There are two leaders after the first round of the 102nd PGA Championship from San Francisco, California. Jason Day of Beaudesert, Australia, and Brendon Todd of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are each at -5.
Day has had success at the PGA Championship before. In 2015, in fact, he won the only major of his career at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, where he beat Jordan Spieth by three strokes. Day’s final round score of -20 was a major championship scoring record.
Todd meanwhile has won twice already this season. His victories came at the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico this past November. Then last week, Todd was the leader after three rounds of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational but faltered down the stretch, and only tied for 15th after a final round score of 75.
On Thursday in northern California, Day had five birdies and zero bogeys. He birdied the first, fourth, ninth, 10th, and 17th holes. Todd meanwhile had seven birdies and two bogeys. His birdies came on the first, fifth, seventh, 10th, 11th, 16th, and 17th holes, while bogeying the 14th and 18th holes. Todd in fact had a temporary lead at -6 for a brief period of time, but moved back to a tie with Day after a miscue to end his round.
The leaderboard is extremely tight at the moment. There are currently 32 golfers who are -2 or better. There is no doubt that all golfers who are within three strokes of the lead are in contention. Among those are Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose (-4), Gary Woodland (-3), Shane Lowry, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott and Tiger Woods (-2).
