At the 105th PGA Championship, Bryson DeChambeau set the clubhouse goal after a wet first day saw Rory McIlroy fight back to stay in the race while world No. 1 Jon Rahm had a disastrous round.
At Oak Hill Country Club, where the start was delayed by an hour and 50 minutes due to frost and most of the afternoon wave was unable to finish before nightfall, DeChambeau combined six birdies with two bogeys to score a four-under 66.
Eric Cole, a 34-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour, made a run of three straight birdies to take the lead before play was called off due to darkness at 8.30 p.m. local time (1.30 a.m. BST), leaving him with four holes his round to finish on Friday.
Until making his first bogey of the day on the par-4 last hole, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau were level. Adam Scott also appeared headed for a share of the clubhouse lead until making a double bogey on the last hole.
Johnson is tied for first place with the world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler and Corey Conners at three under par. Scott is three strokes down at two under par with Viktor Hovland, Ryan Fox, and previous winner Keegan Bradley.
How DeChambeau established clubhouse goals?
DeChambeau made up for a three-putt bogey at the 12th hole with a roll in from 15 feet at the 14th and a holing attempt from a similar distance to save par at the next, only to bogey the following hole to reverse a tap-in birdie at the 16th.
DeChambeau then took a stroke at the sixth hole and finished with three pars to establish the clubhouse goal. The former US Open action then scored back-to-back birdies around the turn and took advantage of the par-five fourth.
DeChambeau remarked, “It’s a fantastic round of golf at Oak Hill. Man, I don’t know how shooting under par is even possible out here on some of the golf holes, I thought as I studied it over the week.
“Fortunately, I was able to play some pretty solid golf, find a lot of fairways, carry out my responsibilities, and make some putts.”
With 30 players left to complete their opening rounds, Cole made a late surge with three straight birdies from the second. Cole will start from the sixth fairway when play starts on Friday.
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