us pga day one round up
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Golden oldies surged up the leaderboard of the US PGA championship as many of the young guns fired blanks.
Steve Stricker, 44, shot an incredible seven under 63 and had a putt on the last to set a new record for the lowest ever round in the US PGA.
Jerry Kelly, also 44, was only two shots back and Scott Verplank, 47, shot an opening-round 67. The last Major of the year certainly threw up plenty of drama.
Rory McIlroy hit a tree root on the third hole and damaged his wrist. After that shot he was frequently shaking his wrist and letting go of his clubs on the follow-through. He asked if he could have a doctor come out onto the course to assess the damage.
After being advised that he would not cause further damage he bravely continued, wrapping his wrist in ice and a cold towel between shots.
He ended up level par, which is by no means out of contention. He had an MRI scan straight after his round which revealed that he had strained a tendon in his right wrist. But he seems determined to play on.
He said: “It is the last Major of the year and I have six or seven months until The Masters so I will try to get on with it.”
McIlroy is set to tee off for his second round at 1.35pm BST and his team has said he will see how it feels on the range this morning.
Tiger Woods was also in pain, but not because of his knee injury. It was because of the way he was playing!
After starting well – at one point he was three under – he collapsed dramatically and ended up seven over. He is now in serious danger of missing the cut – the first time will have done so at the US PGA.
Young Italian Matteo Manassero quietly got on with his golfing business and shot a very respectable two under.
Luke Donald managed to get it around the tough Atlanta course in level par, but it was Simon Dyson who was the best English finisher with a 68 – two under.
Justin Rose and Lee Westwood both finished one over and will be hoping to put a decent round together today.
Open Champion Darren Clarke continued his run of bad form since winning at Royal St George’s a month ago with an eight over 78!
