Day 1 PGA Championship Recap: Corey Conners Jumps Out In Front

Fantastic day of golf at Kiawah today. Jam packed leaderboard with nobody really taking charge or control of the tournament. Or at least not the kind of Day 1 lead that we saw with Justin Rose at this year's Masters. If you shot anywhere around even par, you've got to feel like you're in position to make a run at some point and do just that. In my opinion, that's exactly what you want in a golf tournament. No time to waste, so let's get to the action…

Winners

The Ocean Course At Kiawah Island (And Us)

Sam Greenwood. Getty Images.

Man, what an awesome golf course this is. It was expected to be a tough test of golf and that's exactly what it's been. There are good shots out there to be had and the greens aren't overly firm, but if you don't put together multiple good golf shots on a hole, this place will eat you alive eventually. The wind has been exactly as advertised and it's protected this beautiful golf course well. 16 of 18 holes are playing over par, and the scoring average is around 74.75 as I write this. Nobody was able to go super low, so this really is anybody's tournament right now. If you were able not to completely fall apart today, you're still in it. Should make for some fantastic cut drama tomorrow and obviously make for a great Sunday finish.

Corey Conners

Patrick Smith. Getty Images.

Corey Conners is a great example of a known entity among diehard golf fans, but casual fans simply aren't going to know him. He's won on Tour before and has slowly positioned himself as a top 50 golfer in the world. He's having an awesome year. He's got 7 Top 10's on the season and only missed one cut. The results have been getting better and better so I don't think we should be all that surprised to see him out in front after Day 1. He might not have the length that some expected to be a major factor here, but the rest of his game is there. He's 6th on Tour this year in Strokes Gained Approach and his short game isn't lacking either. He birdied all 4 Par 5's today, which is going to be a formula for success anywhere. Little bit of pressure here holding a solo lead, so let's see how he handles it.

Brooks Koepka

Stacy Revere. Getty Images.

Brooks opened his day with a double bogey on the 10th featuring a baffling 2nd shot right into the face of the fairway bunker he hit his tee shot into.

From there he was virtually lights out. 6 birdies the rest of the way against 1 bogey and held up well against that surgically repaired knee. A lot of people counted him out of this thing because of that knee (myself included) because he hadn't yet shown any signs of progress with it, but he appears to be finding it at the right time. He's obviously won two of these things and there's a lot of names near the top of this leaderboard, but I like his chances now as much as anyone's.

Losers

Rory McIlroy

Jamie Squire. Getty Images.

Classic Thursday Rory. The guy came into this tournament as the firm favorite to win it and came out with yet another opening round dud in a major. He played with Koepka and similarly made a mess of the first hole by blocking his tee shot into the drink.

He recovered quickly with birdies on the next two and looked in control, but ended up bogeying 5 more holes the rest of the way. I don't know what it is about opening rounds, but it's more than a pattern at this point. Maybe he puts too much pressure on himself, maybe he's ill prepared, I don't know. But it's tough to ignore. If majors were 54 hole tournaments Friday-Sunday, maybe he'd have a dozen majors by now. Who's to say. This is just crazy.

He's not out of the tournament by any means and we all know he can catch fire in the blink of an eye, so we'll see if he can climb out of this hole.

Cameron Champ

Sam Greenwood. Getty Images.

Given that this is the longest setup in major history, Cam Champ was a popular mid-tier pick by some to contend due to his prodigious distance. Oops. I didn't see much of him on any highlights (and rightfully so) but that front nine 44 to finish his day is tough to look at. He'll be catching a flight out of Charleston tomorrow night.

Rangefinders

Sam Greenwood. Getty Images.

One would have thought these would have been all over our television screens today. Nope. Not one bit. I only saw the rangefinder come out a couple of times. Colt Knost was doing coverage walking the course and at one point he said that he had only seen one player in his group pull out his rangefinder to that point (big surprise, it was Bryson). The decision to allow them was mostly panned by the players and I guess they're showing their distaste. Obviously they've got a lot of trust in their caddies. Good for them.

Brooks Koepka's Hat

Yikes.

Highlights

Patrick Cantlay deposited the first big hole out of the tournament for eagle on the Par-5 2nd.

Will Z got it poppin with this sick spinner off the ridge for eagle.

Early this morning, John Daly holed out to start his day with a birdie…. and then played +14 the rest of the way.

Given that this is a beach course, there were a couple of other great bunker shots

And there ya have it. Day 1 at the PGA Championship is in the books. We'll see ya tomorrow.