If you turned on the PGA Championship Thursday looking for somebody easy to root for, you got handed a leaderboard that looked like a flip phone from 2007 — a mess of names that don't fit on one screen and at least three you can't pronounce on the first try. Seven guys tied at -3. Forty-eight within three shots, the most ever at any major championship after Round 1. The biggest opening-round logjam in 57 years. Aronimink Golf Club showed up to its first major since 1962 the way an old man shows up to a high school reunion: still meaner than everyone remembered, still completely uninterested in being polite.
And sitting right at the top of that crowd, sharing the lead with six other people, is Scottie Scheffler. Which would normally be standard operating procedure for the World No. 1, except — stick with me here — Scheffler has never led a major after Round 1 in his entire career. Not at Augusta. Not anywhere. The guy who's won four majors and finished top seven in his last six of them has always played the part of the shark in murky water: you don't see him coming until he eats you on Sunday. This time he just walked in the front door and ordered.
That's terrifying.
The Field Is Stuck in Quicksand
Look at this co-leader list and tell me you're not at least a little entertained: Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Ryo Hisatsune, Martin Kaymer, Alex Smalley. That's a 2007 Q-School graduating class, a German guy who hasn't won a major since 2014, and a kid nicknamed "The Chef" who, as far as I can tell, has not yet cooked a single major. The fact that Scheffler is the only name on that list anyone outside of golf Twitter recognizes tells you everything about how Aronimink played on Thursday. The wind whipped, the greens did whatever they wanted, and only 31 players in the entire 156-man field broke par. Aronimink doesn't care who you are. It cares whether you can hold a green from 180 yards out in a 20 mph crosswind. Most guys couldn't.
Scheffler hit 13 of 14 fairways. Thirteen. The one he missed, he bogeyed. He also gained over three strokes on the field with his putting — which, if you've watched him the last two years, is roughly the equivalent of Tom Brady learning to throw left-handed in his contract year. He doesn't need that club to be elite. When it is, the rest of the field should probably just check flight prices home.
The board reflects all of this. Scheffler sits at +385 at DraftKings, the shortest pre-tournament number of his career at a PGA Championship, and after Thursday that line is only going to keep shrinking. Cameron Young is +1200 — which is fascinating considering he opened at 80-1 back in December. The market is finally catching up to the fact that the kid is the third-best player in the world. And then there's Jon Rahm at +1500, a live ticket if you can stomach the LIV-major emotional rollercoaster, but the volatility is real.
Rory's in a Hole Already
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy showed up at his second-favorite tournament of the year fresh off back-to-back green jackets, and promptly opened with a 4-over 74. He called the round, and I quote, "s---." His driver — the club that has historically been the entire reason he's a Hall of Famer — keeps doing things he doesn't ask it to. Add a lingering toe injury and limited reps since Augusta, and what you get is the same Rory who finished 47th at last year's PGA. He's now +900 at DraftKings, which sounds tempting until you remember he's seven shots back at a course he's played exactly once, way back at the 2018 BMW Championship, in completely different conditions.
I want Rory to finish off the career Grand Slam as much as anybody — the man is one Wanamaker away from cementing himself in a tier of golf with like four total members. But you can't win a major from seven back at Aronimink in this kind of wind unless someone in front of you actively sets their bag on fire. Wake me up Sunday if he's within two. Otherwise, the math is the math.
Bryson, for the record, opened with a 76. He's gone. Close the tab.
What Aronimink Is Actually Doing
This course last hosted a major when JFK was in the Oval Office, and honestly? It earned its way back. Aronimink doesn't ask the kind of questions LIV-bombing types love — there's no "hit driver 380 yards and find a wedge" hole here. It asks: can you actually play golf? Can you control your spin? Can you read a green that breaks two different ways in the same six feet? Can you keep your tee shot in a 30-yard fairway when it's gusting out of the southwest? That's a Scheffler course. That's a Fitzpatrick course — and Matt's quietly sitting at +2200, one of the smartest plays on the board for anyone willing to bet a guy whose game travels. That's not a 2026 Bryson course.
It also means we're probably not getting a Sunday shootout. With 48 players within three shots, somebody's going to shoot a 65 today and somebody else is going to shoot a 78, and the cream is going to separate from the milk in violent fashion. By the time we get to the back nine Saturday, the lead will be two players deep and at least one of them will be wearing a black hat.
The Bottom Line
Scheffler is in front for the first time in his career at a major, and he's never been more dangerous than when he's playing from a position of strength on a course that punishes mistakes. The Thursday logjam was fun, but it's a head fake — by Sunday afternoon, the names that don't belong will be gone, and the guy with the best ball-striking profile in the sport will be standing in the middle of the 18th fairway with a wedge in his hand and a two-shot lead.
🎯 The Call: Scheffler shoots roughly 70-69-69 the rest of the way and wins by three at -10. Becomes the first back-to-back PGA champion since Tiger in '06-'07. Cameron Young finishes second and announces himself as the next great American to win a major. Rory makes the cut, claws to a top-15 he'll wave off in the press tent, and we all start thinking about Oakmont in June. Wanamaker stays in Texas.
If you're putting MEDALS down on Sportsblock for this one, the chalk is the chalk for a reason. But the real value is in the prop markets — when 48 guys are within three shots, the edges are everywhere. Pick your spots.
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