JOIN USI was quite happy with my play, which was solid, but the scoring should have been a lot better in the first round of the PGA Championships at Quail Hollow. I could and should have finished at least in the under-par zone. Yet, after going to three-over more than once, I am very happy with the way I finished with two birdies on seventh and ninth and a very short miss on eighth in between.
Yet one-over 72 and tied-33rd on the opening day at the PGA Championships is not a disaster and I am only five behind as there were no too many deep scores.
I had a bit of shaky start with a bogey on 10th, a par-5 and that was a disappointment, as you don’t want to let go of the par-5s and certainly not drop a shot there. I found myself in the left rough off the tee and things did not go too well and off the third shot I went into right rough and reached green in four and two-putted. With three par-5s you need to score on them, fortunately I birdied the 15th when I got to 12 feet with my first two shots and the eagle putt hung onto the lip but it was still a birdie.
But what really hurt me was the 17th, the middle segment of the ‘Green Mile’, which for me came in the first nine itself.
On this par-3 17th, I three-putted from around 6-7 feet and that was probably the worst that happened on Thursday. Earlier I had three-putted the 14th from around 25 feet. So, the first holes were shaky by any standard and I was three-over.
The birdie on 18th was a good feeling to carry into the second nine. After a steady four holes I missed a small five-footer for par on par-4 fifth. So, I was again three-over. A nice 14-15 foot for par steadied me and on seventh two good shots to get to around 25 feet and two-putted for par. A short miss on eighth for birdie was followed by a closing birdie on ninth and that left a good taste and in a good mood for the second day.
One of the good things of the day was that some of the things that I worked on with Vijay (Divecha) sir worked out, like attitude on the golf course. We are working on me not getting worked up about the outcome or the score at a hole. I am trying not to compound errors and it was good today, but this was the first tournament since we worked on that aspect in the last couple of weeks.
The idea is I have to get rid of negativity and also not be over enthusiastic in cases like back-to-back birdies or similar. So, hopefully this will stay.
As for this course, this is not an easy golf course and one cannot afford to fall back too far behind. One also one needs to score off the par-fives because you are not going to get too many chances.