Johnson Leads PGA Championship

And the world No 278 repeatedly swore as he showed his frustration on the greens as he made five bogeys.

Tiger Woods, in advance of this week’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, sounded resigned to his disappointing fate for the rest of this season.

Asked what he had learned over the years about being in the lead at majors or trying to play catch-up, Johnson replied: “It doesn’t really bother me either way. I just didn’t have the speed at all“.

“It’s only the first round”, Johnson said. But it was a big one.

Looking forward to the final three rounds this weekend, here are our observations from early first-round action.

Three bogeys and four birdies, however, meant McIlroy finished the day one-under-par and five shots off the pace.

“As you can see out there, the way I’m hitting the ball and the way I’m getting around the golf course, I have full confidence in” the ankle, he said.

He suffered through an epic collapse toward the end of the U.S. Open, and shot a pair of 75s in the final two rounds of the British Open to fall out of the running.

Still working through the latest swing change of his career after recovering from back surgery, Woods has endured a dismal 2015 campaign featuring three missed cuts, a withdrawal and just two top-25 finishes in nine starts. Jordan Spieth couldn’t make a putt. But in tough scoring conditions, it’s a number that the scorecard doesn’t do justice.

It certainly was for Johnson.

It was like none of that ever happened.

“It was pretty easy, I would have to say”, Johnson said.

“I got off to a flying start, was able to make some putts and give myself a lot of looks”, he said.

Spieth added another birdie at the par-five 16th, and like McIlroy was pleased to be under par.

Day had an eagle and birdie to briefly get to 5 under on his second nine, before giving a shot back with a bogey on No. 6.

McIlroy rolled up a trouser leg and waded in, splashing the ball to some six feet and making the par putt. But it was fine.

“We’re going to have a good time, and hopefully we can all feed off each other these two days”.

However, the 31-year-old was then penalised two strokes after it was ruled he had grounded his club in a fairway bunker before hitting his second shot, even though spectators had been trampling all over the hazard. “I was controlling it”.

That shot made for good TV. “I feel like we have got the better side of the draw now right now”.

And then he started to press, and it almost cost him. He missed a sharp-breaking birdie putt from 10 feet. And it seems more pleasing to know you qualified to get here through hard work.

“It’s awesome when she comes out to events”, Jordan Spieth said.

Spieth said the atmosphere around the group was “fantastic”.