CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was unusual enough that the world’s top-ranked player double-bogeyed the 16th hole at Quail Hollow on Thursday, considering that Scottie Scheffler had played 22 previous majors without making a double in the first round.
But things got really weird when Scheffler’s playing partners in the first round of the PGA Championship — a couple guys named McIlroy and Schauffele — also carded 6s on No. 16, the start of Quail Hollow’s famed “Green Mile” closing, three-hole stretch.
These weren’t double-digit handicappers hacking it around a muni during a Thursday night league. These were the world’s three top-ranked golfers — with nine majors among them — being humbled on the same hole, their seventh after starting on the back.
But Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA last year at Valhalla, pointed some of the blame at rules officials — and their decision not to allow preferred lies despite several days of rain that soaked Quail’s fairways before Thursday’s hot and muggy first round. Scheffler and Schauffele were forced to play mud balls from the middle of the fairway, with both hooking their approach shots into the lake.
“Had a ridiculous mud ball there on 16 with Scottie. We were in the middle of the fairway, and I don’t know, we had to aim right of the grandstands probably,” Schauffele said. “I aimed right of the bunker and it whipped in the water and Scottie whipped it in the water, as well.”
Scheffler said he wasn’t surprised by Wednesday’s announcement that there would be no lift, clean and place. He shouldn’t have been: The last time players were allowed to use preferred lies in a PGA Championship was at Baltusrol in 2016.
Still, Scheffler wasn’t happy with it.
“It’s one of those deals where it’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go. I understand it’s part of the game, but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player,” Scheffler said. “You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision, all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.”
Conditions also played a part in Rory McIlroy’s double bogey at 16. McIlroy had a sidehill lie after driving into the right rough — one of the 10 fairways (out of 14) the Masters champion missed during a shaky day with his driver.
While he was taking his club back on his approach, McIlroy’s back foot slipped and he advanced the ball only 20 yards or so. After his third shot was short of the green, McIlroy chipped on and two-putted for a double, making it a 6-6-6 for the threesome that drew crowds reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ heyday.
Scheffler pointed out that he still had honors at 17 despite the double. “I think that will probably be the first and last time I do that in my career unless we get some crazy weather conditions.”
Despite the early-ish tee time of 8:22 a.m., fans lined up four and five deep at some of the more popular gathering spots to watch a star-studded grouping, which Scheffler didn’t recall seeing when he was watching golf as a kid in Dallas. “I felt like when I was growing up, like when Tiger and Phil (Mickelson) were 1 and 2 in the world and Vijay (Singh) was up there as well, I felt like I didn’t see it as much. Maybe I just didn’t watch enough golf. That may be more of a newer thing,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler said he was pleased that he bounced back from the double to finish 2-under for the day, the only member of the fearsome threesome under par. Scheffler’s round featured four birdies and a putt from off the green for eagle from 35 feet at the par-five 15th.
He closed his round on an upswing with a birdie at No. 9, hitting a 6-iron downwind 215 yards that rolled to within 3 feet of the cup. But much of his post-round comments focused on mud balls and playing them where they lie.
“In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down. When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion, maybe the ball today should have been played up,” said Scheffler, a two-time Masters winner.
“But I don’t make the rules. I deal with what the rules decisions are. I could have let that bother me today when you got a mud ball and it cost me a couple shots. It cost me possibly two shots on one hole, and if I let that bother me, it could cost me five shots the rest of the round. But I was proud of how I stayed in there, didn’t let it get to me and was able to play some solid golf on a day in which I was a bit all over the place.”
Schauffele did steady himself after the blunder, stringing 10 pars and a birdie (at 8) together over his final 11 holes to finish 1 over. McIlroy, who scrambled for a 3-over 74, doubled two of the final four holes during the first round at Augusta last month and that turned out OK. McIlroy did not speak to the media after his round.
The weekend forecast for Charlotte looks like Thursday — hot, but dry. But Schauffele said the mud balls will get worse as the course continues to dry out, until they’re in “that perfect cake zone to where it’s kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through.” That will be something for the galleries to follow Friday when this same super group tees off at 1:47 p.m. ET.
“Xander is a really good buddy of mine and Rory is a friend as well, and it’s always fun to be out there with those guys,” Scheffler said. “I love being able to play against the best, and there’s nothing better than being paired with them, as well. It’s fun.”
Mud balls be damned.
(Top photo of Scottie Scheffler: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
