PGA Championship debutant nearly into the lead

New York Times

17-05-2025

Jhonattan Vegas (-8) leads the field by two strokes after 36 holes at the 2025 PGA Championship Getty Images Getty Images
But Michael Thorbjornsen narrowly misses his putt for birdie and the co-lead! Just dragged past the hole on 8.
The 23-year-old American turned pro last year and is playing in his first PGA Championship.
He certainly doesn't look overawed here at Quail Hollow.
An absolutely terrible scene for the LIV guys right now. Brooks Koepka is T108 after shooting a 75 yesterday.
is T108 after shooting a 75 yesterday. Patrick Reed is T118 and 4-over through 8 today.
is T118 and 4-over through 8 today. Cameron Smith is T137 and 3-over through 12 today.
is T137 and 3-over through 12 today. Phil Mickelson is T137 after shooting a 79 yesterday.
is T137 after shooting a 79 yesterday. Dustin Johnson is T151 and 3-over through 9 today.
Gonna be hard to spin all of that. Getty Images
Bryson DeChambeau is looking in good nick today.
The American, beginning the Green Mile on the 526-yard par four, pelted his drive 359 yards and though his second shot was a little ordinary, his 17-footer for birdie rolled in.
Second birdie of the day, two under in total, four shots off the lead which in the grand scheme of things is not a million miles away.
Can he survive the tough last two holes before entering the easier front nine?
At least below leader Jhonattan Vegas, who is still at one over today. He's not playing his best, but the Venezuelan has saved par from several tricky positions and a 14-foot birdie putt just stopped a yard or two short on the sixth.
Vegas still in a fine position. Below him, plenty of change.
Cam Davis bogeys 11 and 12 to drop back to -3, while the red-hot Max Homa, seven under today, birdies the third to move to five-under. Tee shot on four leaves him in the rough, though.
Michael Thorbjornsen, whose surname sounds like a Lord of the Rings character, has just birdied seven to join Homa, Aaron Rai, and Ryan Gerard a shot behind Vegas.
Pavon, Spaun, Donald, Fox, Jaeger, and Smalley on -4. Getty Images
Michael Block, the hero of the 2023 PGA Championship, has gone bogey, double bogey, bogey, par, double bogey, bogey over his last 6 holes to fall to 13-over.
The pride of Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club is currently DFL. Getty Images
Not much has troubled Swedish prodigy Ludvig Aberg at the majors so far in his nascent career at the top level.
The Green Mile here at Quail Hollow has chewed up and spat out plenty of others, and Aberg has fallen victim too now.
From the tee into the water, then almost into the drink again. Double bogey at 17.
On the 18th, his attempted chip onto the green does what it's done to so many others and rolls back down the slope.
Tough. Getty Images
On the par-five 15th, Viktor Hovland's fantastic shot out of the bunker leaves him a three-footer for birdie, which he takes. Two under.
Playing partner Bryson DeChambeau? Not so much. He found the green in two after a pair of lovely shots, but he three-putts from 50 feet after his first putt went a monster 14 feet past.
But that's better from the muscular Californian! Two massive shots marmalize the 526-yard 16th and he drops the birdie before tipping his cap to the crowd.
A major championship hasn't started until Tyrrell Hatton is caught on a live mic cursing at his equipment or himself.
Happy to report the 2025 PGA Championship has now begun. Getty Images
Goodness me. We knew that tough 18th hole would cost Tyrrell Hatton a shot after he landed in the drink.
But it's been a waking nightmare to finish the back nine and the Green Mile.
He landed in really thick rough, then his chip onto the green trickled back before he missed a putt.
A triple-bogey seven at the 474-yard par four.
One he will hope to forget very quickly. Hatton goes from tied second and a shot off the lead to tied for 25th place. Getty Images
J. J. Spaun and Matthieu Pavon, who both shot level-par 71s yesterday, are both doing really well.
Four birdies and a bogey from Spaun on the front nine to go three under, while Pavon, who I backed at the Masters and was rubbish , just hit successive birdies on 7 and 8 (four in total on the front nine, all the rest pars) to go four under.
