TULSA, Okla. — Too often lately golf has seemed less a sport than a business, with every precinct of the professional game consumed by news, gossip, threats and intrigue about rival leagues and red lines. Thursday at Southern Hills promised a welcome return to the good ol’ days, when the game’s reference dictionary entries for ‘B’ included birdies and bogeys, but not bonesaws: a major championship, a sublime venue, a blockbuster group, a wealth of storylines—in short, golf as it used to be. That promise was delivered upon, and even the brief intrusion of the aforementioned corporate chicanery was positive.
It’s a testament to the depth of storylines at the 104th PGA Championship that the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 golfers in the world played together Thursday—and will again tomorrow—and they weren’t (and won’t be) the most eagerly anticipated group. It was the triumvirate of Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth that had thousands of spectators braving the sweltering noonday sun at Southern Hills.
On Wednesday evening, McIlroy brought his daughter, Poppy, to see an oversized mural of his 2014 PGA Championship victory in the media center. “That’s when Daddy was good!” he told her. Daddy was plenty good Thursday too, his 65 ending a streak of underwhelming opening rounds in majors. Elsewhere in his company, the man seeking the only missing prize in a career Grand Slam scrapped his way to a 72; while the GOAT staggered to a 74, which might still have been the most impressive of the three scorecards given his adventures over the last 15 months.
