Ian Poulter and Justin Rose lead British charge on Day 1 of US PGA Championship
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Loading... - Jan Willis
- 10 Aug 2021
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Justin Rose and Ian Poulter lead the British challenge at the US PGA despite neither playing a pre-tournament practice round.
American Gary Woodland leads a Major for the first time after his opening 64 at the Bellerive Country Club.
But the two European Ryder Cup stars are only three shots back in a share of tied fourth place after 67s.
Rose nearly pulled out of the last Major of the season with a back injury which kept him out of last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
And the world No.3 only walked the course with his wedges and putter before teeing up in the last Major of the season.
“The back's good - not thinking about it,” claimed the 2013 US Open winner. “I was able to hit every shot as I wanted to today. It's interesting. I walked nine holes both days.
“So I haven't hit a bad shot on the golf course. So I kind of went out there today and had a very clear intent on what I wanted to do on every hole.
“Often you can be biased how you play in practice at times, and that can influence the clubs you want to hit off the tee and what you're comfortable doing.
“Today I had a bit of a blank canvas to play with, and I felt comfortable on the course.”
Poulter took a few days off at his home in Florida before arriving on Wednesday morning and hopes to feel the benefit over the weekend as he seeks his first Major – and Ryder Cup qualification.
“I feel relatively refreshed after just a couple of days at home after five weeks playing in a row,” he said. “So it's a lot of golf. I'm swinging the way I'm swinging, there's no real range work required. So all it is is familiarising myself with the golf course.
“I felt like one round would have been enough from what everyone had said that had come here and played. So I took that opportunity.”
Woodland has never finished in the top 10 in his previous 27 Majors. But after bogeying the first hole and then making six straight pars, he carded seven birdies in his last 11 holes to race to the top of the leaderboard.
“Definitely in the Majors it's frustrating,” said the world No.44. The record of mine I don't even have a top-10, I think 12 is the best I've ever finished, which is frustrating because I feel like where I am and where I should be is not results that I have had.”
The early part of the day was a tale of two changed shirts.
Tiger Woods dropped three shots in his opening two holes before replacing his sweaty shirt and shooting a level-par 70.
And Rickie Fowler donned a yellow shirt in tribute to Jarrod Lyle, the Australian who succumbed to leukemia this week, before he shot a 65.
Rory McIlroy is level-par going into Day Two.
