I have the main feed with Scott Van Pelt and David Duval on the 55-inch TV in the home office, with the Bryson DeChambeau/Collin Morikawa/Hideki Matsuyama on the secondary TV that I haul in for March Madness/golf majors. But it'd be a really huge surprise if any of these guys pushed for contention.ĮSPN+ is the home for the morning coverage, and they're hitting all the right notes with so much golf. Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Padraig Harrington A wait-and-see situation where you can flip to them on the back nine if one is hot.Ĥ. 1 golfer in the world per OWGR, but he's been pretty ordinary since he put on the green jacket in November.
Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Sergio Garcia
Plus a little extra spice in a Ryder Cup year as "Captain America" Reed shares a pairing with two guys that no doubt have long memories about 2018's Euro success.ģ. Three guys who could all be in contention on Sunday, particularly Rahm (Brendan Quinn's pick to win it, in fact). Plus you get Zalatoris, an emerging standout who was just sensational at the Masters.Ģ. They've been together forever, and their push and pull debates on club selections are usually really interesting/entertaining. Spieth comes in as hot as anyone on the PGA Tour, and featured groups is particularly great for him because you'll get to hear much of his interchanges with caddy Michael Greller. Jordan Spieth, Webb Simpson, Will Zalatoris I'm just ranking them by the order in which I would pay attention to them, keeping in mind that the coverage has started on ESPN proper and they're going to show a lot of several of these guys. The afternoon wave is about to get started here, so let's talk about these second featured groups. Notable names that are in real danger of missing the cut: Tommy Fleetwood and Kevin Kisner (4 over) Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar (5 over) Adam Scott and Max Homa (6 over) Kevin Na and Daniel Berger (7 over).Conners is now the betting favorite at +750, per BetMGM, followed by Victor Hovland (+800) and Brooks Koepka (+1100).But it was wild getting there - he had two birdies on his first three holes, bogeyed the next four and finished with five of each on the day. Bryson DeChambeau came out with an even-par 72, which is fine.Now - can he do it again for another 18 and make the weekend? For the moment, he’s T8. It’s a really strong sign for Mickelson that he was good late - he had admittedly struggled to maintain focus over 18 holes recently. Phil Mickelson’s round didn’t get going until late - a terrific approach shot on 15 gave him 6 feet for birdie to get to 1 under, and he doubled that on 16 with a 137-yard third shot to within 5 feet, 6 inches.Cameron Tringale, Cam Davis and Martin Laird are also on the first page of the leaderboard. Aaron Wise and Sam Horsfield are among those in a tie for second (Keegan Bradley qualifies as out of nowhere, but he does have a previous PGA title). Corey Conners, whose 67 was two shots better than anyone in the field, for sure. The PGA Championship is famous for first-time major winners that come out of nowhere, and the leaderboard is not without those names.