PGA Championship: Scottie soars, Bryson surprises, more to watch Friday - ESPN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are the top three players in the Official World Golf Ranking, but only one of them performed like it in the opening round of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on Thursday.

Scheffler, who picked up his first major championship victory at the Masters last season, one of his six victories since February 2022, carded a 3-under 67 to grab a share of third place, 2 strokes behind leader Eric Cole. After a nearly two-hour frost delay to start the day, play was suspended at 8:30 p.m. ET because of darkness.

It was another solid start for Scheffler, who already has seven top-10 finishes in 11 starts in majors as a pro, including a tie for 10th at the Masters in April. Thursday's effort was his first bogey-free round in 51 rounds in majors. Scheffler hit 8 of 14 fairways and 11 of 18 greens and went 7-for-7 scrambling.

«This place is pretty tough,» Scheffler said. «I came into today's round just trying to play solid golf. I kept the course in front of me for the most part and hit some really good tee shots on the important holes. Then I had some nice saves as well. It's just one of those places where you hit one shot maybe barely offline, and sometimes can you hit a good shot and end up in a place where it's pretty penalizing. There's lots of tough holes out there.»

McIlroy and Rahm found plenty of penalizing spots Thursday. Rahm, the No. 1 player in the world after claiming his second major at the Masters, posted a 6-over 76. The Spaniard birdied the first hole and was 1 under after six holes, but then had six bogeys, a double bogey and one birdie the rest of the way.

According to research by ESPN Stats & Information, Rahm carded the worst opening-round