CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The super group in the PGA Championship opening round was a disappointment Thursday.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (2-under), No. 2 Rory McIlroy (3-over) and defending champion and world No. 3 Xander Schauffele (1-over) combined to go 2-over for the day.
Nevertheless, Scheffler called playing with his fellow stars “always a ton of fun to get paired with those two guys.’’
“What excites us the most as players is getting to play against the best competition, and having the top three guys in the world all playing together is a tremendous amount of fun,’’ he said. “You have a guy that just won the career Grand Slam [McIlroy], another guy that won two majors last year [Schauffele], and then I won a major last year, as well.
“It was a fun group. The crowd had great energy. Hopefully, [Friday] it will play a little bit better. This morning was a bit of a struggle. All three of us had a double on the same hole in the middle of the round [No. 16]. So that can kind of kill the momentum.’’
That meant Scheffler — even after a double bogey — had “honors’’ at the 17th tee.
“I kept the honor with making a double on a hole, and I think that will probably be the first and last time I do that in my career unless we get some crazy weather conditions,’’ Scheffler said jokingly.
Of the three stars, Scheffler and Schauffele met with reporters after their rounds while McIlroy, as he’s been prone to do after a bad round, declined interview requests after his round.
Eric Cole, who shot a 1-under 70, carded a hole-in-one on the par-3 fourth hole, hitting a 7-iron 184 yards. He said it was his second ace on the PGA Tour.
“It was kind of like right on the edge whether it was enough club or not, so I kind of hit a little bigger draw with the wind than I normally do,’’ Cole said. “I was concerned it might be a touch short, but then when I saw it land, figured it was going to be pretty good.’’
The two club pros from Long Island struggled.
Andre Chi, an assistant pro at Deepdale playing in his first major, shot an 11-over-par 82.
And Dylan Newman, an assistant at Meadow Brook playing in his second PGA, shot a 4-over 75.
Max Greyserman, from Short Hills, N.J., shot an even-par 71, while Westchester’s Cam Young shot 2-over despite birdies on the first two holes.
California club pro Michael Block, a sensation from the 2023 PGA when he finished tied for 15th, shot 4-over 75.
Phil Mickelson struggled to an 8-over 79 while Brooks Koepka, who was once a big-game hunter in majors, has lost his mojo recently, shooting 75.
Adam Scott, 44, is in contention at 2-under. He’s appearing in his 95th consecutive major championship (starting with the 2001 British Open).
The only player with more consecutive major championship appearances was Jack Nicklaus (146, 1962-1998).
Tom Watson (87, 1974-1996) is third on the list.
Aussie Cam Davis, the co-leader, played his 33rd major championship round Thursday.
Prior to Thursday, had broken 70 just three times.
He’s been among the top five on the leaderboard at the conclusion of a major championship round three times.
Ten Australians have led or co-led at the conclusion of a PGA Championship round — Stuart Appleby, Bruce Crampton, Jason Day, Steve Elkington, Wayne Grady, David Graham, Matt Jones, Greg Norman, Rod Pampling and Scott.
The last was Day at the conclusion of the final round of the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where he won.
