Major champs set for early charge at PGA Championship

Jon Rahm

ROCHESTER, AFP: Top-ranked Jon Rahm and fellow reigning major champions Cameron Smith and Matthew Fitzpatrick were poised for an early charge as Thursday’s frost-delayed opening round of the PGA Championship began.

The superstar trio was set to be the ninth group off the 10th tee at Oak Hill, where a field of 156 chased the Wanamaker Trophy in the year’s second major showdown.

Shaun Micheel, the American who won a shock title at the PGA in 2003 at Oak Hill, struck the first tee shot to launch competitors onto the 7,394-yard layout after frost pushed back the start by one hour and 50 minutes – all-but ensuring the round will not be completed Thursday.

Rahm, who won his second major at last month’s Masters, has taken four PGA Tour titles this year. A victory this week would put the Spaniard halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam and needing only a British Open to complete the career Slam.

In the past 70 years, only five players have won the first two majors in a season, the most recent being Jordan Spieth at the 2015 Masters and US Open.

Spieth, who would complete a career Slam with a triumph at Oak Hill, confirmed Wednesday he would play despite a left wrist injury. The 29-year-old American practiced for two days at Oak Hill before deciding he was ready to go.

England’s Fitzpatrick, who defends his US Open crown next month, and Australian Smith, the British Open champion, were expected to draw the largest crowds at Oak Hill.

World number two Scottie Scheffler, who if he wins would overtake Rahm as world number one, will join four-time major winner Brooks Kopeka and 2019 US Open winner Gary Woodland in an all-American threesome.

Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and defending champion Justin Thomas will join two-time major winner Collin Morikawa two groups ahead of the reigning major champion trio.

McIlroy has not won a major since the 2014 PGA and took a mental health break after missing the cut at the Masters, where he had a chance to complete a career Slam.

Spieth will be in the group just in front of Rahm and company, the American joined by Ireland’s 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry and Norway’s Viktor Hovland.

Spieth hopes to join a list of those to win all four majors that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.