Frenchman on the charge! Getty Images
Michael here will be looking to block this back nine from his memory.
The American actually birdied the 11th but bogeyed 12 and 13. Then he hit the Green Mile.
Bogey, double bogey, double bogey. Six over today, 10 over in total. Yikes.
Also highly likely to miss the cut, Masters runner-up Justin Rose. The Englishman is two over today, seven over in total.
Sam Matton never saw the call coming. It was last summer, sometime around June. Matton was home in Swindon, England, what he calls, 'a s****y little town about 70 miles west of London.' Luke Donald was on the line.
'Really, even now, I don't know why,' Matton says all this time later. 'He was scraping the bottom of the barrel.'
Donald had met Matton about a year earlier. They got along that week and had a few laughs. Nothing more. Less than a year ago, Matton was in the depths of self-imposed recovery. All those years of drug and alcohol addiction.
That's who's on the bag for what's perhaps the unlikeliest showing in this PGA Championship. Fitting, isn't it?
'He's still a long shot,' Matton said of Donald. 'But it's not impossible. I think he can hang around, you know, if he just keeps on keeping on.'
He, of all people, would know.
GO FURTHER
The caddie whose second chance has him standing with the PGA Championship leaders Getty Images
Uh-oh. The irascible Brit Tyrrell Hatton, in tied second and one shot off the leader Jhonattan Vegas, was actually one-under through the first two holes of the Green Mile, the infamously tough last three holes.
So what you need is a nice solid par on 18 to close out the back nine before he comes up the front nine. And... he goes risky off the tee, and might have found the water.
If he's very lucky, his ball will have stuck in the thick rough beside the brook that runs to the left of the fairway and the green.
He swings the offending club downwards in evident (and characteristic) fury, glares at his club head and spits some presumably X-rated words at the offending article.
Tough par saver from here. Getty Images
Max Homa is storming up the leaderboard with a 6-under 30 on the much more difficult back nine to start his day.
Homa has been battling swing changes for the better part of the last year, his long-time caddie left him, and in March he told reporters that he felt like he was in a 'toxic relationship' with golf.
After a T12 at the Masters, Homa had showed some positive signs of momentum and it looks like that is continuing here at Quail Hollow, where he has won before. Getty Images
Does that pun work? Not sure, but I'm sticking with it.
Anyway, Aaron Rai, the 30-year-old from Wolverhampton, England, has just made his third birdie in four holes to move to tied second and a shot off the lead at five-under.
A really impressive recovery after bogeying the first two holes of his second round.
He is joined on that score by fellow countryman Tyrrell Hatton, who nearly got an ace at the 185-yard par-three 17th, but his tee shot bounced inches past the hole.
Nine-footer for birdie... in! Big English representation at the top of the leaderboard.
Lucas Glover is in the water.
Luckily, he's not fallen in, but has taken his shoes and socks off to stand in the babbling stream to the left of the 18th hole here at Quail Hollow.
He chips it onto the fairway from the rough.
It saves him taking a drop! Getty Images
Leader Jhonattan Vegas' putter saved him on the first, but doesn't on the second.
His putt just slipped right of the hole after some serious breakage. Bogey and back to -6.
He needs to steady the ship. Getty Images
The appropriately-dressed Spaniard Sergio Garcia has birdied two of his first three holes on the back nine to move to two-over and give himself a shot of making the cut.
Chilean Joaquin Niemann of LIV, and home favorites Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris are three-under, two-under, and one-under respectively today to be evens overall.
One of the biggest movers has been Max Homa, five-under through eight and at three under overall, alongside U.S. compatriots J. J. Spaun and Collin Morikawa, who are in the groove today.
Plus Aussie Adam Scott (loved his work in Parks and Rec, by the way) is two-under today to join the group at four-under.