Ryan Gerard thins an iron shot out of the fairway bunker on the 18th and sees it clip the front bump and scoot along the deck down about 80 yards down the fairway.

We've all been there haven't we? He'll need to get up and down from 90ish yards to save his par and current two-stroke advantage.

The 25-year old is appearing in his first US PGA Championship

Over the last 30 years (1996-2025) only three players have led or co-led at the conclusion of the first round of their PGA Championship debut:

• Graeme Storm in 2007 at Southern Hills (outright round one leader, finished tied 62nd)
• Rod Pampling, 2003 at Oak Hill (Tied first after round one, finished tied for 14th)
• Sergio Garcia, 1999 at Medinah (outright round one leader, finished second)

Bryson DeChambeau doesn't like this and is disappointed as his birdie putt on the second does not swing left as he expected.

The two-time US Open winner hit a monstrous 350-yard drive on that hole.

Ryan Gerard is going to give a shot back.. a pacey par putt from eight feet or so skirts the right edge of the cup and nips away left.

His lead is down to two shots.

Bryson DeChambeau zips his second shot into the first some 30 feet past but he's on the dance floor, just, and takes two putts to register a nice solid par to start his round.

Both his playing partners have a slightly more difficult task, with Viktor Hovland scrambling but saving his par from 11 feet and Gary Woodland splashing out of the sand down the right to inside two feet to collect his four.

Not the greatest of starts for Jordan Spieth, who is aiming to complete that career Grand Slam this week.

His approach to the par-four first found the bunker and a par putt of about 10 feet slides by.

Bryson DeChambeau whips his opening drive straight down the fairway and is joined by Viktor Hovland, who cuts the corner off and is slightly right.

Gary Woodland, the former US Open champion, who receives a warm reception having had surgery to remove a brain tumour in 2023, finds the thicker stuff near Hovland's ball.

Unlike DeChambeau, who appears to have a seven iron out for a 203-yard approach, he'll have a tough second shot.

Image source, Getty Images

Where do we start! Well, it was pretty much a bad day at the office all round for Rory McIlroy, who drove the ball horribly for him, hit a few dodgy iron shots, was pretty loose with his short game and hardly made a putt.

Apart from that it was all right...

It's a lot to ask to dive right back into major contention after achieving the career Grand Slam like he did at Augusta, so maybe he just needed that bad round to bring him back down to Earth again.

He'll hope for better tomorrow - it couldn't get much worse anyway.

An ugly start for Justin Thomas who tugs his drive down the second and is forcced to chip out sideways. His third shot finishes inside 20 feet but he takes three putts from there to to register a double-bogey six.

His playing partners Collin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson are in for par.

Image source, Getty Images

How tall is Scottie Scheffler? Well, this angle may be a bit deceptive, but it's a pretty good representation of where the two of them sit on the leaderboard right now..

Now then Bryson DeChambeau is expected to lead the charge when it comes to the challenge posed from the 16 players here that compete on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series.

The 2024 US PGA Championship runner-up won the LIV Golf Korea event in his last start and of course pipped Rory McIlroy to win his second US Open title at Pinehurst last year, albeit he faded when in the final pairing with the world number two at Augusta.

The Northern Irishman also won at Quail Hollow in 2021, when DeChambeau finished ninth in remarkable circumstances.

"I thought I missed the cut and I was flying back (home). Flying through the air and halfway through I found out I was going to make the cut," he said.

"So I landed, I stayed the night at my house in Dallas and flew at 02.30 in the morning back to go get my tee time, and I finished top 10 that week."

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

On the first page of the leaderboard, there is a lot of people that will be really happy.

Scottie Scheffler is sitting on the second page, not too far back but without anywhere near his best stuff.

I think he'll be delighted with that.

Image source, Getty Images

Like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler hasn't had his best stuff out there by any means, but he's produced just enough sprkling of magic and limited the damage elsewhere to produce a respectable start to the tournament.

He's produced an eagle, that awful double bogey and cvancelled out birdies with bogeys in two different spells before finally picking up two birdies in his last three holes to sign for a two-under 69.

Considering he was way below his best that's a really good return for the world number one.

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

We talked about keeping yourselves in the tournament and I feel like that's just a little too far back. That's slipped Rory McIlroy back further than he would want to be.

He'll be very disappointed. Certainly that cloud he's been floating on will not feel the same for him.

Justin Thomas scrambles a par from a greenside bunker on the first while playing partners Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa hole tiddlers for par after finding the green with their second shots.

Outrageous. Ryan Gerard is off the left edge off the green with a tricky looking chip back down the slope to the pin...this is shifting but it's straight into the heart of the cup for an eagle.

He is six under through six holes on the back nine and three shots clear of the field.

Oh dear... The par putt from 10 feet is never online from the moment it leaves Rory McIlroy's blade, and as it curls away from the hole that's a closing bogey and a hugely disappointing three over for the day.

Stephan Jaeger finds the water off the tee on the par-four 18th and that leads to a bogey finish for the German which leaves him jointly in the clubhouse lead, but one behind our on-course leader.

Playing partner Bob MacIntyre scrambles well from the rough down the right of the fairway to find the green and two putt for a par finish.

Image source, Getty Images

He's left it to the final hole of the day, but Scottie Scheffler has produced a sparkling iron shot that he's made his name on the last few years.

The world number one has crunched an iron from 215 yards and almost holed! It settles just a couple of feet from the hole for what will be a tap-in birdie to finish.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, was miles off line again of the tee and could only chip back out into the fairway and then pitch it from 70 yards away to abnout 10 feet.

Jordan Spieth is making a ninth attempt to claim the fourth and final leg of a Grand Slam, since claiming his third major at the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale.

Before last week's Truist Championship he had recorded four straight top-20 finishes and closed with a bogey-free 62 in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, his lowest round for four years.

Could this be the year the 31-year-old finally returns to the winner's circle at a major?

There are narratives around every corner at the US PGA Championship, and yet one golfer is going under the radar - but his plotline could be the biggest of them all.

It is 10 years since Jordan Spieth's incredible breakout season on the PGA Tour, where he won the Masters, the US Open and went close at both the Open Championship and the US PGA.

In 2017 he added the Claret Jug, to secure an annual shot at the career Grand Slam.

Image source, Getty Images

However, eight attempts later - and none particularly close - the 31-year-old arrives at this latest effort as a side story but perhaps ready to write headlines of his own. Three top 10s in 2025 suggests he is on the climb.

"Jordan is like a bomb waiting to go off," says his celebrated University of Texas coach John Fields. "The fuse is lit and if he wins again, he may not stop."

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