PGA Championship 2015: Leaderboard Scores and Highlights from Thursday

A fully stacked field with the world's No. 1 golfer healthy and ready to go has created plenty of anticipation for the PGA Championship. Well, anticipate no more, as the competition teed off Thursday from Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. 

With a star-studded grouping of top-ranked Rory McIlroy fresh off of an ankle injury, world No. 2 Jordan Spieth and British Open winner Zach Johnson, quality golf was bound to make this an extremely difficult event to win. 

But the day's best golf did not necessarily come from those three.

Here is the day's leaderboard and a look at Thursday's highlights. 

After the first round of play, there is a Johnson in the lead. It's not Zach, but Dustin, who shot a six-under 66 to start the tournament in the top spot. 

Starting on the back nine, Johnson began his day with two straight birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 and eagled 16 to go four under. The PGA Championship took a look at Johnson's eagle:

A nice start to his front nine saw him birdie three of his first four holes, though a bogey on three was sandwiched in between. Johnson was able to navigate the course and par out to grab the lead. But having the lead after the first day isn't always a good thing, as the Golf Channel's Justin Ray pointed out:

Sitting behind him in second place is David Lingmerth, who shot a five-under 67 with a monster start to his first round. 

Lingmerth birdied five of his first nine holes on the back nine, but he cooled off after, going even for the rest of his day with a birdie on five being answered by a bogey on six.

The PGA Tour shows Lingmerth's birdie on 14, which put him in a tie for the lead at the time:

In his first event in five weeks due to an ankle injury he picked up from playing soccer, McIlroy put together a one-under 71 performance to sit in a tie for 24th.

If there were any concerns about how McIlroy's ankle would hold up, he seemed to answer them on the fifth hole with this shot in a tricky situation, as Bleacher Report showed:

If he can navigate his way through the rougher parts of the course, walking the greens and fairways will be no problem for him. 

It was an inconsistent day for the world's top golfer, as he shot three bogeys through his first 18 holes. But he was putting up some of the day's nicest shots, like this approach on nine, in which he would eventually birdie, as PGA.com showed:

One of the players tied with McIlroy at one under is Spieth, who parred his first 10 holes, only to bogey the 11th and sit toward the bottom of the leaderboard. 

The 22-year-old responded nicely, though, with birdies on 12 and 16 to salvage his day and keep him in a decent position to make a run to the top in the coming days.

Further down in the rankings—way down—is Tiger Woods. Once the world's most formidable golfer, he is now mired in the worst stretch of his career, and his first day at the PGA Championship did not go much better. 

Woods shot a three-over 75 on Thursday with five bogeys. Starting on the back nine, he was just one over, including this shot on 17 that helped him save par, as shown by PGA.com:

The wheels began to fall off, and it started on hole three. After missing a birdie putt, frustration seemed to get the best of Woods as he asked himself "What the f--- is wrong with you?" according to Golf.com's Brendan Mohler. Woods bogeyed the hole and two of the next three after, so he has an uphill climb to make the cut on Friday.

But he isn't alone. 

The third member of the headlining group, Zach Johnson, also shot a three-over. In a hectic start, he was able to cancel out three bogeys with as many birdies. But on the back nine, he had no such luck, as he collected another three bogeys with no response.

Big days are needed to save some notable names in the PGA Championship, while the game's top two remain in touching distance of the lead. With a challenging course, limiting mistakes and responding to them will be the telling factor of who makes a run in this event. The mental fortitude of these golfers, paired with a whole lot of accuracy, will determine who wins.