Luke Donald is heading to the 18th tee on the back of the simplest of pars on the 17th. A green finder with his tee shot on the 227-yard par three hole is followed by two putts from 25 feet or so.

Europe's Ryder Cup captain hit the opening shot of the championship exactly five hours ago. Slow going out there.

Sensational from Alex Smalley,who was drafted in late on Wednesday to replace Sahith Theegala.

The 28-year-old from New York drops in an eagle on the on 533-yard par five seventh hole to push himself into a tie for sixth on the leaderboard.

The par-four 16th is playing 535 yards today. That's a couple of yards longer than the par-five seventh!

Anyway, Alex Noren finds the front edge of the green in two - some 75 feet from the hole - and while most of us would be happy with three putts from there, that's a bogey that drops the Swede out of a share of the lead.

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Jon Rahm is having one at the moment.

The two-time major winner finds sand rather than the perfectly manicured fourth green and splashes out to six feet.

But he can't drop in a sliding putt to save his par and walks off with a third bogey in four holes.

It's a regulation par for Matt Fitzpatrick who pushes his iron shot off the tee to the right of the green and then takes two shots with his flat stick.

Tommy Fleetwood had a run of three successive birdies midway through his opening nine holes to put himself right in the mix.

But since then it's been a bit of slog for the Southport man. Successive bogeys on the third and fourth holes, after dropping one on the 17th, have dropped him back to level par.

You have to drive it well around Quail Hollow - get the distance yes but also some accuracy, and while that is usually a huge strength for Rory McIlroy it's certainly not today.

The big dog isn't behaving like it usually does for McIlroy, as he sprays one into the rough on the third hole, which means he's hit just two out of 10 fairways so far today.

You won't win many majors with those kind of stats.

Jon Rahm loses ground on the third after finding the trees down the right from the tee and then dunks his approach into the left front bunker guarding the green.

The Spaniard splashes out to 30 feet and can't retrieve the situation from that.

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A nice lag putt from Rory McIlroy from 30 feet away as he makes his par, but Scottie Scheffler picks up a birdie by taking advantage of that cracking approach to roll in a simple eight footer up the hill.

The world number one is the only member of the group to now get under par, and the only one who looks like he could have control of his game right now.

Alex Noren is not going away. Another birdie for the Swede, on the long 15th, sees him rejoin Ryan Fox in the lead.

Three birdies in his past four holes, surrounding a bogey, have moved Ryan Fox back into the sole lead.

The New Zealander rolled in a short one on the eighth and has one hole remaining to set what could be a challenging clubhouse target.

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Scottie Scheffler looks a bit more in the groove now as he attacks the flag on the second hole and will have a good birdie try to come.

Rory McIlroy is still struggling a bit though, and strangely his driver isn't quite working as he's gone long and ended up under the trees, so can only run a low one through the green.

Max Greyserman birdies his ninth hole of the day and moves up into a tie for fourth on the leaderboard.

The 29-year-old American only earned his first PGA Tour card a couple of years back and is going along well on his debut in the US PGA Championship, with three birdies and an eagle since starting on the 10th.

Had he not bogeyed the 12th and 17th holes, he'd be sat on top of the leaderboard.

Stephan Jaeger gives his ball a long hard stare after it dares to wander off right at the death on the 12th hole. That nine-footer was for par. So the Gernan drops out of the lead.

Classic commentator's curse on Nico Echavarria who only 15 minutes ago had joined the leaders.

An ugly double bogey at the 13th, including three attempts to get out of the sand, has derailed him a touch.

He's dropped back to two under par.

Rory McIlroy drops another shot as he hangs his approach from the fairway out to the right and finds the greenside bunker - which was a big error considering where he was.

He can't find the sand save despite a nice enough escape to eight feet, so nother disappointing hole sees him fall back to two over.

Scottie Scheffler plays the hole nicely though, leaving himself a decent birdie look from 20 feet but settling for par.

Shane Lowry was three over after seven holes.

But successive birdies on the third and fourth though have dragged the Irishman back into the mix. All about staying in it on day one.

Oliver Wilson
Former Ryder Cup player on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

The first round is about trying to get yourself into position and not leaving yourself too far back.

While a lot of the guys we;re following are not on it and playing the scvore they want, they're not out of it.

They have to hang in there. Hopefully, something special happens on the back nine and they can rally to turn in a half-decent round.

These are the rounds that are so important to stay in the hunt.

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A funny old front nine for the top three players in the world rankings, notably that disaster of a hole on 16 when they all carded double bogeys.

Apart from that there's been a bit of everything, with Scottie Scheffler's eagle on on 15 the highlight but a few too many unforced errors from all three of them.

They've got work to do as they now try and attack the front nine at Quail Hollow.

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An up and down start to the round for Alex Noren - the Swede had three birdies and two bogeys on his front nine - but he has just rolled in a sixth birdie of the day, on the 14th, to climb into a share of the lead.

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Colombia's Nico Echavarria is the latest to inch himself to the top of the leaderboard.

The 30-year-old has just birdied the 12th hole to join Luke Donald and company looking down on the rest.