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Brooks Koepka is a force of nature. He flays a godawful drive miles right of 1. He’s in deep filth, beneath a tree. No matter! He powers a wedge from 100 yards to six feet. That is preposterously good. Birdie. His partner Francesco Molinari should have made one too, but his straight 25-footer stops one turn short. But he’d birdied 18 to reach the turn in level par, so the Open champion is still in good nick. Finally Tiger, who like Koepka before him was forced to power out from thick rough. He found the centre of the green, and he does what Molinari failed to do, rattling in a straight mid-ranger. Birdie, and he’s back to +2.
-4: Koepka (10*)
-3: Fleetwood (12*), Reavie (11), Wallace (8)
This is turning into a fine tournament already. Koepka birdies 18, in his usual no-fuss, no-frills style, and the defending champion clearly doesn’t fancy handing back the big cup. He’s turned in a blemish-free 32, with the easier half of the course to come. US television has just described him as “the sort of guy who, when turbulence hits the plane, doesn’t look up once from his newspaper”. That’s as delicious a description as the gin the rest of us immediately neck upon hitting a small pocket of clear air.
-3: Fleetwood (12*), Reavie (11), Koepka (9*), Wallace (8)
-2: Burns (14), Hatton (10), List (7)
Written by Scott Murray
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2019/may/16/us-pga-championship-2019-first-round-live-golf-tiger-woods under the title “US PGA Championship 2019: first round – live!”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.