PGA Championship 2011 Leaderboard: Steve Stricker and Biggest Surprises from Day

Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, GA—It was a day of unexpected events.

Tiger Woods hit two balls in the water and tied with 57-year-old Jerry Pate with a 77. Short hitters starred on a golf course with long holes. Steve Stricker tied the record for low rounds in a major championship. Rory McIlroy injured his wrist, making his continued play questionable, but he gutted it out through the completion of the first round.

Woods' score was achieved with two water balls, one at the 15^th, the long par-three on the back nine, and the other at the sixth hole where he went from the bunker to the lake. It was his highest first round score in a major.  

Woods’ previous high was a 76, and that came in three events: the 1996 U.S. Open, the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2003 Masters Tournament.  He has had a higher score in a major since turning professional, an 81 in the 2001 British Open, which was not the first round.        

Totally unexpected was the emergence of short hitters on the leaderboard. Steve Stricker, Jerry Kelly, Scott Verplank, Shaun Micheel and Matteo Manassero led the way.

Stricker posted a 63 with seven birdies and no bogeys. That ties the record low score for major championships. He was surprised with his score because he had not made birdies in his practice rounds.

“Got off to a good start birdieing those first three holes, really kind of set the momentum for me for the day,” he said. 

“Jimmy (Johnson, his caddie) told me after I missed the putt, he’s like, you know that was for the lowest competitive round in history of major championships," he told reporters. "I’m like, oh, shoot, it was. It never really registered.”

Stricker was definitely in the zone to not realize what he was shooting. The only scare he had was at the second, which was his 11^th hole. 

“I blocked it way to the right, right of the bunkers, and I probably had about 230 to the front of the green down in the rough,” he explained. “I drew a good like in the rough, and I cut a utility club out of there, and I hit it up in front of the green and then chipped to a couple feet. But walking off that tee, it didn’t look so good.” 

One of the keys to his round was good play on the finishing holes.

“I was just able to get through that stretch 15 through 18, play them in a couple under,” Stricker added. “That’s like stealing probably three, four shots from the field there.”

Stricker has long been known as a very good putter, and he rolled in some long ones today, a 15-footer at his first hole, the 10^th. He made a 25-30-footer at the 18^th for birdie, and one just a little shorter at the first hole, his 10^th.

“I have  a lot of confidence when I putt,” he said. “I feel like I can make just about anything, and that’s good feeling to have when you walk up to a putt.”

Usually Bemuda greens are grainy, but Stricker said the newness of them has not allowed the grain to really develop. “They putt pretty close to bent.”     

Those who have shot 63 in major championships include:

PGA Championship – Bruce Crampton, Raymond Floyd, Gary Player, Vijay Singh, Michael Bradley, Brad Faxon, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mark O’Meara, Thomas Bjorn, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker

Masters – Nick Price, Greg Norman

U.S. Open – Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Vijay Singh

British Open – Mark Hayes, Isao Aoki, Greg Norman, Paul Broadhurst, Jodie Mudd, Nick Faldo, Payne Stewart, Rory McIlroy

“I’m happy to be a part of that group,” Stricker said about his latest achievement. “ I wish I would have been able to make that putt to be one better than that group of guys.”

The other Wisconsin-ite on the leaderboard is Jerry Kelly. He is two back of Stricker at five-under. 

“I’m guessing that’s probably a low mark in major championship history for me,” Kelly said. 

Kelly is a big fan of the new greens.

“I said when we played at The Champions Club in Houston years back -- if I’m not mistaken, it’s the same grass, Champion ultradwarf – I thought every course in the south should have this type of grass because it was the firmest, the tightest, the fastest, not nearly as much grain affected for a Bermuda," he stated. I thought it was the best grass you could possibly use.”    

He felt the practice rounds with Verplank and Stricker showed them that short hitters could score at Atlanta Athletic Club. 

“We saw that you didn’t really need to overpower this golf course, that position was the key.  It certainly helped me.  I know it helped those two guys as well,” Kelly explained. “We’re not natural long hitters.”

There is no special contest between Kelly and Stricker as to who might be low cheesehead for the week. “Pride is plenty,”  Kelly quipped.

Shaun Micheel, another short hitter and 2003 PGA Champion, is in third.

Matteo Manassero, the young Italian star not known for length, is at two under. Brendon De Jonge, whose driving average is close to Micheel’s, was also in the top five.  

Other favorites did not fare well in Round 1, including Phil Mickelson at one over,  Dustin Johnson at three over and facing the last four holes, the toughest of the course. Bubba Watson who was at four under early on but faded to four over. 

Mickelson had some comments after the round.

He got off to a terrible start, saying, "I’m going to fight hard tomorrow to get into the weekend.”

He is not a fan of the long par threes or of forced carries to the greens, although he said that the course is great for the professionals. 

“It’s a perfect example of how modern architecture is killing the game, because these holes are unplayable for the member,” he said.