US PGA Championship: The French in difficulty

On the longest course in the history of the Majors, we expected a necessarily brutal test. This Thursday during the first round, theOcean Course from Kiawah Island however managed to appear even longer than its 7202 m … As expected, the wind was indeed there, and despite its moderate intensity (15-20 km / h) considerably hampered the competitors. The average score of this first day – 74,781 – indicates it: the course did more than defend itself, it put the players in line and already showered the hopes of many of them.

This is unfortunately the case of our two French people, Antoine Rozner and Victor perez. Starting one after the other from tee n ° 10, in the middle of the afternoon, the two Blues lived the same type of day: laborious, constraining, frustrating. With a long game not well enough regulated – 7 fairways hit by Rozner, 10 for Perez – and an equally imprecise set of irons – 12 and 9 greens in regulation – they could not both limit the number of ‘errors to a minimum. From the first nine holes, the damage was done: +8 for the Parisian with in particular two triple bogeys, +4 for the Tarbais. And if the outward journey of the Ocean Course turned out to be slightly more lenient (-1, +2), the addition at the finish is necessarily steep. With a 79 (+7), Rozner had a painful baptism of fire in Major, while Perez did little better with his 78 (+6). Respectively 127th and 138th, Perez and Rozner are four and five strokes from the cut, provisionally located at +2.

But the first round of this 103rd PGA Championship did not fully turn into the game of slaughter, as the course left thirty players to return a card under par. Starting with the unexpected Corey Conners, 29-year-old Canadian who won the PGA Tour once two seasons ago. Author of six birdies for a bogey, the 39th player in the world posted a very strong 67 (-5), which gave him two strokes ahead of his dolphins. In this group of six players, we find as many well-known names – Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland and Keegan Bradley – so many surprises – Sam Horsfield, Cam Smith, Aaron Wise. And what about the presence at the outposts of the veterans Phil Mickelson (70), Patrick Harrington (71) and Stewart Cink (71)? Or the excellent start made by the defending champion, Collin Morikawa, eighth in 70 (-2)? And even if Rory McIlroy and Justin thomas (75), as well as Dustin Johnson (76) are for the moment unhooked, the first round of the second Major of the season has kept all its promises.