NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Scottie Scheffler has unequivocally stood as the best golfer in the world of late, and while there have not been doubts about his stature over the last few months, there have been murmurs about whether the world No. 1 is still playing like the world No. 1.

Only 18 holes have been completed at the 108th PGA Championship, but if the first round was indicative of what’s to come over the next three, the other 155 players in this field should be shrieking. Scheffler was sensational Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club as the sun was setting over the Philadelphia suburbs.

Amid a windy, cold day that seemed to only turn the dial up higher as the round progressed, the Texan strolled through the foothills one foot in front of another, unbothered by it all. In the process, he positioned his name ahead of all others as he grabbed a share of the first-round lead with a 3-under 67 that consisted of five birdies, two bogeys and 13 pars.

In his 27th major championship start, Scheffler accomplished a career first by becoming a first-round leader, an honor he shares with an eclectic cast of characters: Min Woo Lee, Aldrich Potgieter, Martin Kaymer, Alex Smalley, Stephan Jaeger and Ryo Hisatsune.

“The best start I’ve gotten off to this year, maybe besides American Express,” Scheffler said. “Especially going into the weekend, when you look at like the Masters and Hilton Head and Cadillac, finishing second was probably not all that bad from where I was starting the weekend. Definitely nice to get off to a better start this week.”

In four of the last nine PGA Championships, the champion was positioned outside the top 30 at the conclusion of Round 1. In fact, only three of the last 20 winners were leading (tied or outright) at the end of the first round. Scheffler, himself, was in a tie for 20th in the 2025 PGA Championship, which he ultimately won by five strokes.

The leaders in those championship iterations were not Scheffler. The defending Wanamaker Trophy holder made what was already known better understood on Thursday — this PGA Championship will go through him.

While Scheffler has taken body punches from the likes of Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick in his last three tournaments, a knockout swing will be required to relieve him of an upper hand he has not possessed this early in a tournament since his first effort of the 2026 season.

Forced to sprint through the weekend to try to recover from a 12-stroke deficit at the Masters and seven-stroke deficits at the RBC Heritage and Cadillac Championship, Scheffler can now do what he does best from the pole position and take the air out of the ball.

There are still miles to go in this tournament with past major winners like Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Fitzpatrick firmly in the mix. Even Jordan Spieth is eying the career grand slam from just two shots back of the leaders. A young crop of interesting names could bring spice to this tournament as well.

However, the long slog of a major championship tends to favor the marathoners, and by 25% of the race, the best one is out in front.

So, you’re saying there’s a chance …

The one time Spieth had a legitimate opportunity to complete the career grand slam on paper, he had no opportunity at all. Brooks Koepka roared out in front of everyone at Bethpage Black in 2019, while Spieth finished a distant T3, buoyed by one of the more ridiculous putting performances of his career. Even for his standards.

It’s only 18 holes, and major championships don’t start until the back nine on Sunday, but a player can’t have a great week without at least a good Thursday. That’s what Spieth had in Round 1 — he drove it well, stuffed a number of approach shots close and (perhaps most importantly) flexed confidence inside 10 feet with the putter in hand.

Did all of those putts drop? No, but they rarely do. What they did provide, however, was both confidence and calmness. As jittery as they come, Spieth’s mind seems to slow down when the putts are dripping over the edge as he walks towards the cup a half-second early. It extends to the rest of his game; his decisions are made quicker, and his golf is much more fluid.

It may only be 18 holes, but Spieth posted a 69 that puts him two off the pace at the major championship he needs for the career grand slam. If you’re a fan of golf, you’re allowed to be excited about that.

It’s probably worth waiting until Saturday to get over your skis about it, but if Spieth is there with a late tee time over the weekend, the Philly faithful may very well change up those E-A-G-L-E-S chants they serenaded him with on Thursday to ones of support.

“It’s one of those rounds where I feel like I played better than I scored, which is frustrating because you want to get the most out of your round,” Spieth said. “It’s also a good thing, which means things are in a good spot. I’ll go try to tighten a couple of things up that got off at the end of the day and just go out there [Friday] and try to make a few more putts.”

Put a foot (or toe) in your mouth

After calling the strategy off the tee in the lead-up to the tournament non-existent, McIlroy was ultimately undone by the big stick in his opening round. After splitting three of his first four fairways and appearing well on his way, the two-time PGA Championship winner hit two the rest of the way in and caught a ride on the bogey train courtesy of the big right miss.

McIlroy made four straight bogeys to end his round to shoot 4 over with misses on holes Nos. 6-9 all falling right of the fairway. It is not a miss nor a problem area of which McIlroy is unaware. He struggled with the driver at the Masters en route to victory, but unlike his successful defense at Augusta National, he paid the price Thursday and will hope to recoup his losses Friday afternoon when he will battle to make the cut.

“I’m just not driving the ball well enough. It’s been a problem all year for the most part,” McIlroy said. “I miss it right and then I want to try to correct it. And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back-and-forth that way. So, that’s pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well.

“I just need to try to figure it out. I honestly thought I’d figured it out. Coming in here, I hit it well on Sunday at Quail Hollow, and then hit it good at home on Monday. I had to curtail the practice round Tuesday but hit it decent yesterday. Just sort of, once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me.”

