PGA Championship with full first round scores- Matt Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett fade

Koepka carded an opening four-under-par 66 at Harding Park to lie a shot off the early clubhouse lead held by former world No 1 Jason Day, the Australian carding five birdies in a flawless 65.

Former Ryder Cup team-mates Justin Rose and Martin Kaymer were alongside Koepka on four under, with Open champion Shane Lowry two strokes further back following a 68 matched by Woods.

The 15-time major winner was two under par after four holes, fell back to level par and then made three birdies in four holes before making a bogey on his penultimate hole at a venue where he won a WGC event in 2005 and compiled a 5-0 record in the 2009 Presidents Cup.

Starting on the back nine at Harding Park, Koepka failed to take advantage of the par-five 10th and dropped a shot on the next, but then birdied the 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th thanks to some superb approach play.

A bogey on the first slowed Koepka’s momentum, although he did well to limit the damage to a single shot after only moving his second shot 40 yards from the rough and then finding a bunker with his third.

Koepka, who had managed just one top-10 finish in nine starts either side of the Covid-19 shutdown before last week’s tie for second in Memphis, bounced back with birdies on the second and fourth and declared himself satisfied with his opening effort.

“I mean, it’s only 18 holes right now,” said Koepka. “I feel good. I feel confident. I’m excited for the next three days.

“I think I can definitely play a lot better, and just need to tidy a few things up, and we’ll be there come Sunday on the back nine.”

Woods, who is using a slightly longer putter this week to ease the strain on his troublesome back, said: “I figured we were going to get the more favourable conditions today, (but) some of these pins were on the difficult side.

“This course is all about hitting fairways, if you are able to hit the fairways you can get after some of those pins.”

Playing partners Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas had to settle for rounds of level par and one over respectively, McIlroy battling back from a hat-trick of bogeys on his front nine with three birdies in four holes around the turn.

McIlroy won the WGC-Cadillac Match Play at Harding Park in 2015 but came into the first major of the year having recorded a best finish of 11th in his five events since the PGA Tour returned to action following the Covid-19 shutdown.

Kaymer has not won since the second of his two major victories in the 2014 US Open and revealed he watched a replay of the back nine of the final round on YouTube on Wednesday evening.

“Definitely that video from last night, me winning the US Open, that helped me to believe that my putting was good enough; that my ball-striking was good enough, even though it’s a few years back, but it’s always nice to remember those moments and feel the same that you felt that day.”

Kaymer, who also won the 2010 US PGA at Whistling Straits, added: “I know you shouldn’t live in the past, but if the past can help you in the present moment, I’ll take it.”

Sheffield’s Matt Fitzpatrick will need a low score today to make the weekend.

The five-time winner on the European Tour started well with a birdie on the first but by the end of the front nine he was four over after dropped shots at the third, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth. Two birdies on 12 and 13 were then cancelled out by two further dropped shots in the last five holes.

His fellow Sheffielder Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, is a shot further back after a 75 that included four bogeys in a row around the turn.

First round scores (USA unless stated, par 70):

65 Jason Day (Aus), Brendon Todd

66 Bud Cauley, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Zach Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Martin

Kaymer (Ger), Brendan Steele, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose

(Eng)

67 JT Poston, Alex Noren (Swe), Gary Woodland, Tom Lewis (Eng), Tony Finau,

Daniel Berger, Haotong Li (Chn), Kevin Kisner

68 Kurt Kitayama, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott (Aus), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Adam

Hadwin (Can), Brian Harman, Lanto Griffin, Shane Lowry (Irl), Paul Casey (Eng),

Bryson DeChambeau, Keith Mitchell, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Patrick Reed

69 Matthew Wolff, Jason Kokrak, Shaun Norris (Rsa), Nate Lashley, Kevin

Streelman, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Harris English, Matthias Schwab (Aut), Danny Lee

(Nzl), Joel Dahmen, Dustin Johnson, Abraham Ancer (Mex), Collin Morikawa, Billy

Horschel, Corey Conners (Can)

70 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Matt Jones (Aus), Sepp Straka (Aut), Mark Hubbard,

Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Marc Leishman (Aus), Jon Rahm (Spa),

Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Jason Dufner, Sung Kang (Kor),

Joohyung Kim (Kor), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Scott Pierc, Bubba Watson, Kevin Na,

Denny McCarthy, Victor Perez (Fra), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)

71 Matt Wallace (Eng), Joost Luiten (Ned), Cameron Champ, Bob Sowards, Webb

Simpson, Chez Reavie, Wyndham Clark, Richy Werenski, Talor Gooch, Justin Thomas,

Russell Henley, Sebastian Munoz (Col), Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Rob, Labritz, Rory

Sabbatini (Svk), Lucas Glover, Matt Kuchar, Cameron Smith (Aus), Michael

Thompson, Jim Furyk, Ben Cook, Jim Herman

72 Brian Stuard, Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Harold Varner III, Byeong-Hun An (Kor),

David Muttitt, Chan Kim, Xinjun Zhang (Chn), Shaun Micheel, Christiaan

Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), Luke List, Steve Stricker,

Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Tom Hoge, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Phil Mickelson, Tyrrell

Hatton (Eng), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai), Brandt Snedeker

73 Andrew Putnam, Alex Beach, Patrick Cantlay, Doc Redman, Jimmy Walker, Robert

Macintyre (Sco), Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Davis

Love III, Keegan Bradley, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Adam Long, Sergio Garcia (Spa),

Ian Poulter (Eng), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Sungjae Im (Kor), Troy Merritt,

Cameron Tringale

74 Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Marty Jertson, J.r. Roth, Ryan Palmer, Andrew Landry,

Jorge Campillo (Spa), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Max Homa, Daniel Balin, Tyler

Duncan, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)

75 Mike Auterson, Rod Perry, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Danny Willett (Eng), John

O’Leary (Irl), Benjamin Hebert (Fra)

76 Jason Caron, Rich Berberian Jr., Nick Taylor (Can)

77 Jeff Hart, Alex Knoll, Jordan Gibb (Eng)

78 Ken Tanigawa, Justin Bertsch, Shawn Warren

79 Ryan Vermeer

80 Rich Beem

82 Zachary J Johnson

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