Brooks Koepka in a world of his own at Bethpage Black

Brooks Koepka was almost all alone till Danny Lee got within shouting distance late on the first day of the PGA Championships at the Farmingdale’s Bethpage Black on Thursday.

Koepka is defending a Major for the second time — he did it successfully at the US Open last year. He has won three of the last seven Majors he has started. Playing alongside Masters champion Tiger Woods (72) and the 2018 Open winner Francesco Molinari (72), bogey-free Koepka opened a nine-shot lead at 63.

For much of the day, he held a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood (67), before Danny Lee (66) came within a shot.

Fleetwood (67) matched his best first round in a major championship, the previous one being at the 2017 US Open. He is third. Among other big names, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson and Jason Day shot 69 each to be T-9, while Justin Rose (70) was T-17 and Rory Mcllroy (72) was T-51.

Solid speed control

Koepka’s 63 had seven birdies, but none at either of the two par-5s. It was the lowest opening round ever by a defending PGA champion. It also made Koepka the first player with multiple 63s in any single major championship: he shot 63 in the second round at the 2018 PGA at Bellerive while claiming his first Wanamaker Trophy.

Koepka is just the third player to post multiple career 63s in major championships, joining Greg Norman and Vijay Singh.

Beginning on the 10th, Koepka was off to an electric start, with a 40-foot birdie on his first hole. He added birdies at 14, 18, 1, 3 and 5 before rounding off the day with a 33-foot-seven-inch birdie on his final hole, the ninth. Koepka missed a five-footer on par 4, at the 11th, which was his second hole and did not birdie the par-5s on the fourth and the 13th.

On what was going through his mind, Koepka typically answered, “Nothing. Just make it. I think that was the only thing that was going through my head. It turned a little right to left, pretty flat. I had good reads on it all day. The speed control was very solid.”

He added: “The only thing you have to do is hit fairways. Some of these hole locations are quite gettable. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see another good score in the afternoon.” Lee did just that with a 66.

Bad start for Woods

The wet grounds and cool weather at Bethpage Black made it seem longer than the 7,406 yards on Thursday. But it did not bother Koepka.

He, however, added: “Well, I didn’t take care of the par-5s, didn’t birdie any of the par-5s. That was disappointing. (On) 4, just hit a bad drive; And then 13 I just hit it in the bunker. And then the second hole, my 11th, I missed about a five-footer. That would have been nice to shoot 60. I guess that would have been pretty good.”

Woods, playing with Koepka, did not have a great start. He played solid, but paid for his mistakes as his steady ball-striking was offset by some errors with the shorter clubs.

Woods missed only four fairways while hitting, using the driver often, and he had birdie putts on nine of his final 10 holes. But he made two double-bogeys on his opening nine and three-putted twice on his back nine. His 72 was nine off Koepka.

“It wasn’t as clean as I’d like to have it for sure,” said Woods, who despite the doubles on 10 and 17, seemed in control in between, though a missed birdie on 13 was disappointing. On his second nine, the front nine of Bethpage Black, Woods was four-under for the first four holes and a missed 9-footer stopped him from becoming 5-under in that stretch. Birdies on the first and the second were followed by a 31-footer for eagle on the fourth; it wasthe first eagle at the PGA Championship since 2001. At that stage, he was one-under, but bogeyed three of his next four holes, including two three-putts.

‘Highest score’

On Koepka, Woods said, “I think that was probably the highest score he could have shot today. It could have easily been a couple better.”

Lee, the 2008 US Amateur Champion, shot 64 despite finding only seven of 14 fairways. But he putted well. Lee bogeyed the 15th, but had back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18, and three of his birdies came on Bethpage Black’s four par-3s.

On his three birdies on Par-3s, Lee said, “My iron game has been always good, and I always have a lot of confidence in them. I guess I really liked the pin locations they gave us today, and was able to go straight at it every single time.”