Talor Gooch & Co Slapped Aside at PGA Championship; LIV Golf’s Hopes Slowly Kill Disruptive Dreams

The first Major at the Augusta National Golf Club was taken by PGA Tour Pro Scottie Scheffler, last month. With the second Major at Valhalla, and an already defending LIV Golfer champion, Brooks Koepka, the breakaway league was aiming to take over the Wanamaker trophy, once again.

With several bets on players like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, and others, there was a fair chance for them. However, the players of the rebel league seem to be suffering, with yet another PGA Tour player in the lead.

Brooks Koepka slides down to a T12 finish after Round 1

The LIV Golfers are in dire need of a miracle to happen at the PGA Championship. With the conclusion of the first round, the best position that they have at the moment is a T12 finish by Brooks Koepka. He is at a 4-under 67, with a whopping 5 strokes behind Xander Schauffele. However, there is one sunny side to it. He is still tied with the No. 1 player Scottie Scheffler.

Following him are Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, and Martin Kaymer, at the T18 with 11 other players from the PGA Tour at a -3. Other players like Dean Burmester, Patrick Reed, and John Rahm are the only players among the 16 LIV Golfers, who have managed to score under par.

On the other hand, while Talor Gooch and Tyrrell Hatton are at an even par, sliding down for the T65, five of them have also dropped down to the over-par list. Among them are eminent players like Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann, and Dustin Johnson!

While LIV Golfers have been struggling to keep up, with an already soft Valhalla Golf Club because of rain earlier this week, a lot of the PGA Tour Pros have also fallen prey to low scores on Thursday. Reporting this news, LIV Golf Insider, took to their official X (formerly Twitter account) and asked a very important question to golf fans: “A LOT of 2024 PGA Tour winners at the bottom of the leaderboard. What do you think?”

With that being said, some golfers also hinted at the conditions affecting their game.

Will the course get better for Round 2?

With a disappointing round on Thursday, with the highest number of players scoring a par in the history of the PGA Championship, Friday looks to be more daunting. According to the weather forecasts, there is a 60% chance of rain on Friday, which might also be accompanied by thunderstorms. Whereas Saturday holds a 46% chance of rain. The players are already intimidated by the condition of the course after finishing Round 1, with most of them worried about hitting the ball on the greens.

One of them was Luke Donald, who was pretty sure that his gameplay was affected by the soft course. “The pins are tucked away on some of the holes, but you can still access them. Xander is probably hitting fewer clubs into the holes than I am. But when the ball hits the green and just stops there and you can control that, then you can make some birdies. There’s not a lot of wind. It’s nice conditions. I’m not surprised to see someone going pretty low,” he said.

On the other hand, three years ago, Valhalla swapped out its bentgrass fairways for zoysia grass to get a firmer and faster playing surface. But this week, that surely is not the case. “The greens could get a little bit firmer, so that could make it a little more tricky. But even if the fairways dry out, [with] the zoysia, the ball doesn’t go anywhere when it lands. I could see it getting a touch firmer, but I still think it’s going to be pretty low-scoring,” said Rory McIlroy.

One can’t be sure what awaits the players in the upcoming rounds of the PGA Championship. All they can do is hope for better conditions at the course. As for whether the victory will go to LIV or PGA, stay tuned to find out!