Smells like potential

There are 31 players under par and many of them closer to that leading number (3 under) are players who have been billed with big potential. Potgieter, Lee and Hisatsune headline the young international crop tied for the lead with players who are begging to break out like Ryan Gerard, Nicolai Højgaard, Joaquin Niemann, Sahith Theegala and Garrick Higgo firmly in this conversation and well-positioned to be the main subject come Sunday.

“We’re all trying to get off to a good start. Over the last few months, I haven’t done that,” Lee said. “Just a little bit of a mindset change, ‘Go out there and be aggressive’ instead of — you know that saying of you can shoot yourself out of a Thursday? I’ve nearly taken that too far and played a little bit conservative. I’m hitting the ball really good, so why not go at some pins and make some putts?

“It’s great to start off well. We’re all trying to do that. It’s tough, but it was kind of the right time to put the foot on the pedal a little bit and hit some shots that needed to be more aggressive than not.”

That could loom large …

Usually, delays in golf occur due to the course or conditions, but on Thursday morning, the delay was Higgo. The young South African was roughly a half-minute late to his morning tee time and incurred a two-stroke penalty as a consequence. If he had been more than 5 minutes late, the left-hander would have been disqualified, and the first alternate would have replaced him.

So … that’s a positive! The negative? Two strokes tend to mean a lot in major championships, whether in terms of making the cut or winning the damn thing. To Higgo’s credit, he knew off the bat he would be penalized and battled like a champ to scratch into red figures and post a 69.

His post-round interview was a little head-spinning as he seemed to flip-flop between taking responsibility and … not.

• “I wouldn’t have been late if I knew I was running late.”
• “It wasn’t a surprise. I was late. I mean, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee.”
• “I was just trying to get evidence. I feel like any of you would have done the same. … I was there on time, but the rule is, if you’re 1 second late, you’re late. So, if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.”

Mink is making them think

There was some serious shade being thrown at Aronimink early in the week. Not by the trees, of course. With some projecting the PGA Championship and major scoring records to fall, the Donald Ross design stood mighty tall on Thursday, even with 0.25 inches of rain between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

The golf course played to just about an average of 72.25 (+2.25) with the front nine playing one stroke easier than the back. It did so even with seven of the holes playing under par, showing the severity of the difficult stretches and how, despite not a ton of trouble lurking, big numbers can pile up in an instant.

The closing run is indicative of such; four of the most difficult holes sandwich the par-5 16th, which played as the second-easiest in Round 1.

“Have you been out there? Have you seen the golf course?” Rahm retorted. “I can understand because, if you just go by some of the numbers, some of the fairways are wide, the greens aren’t crazy firm. But a lot of those fairways are sloped in a way that they play very narrow. Then the rough doesn’t look as long as many other majors, but it’s such a thick blade of grass that, even when the lie looks OK, it catches you so bad.

“So, I can see how, in appearance, it might be easier, but it’s not. You need to play really good golf to shoot lower than 3 under. And then on top of that, those pin locations today are good ones. I mean, they’re tucked. They’re not easy. There was somebody earlier in the week where there was some chatter where people thought 15- to 20-under was going to win. And I think that got to somebody in the PGA, and they did something about it. Because if the golf course stays like this and it keeps firming up, yeah, obviously it’s not going to be anything like that.”

Begging to be put back in the bag

Koepka came into the week as the No. 1 iron player on the PGA Tour, and he looked like it. Unfortunately, the five-time major champion also looked like one of the worst putters on the PGA Tour, which he has been.

By my tally, Koepka hit 15 greens in regulation with 12 birdie looks from inside 20 feet. This added up to more than 3.50 strokes gained with the irons. With his putter alone, he gave back two of them.

Koepka insists that he has the putter he wants in the bag and that it is just about gaining a little more confidence and comfort level with it. As a blade truther myself, his old gamer must be screaming at him in the closet like the green goblin mask.

“I feel good. Every round just seems to be the worst I can shoot,” Koepka said. “Putter is absolutely horrendous. Ball striking is absolutely phenomenal. That’s been the story of the year. Hopefully, we can figure out a way to turn this around.”

Birdie looks from inside 20 feet

Fire up the grills!

The streets are roped off and coolers are filled with ice and drinks. Let the block party commence! Michael Block is back, and he is back in a big way. Paired with two-time major champion Dustin Johnson and budding star Rasmus Højgaard in the first round, Block was the baddest man of them all and clipped them both by a couple of strokes with his even-par effort on Thursday.

Perhaps most impressive about Block’s performance was that he did so following a big blunder early in his round. He missed one of his few fairways on No. 12, slowly advanced it up the fairway and carded a double bogey. Fear not, Blockie offset these mistakes (and a couple others) with four birdies.

“I was in the bathroom on hole 12 or 13 today, and there was no mirror, so I wasn’t looking at myself,” Block said. “But I said, ‘You got this.’ I go, ‘You’re actually pretty good, buddy.’ And I just kept going.

“I’m with D.J., one of my idols, a guy I looked up to my whole life, and Rasmus, who’s an unbelievable player, he’s like 63 in the world. They both hit it 50 yards by me on every shot. I’m just going, ‘You got this, bud. You got it.’ It’s really cool. It’s kind of fun, if I’m going to be honest.”