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

This is the hole where he needs to do something Rory McIlroy-like.

Just to try and get some momentum into his week.

Pretty ordinary stuff from this star-studded grouping, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler missing the green and having to produce a chip and a putt for par.

Xander Schauffele finds the short stuff but he's a mile away and it's a two-putt par for him.

Shane Lowry is finishing up his round on the ninth with a 15-footer for par. He pulls that a little, so it's another dropped shot for the Irishman.

He was three over after seven, got back to one over but after a run of four pars ends with another bogey.

Ryan Gerard's last three holes. 10th = birdie. 11th = birdie. 12th = birdie.

The 25-year-old American debutant is up into a tie for second after jumping aboard the birdie train.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's Luke Donald on his opening round.

"It's a great score for me," he said on Sky Sports. "I haven't been trending towards something like this, but that's golf.

"I putted really well and a 67 on a course that's not suited to my game is pleasing. It felt like the hole was a little bigger which is a nice feeling in golf.

"It's my second time around and I've got the gist of this captaincy [of the European Ryder Cup team] and it's nice to throw in a good round to show the boys that the old captain still has a bit of life in him."

Jon Rahm goes right off the tee on the long par-three sixth. His pitch leaves a testing 10-foot putt that he slides past the cup.

That's a fourth bogey in six holes. He does not look happy at all.

It was actually only 16 feet Rory McIlroy left himself for birdie on the fifth hole, but he couldn't find the hole so it's another par.

At two over he'll want to find a couple of birdies to end the day at level par at least.

Image source, Getty Images

An outside eagle chance from 30+ feet trundles a good five or six feet past the hole for Stephan Jaeger on the par-five 15th but the German coolly knocks in the return to edge one clear of the field.

He's playing with Bob MacIntyre and the Scot follows him in with his fourth birdie of the round to sit two off the pace.

Image source, Getty Images

Anyone remember when a club professional almost stole the show from eventual US PGA Champion, Brooks Koepka, in 2023?

Yep Michael Block, 48, delivered one of the most incredible moments in US PGA Championship history with his hole-in-one at Oak Hill in 2023 on his way to a tie for 15th.

It was the best finish by a club pro at the PGA Championship since Tommy Aycock finished T-11 at Tanglewood GC in 1974.

Block is back again for his seventh appearance (fourth consecutive) in the US PGA and let's face it, he's hard to miss with his rather vibrant polo shirts.

The last club pro to appear in four or more consecutive PGA Championships was Alex Beach, who played in five between 2019-2023, and he definitely wore far less

Wonderful approach from Alex Smalley, who zips into five feet and then sinks a sliding left-to-right putt from five feet for birdie.

He is now perched on four under in a five-way tie for the lead.

If you're just joining us, it's been quite the round by Luke Donald in the early stages of the US PGA Championship.

A clutch par putt from nine feet on the 18th rounds off a bogey-free 67 that sees him tied for the clubhouse lead.

Not bad for a 47-year-old who told BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter that he would be happy to just make it through to the weekend given he expected the course would play way too long for him.

Rory McIlroy is in recovery mode again on the fifth after pulling his drive into the fairway bunker off the left. It's an attacking resposne right at the flag, but his struggles off the tee will be a big worry.

Image source, Getty Images

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele both have birdie chances around the 20 foot range but neither can convert as all three players here make par.

Jon Rahm drains a 27-foot putt for birdie on the par-four fifth and he looks like he enjoyed that.

It gets him back into the red numbers as Matt Fitzpatrick fritters a shot away - taking three on the dance floor.

Bob MacIntyre is out with the putter from just off the right edge of the 14th green.

It's an eagle try for the Scot after he narrowly avoided driving the green. And he judges the pace to almost perfection, his ball rolling up to within six inches for a kick-in birdie. He's only two back.

A scruffy finish by Ryan Fox sees the Kiwi drop a shot at his final hole.

He had a five-footer for par but raced it by but I suspect he'd have taken a 67 at the start of play.

Back to the sloppy Scottie Scheffler from earlier, as he fires his approach long over the third green, and his next still leaves him with seven feet for par.

The putter has often been his weak point, and again Scheffler can't rescue the situation with the flat stick as he drops a shot again.

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

Image source, Getty Images

The world of golf moves on 24 hours later. You ride the high as long as you can but you're straight into another tournament.

Rory has achieved the greatest thing he ever could - but everyone who is looking in from the outside worlds moves on to the next tournament and expects him to be able to take that attitude and preparation into the next major.

The major season is so coinfined now there really is not much time to take off and enjoy. But that is important. There's literally always another golf tournament so just enjoy it and make the most of it.

He's still trying to get in the record books though - and trying to find the balance.

JT Poston is from North Carolina but has tended to struggle at Quail Hollow, missing three cuts in five appearances here.

But back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th holes suggest he may be ready to trend in the other direction this weekend, with perhaps a first top-30 finish in a major on the cards if he can keep this up.

He'd have taken a par from where he was off the tee, but for 29 of the 30 feet his birdie putt was running Rory McIlroy looked nailed on for birdie.

The hole came just a bit too quickly though and the ball lipped out.