• 📉 Who played unsustainable golf? Aldrich Potgieter relied almost exclusively on his putter to shoot 67. That won’t cut it for three more rounds. On the flip side, Min Woo Lee lost strokes on the greens and still co-leads. A good candidate for some positive regression.
• 🇨🇦 A day of what could have been for Corey Conners. The Canadian led the field in proximity to the hole, made three birdies and sits one off the lead. And yet? It could’ve been even better. His birdie attempt misses include 6-, 9-, 10-, 13- and 14-footers. Hat tip to our Canadian correspondent, Adam Stanley, for the stat.
• 🇦🇺 Min Woo Lee continues to show some real growth as a player. He was raw and one-dimensional when he first reached the PGA TOUR, but he has slowly built himself into an all-around player. He made the mature decision to start swinging a bit softer to find fairways more often, and that has propelled his driving statistics. He’s also become a much better iron player, improving his biggest deficiency. Not expecting him to fade this week.
• 🇺🇲 Never pre-write a Jordan Spieth story. I should know that lesson by now, but I was ready to roll with some Spieth content as he crested the hill on the seventh, 3 under and tied for the lead. With another gettable opportunity, he hit a weak approach shot on the wrong level of the seventh green and three-putted for bogey. Then he made another bogey at the eighth. Much of Spieth’s round was clinical. It was stark and encouraging. He’s still failing to minimize the critical mistakes that would make a good round great. He's 1 under.