CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first round of the PGA Championship didn’t follow the script most expected, as the leaderboard has just two major champions (Matt Fitzpatrick, Keegan Bradley) among the top 19 players.
Mud balls became a story line Thursday, with Scottie Scheffler and other top pros lamenting the unpredictability that emerges when clumps of dirt from wet conditions can send shots in any direction. Scheffler, for example, double bogeyed the par-4 16th when a mud ball sailed into the water.
All that begged a statement for the SI Golf staff to ponder in this PGA Championship Round 1 edition of Fact or Fiction:
The PGA of America's decision to not play with preferred lies in Round 1 blew this PGA Championship wide open and greatly increased the chance of a random winner come Sunday night.
Bob Harig, SI Golf Senior Writer: FICTION. While it’s quite possible there is a bad shot or two that impacts the outcome, this issue has been overblown simply because it affected a couple of star players. Scottie Scheffler admitted he didn’t think the PGA of America would use preferred lies. The major championships simply don’t do it. The story would be bigger had they done so. Mud balls occur at the Masters! So while Scheffler made an excellent point when discussing the situation, this is not out of the ordinary.
John Pluym, SI.com Managing Editor: FACT. The quote of the day came from Scottie Scheffler after his opening 2-under 69: “When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion, maybe the ball today should have been played up.” Indeed, players face enough difficult shots at a major championship that hitting out of mud or playing a shot with mud on their ball shouldn't be one of them. Plain and simple: PGA officials screwed up by not allowing the players to play the ball up. The end result could be a random golfer emerging with the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday night. By the way, who the heck are Cam Davis and Ryan Gerard?
Jeff Ritter, SI Golf Managing Director: FACT. Eighteen holes is a small sample but the evidence can’t be ignored. I understand why purists cringe at the idea of playing the ball up, especially in a major, but Thursday was the rare day that probably called for it. And Scheffler should cheer up—the PGA of America is still taking it much easier on him so far this year.
Max Schreiber, SI Golf Contributor: FICTION. I don’t necessarily disagree that preferred lies should have been in effect today, but everyone was on equal footing. Why can Ryan Gerard and Cam Davis shoot 5 under in these conditions, but Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele (the three best players in the world) can’t?
John Schwarb, SI Golf Senior Editor: FICTION. It’s easy to overreact after Round 1 but the fact is the PGA Championship field is very deep with a lot of very good pros—namely the kind who can shoot one or two excellent rounds anytime including at a major. The mudball issue fed all of us in the media center for a day but the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg, to just name three, are still lurking and I expect the leaderboard to shape up the way everyone thought by Saturday, setting up a great Sunday.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fact or Fiction: The PGA Botched a Ruling That Could Now Create a Random Winner.
