Major Surprise: Bradley Leads Unknown Pro Fires Record-Tying 63 In First Round Of The Pga
The first day of the 77th PGA Championship began with talk of superstars such as Greg Norman and Nick Price dominating the leader board at the challenging Riviera Country Club.
It ended with someone named Michael Bradley in first place.
Bradley, 29, a former Canadian tour player now in his third year on the PGA Tour, stole the spotlight from his more publicized colleagues with a shocking 8-under-par 63, matching the lowest score shot in a major championship.
Playing in the 46th of the 50 threesomes on the day, over greens made bumpy and uneven by the continuous traffic, Bradley posted an eagle and six birdies to become the fifth player in PGA Championship history to shoot a 63. It also was the 16th round of 63 carded in a major.
“I’d sure like three more of them,” said Bradley, from Valrico, Fla., near Tampa. “It’s a major and I want to play well. That’s all I ask. I want to do well and give 100 percent, whether I shoot 63 or 80. Just don’t give up.”
In tying the PGA record set by Bruce Crampton in 1975 and tied by Raymond Floyd (1982), Gary Player (1984) and Vijay Singh (1993), Bradley held a 1-stroke lead over Mark O’Meara and Jim Gallagher Jr., who shot 64s before Bradley teed off.
No one expects Bradley to keep up his torrid pace. But, for one day at least, he beat everybody. He beat Norman, whose 66 put him in a six-way tie for fifth. He beat Price, the defending champion, one of a bushel of players at 71. He beat Fred Couples and Ben Crenshaw and Corey Pavin and Jack Nicklaus, too.
“This is the first day; there’s three more days,” cautioned Bradley. “If I’m ahead of them after three more days, then I’ll be real happy. For now, I’m happy to be in the position I’m in.”
It was Bradley’s best competitive round in the United States, though not close to the 59 he shot in the Pro-Am tournament at the 1991 Willows Classic in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. But this was much more Saskatchewan. This was much more significant.
Bradley, who won the 1983 PGA Junior Championship, blasted out of the blocks with a 20-foot eagle putt at the par-5 first hole and added six birdies along the way. He had a 20-footer for birdie and a berth in the record books at the 18th, but missed a little to the left.
“I was a little nervous, to be honest with you,” he said.
Bradley, who has won nearly $200,000 this year and ranks 75th on the money list, topped the scoreboard on a marvelous day at Riviera, site of the annual Los Angeles Open. The lush fairways and soft greens enabled the world’s best players to fire away at the pins.
In all, 57 players broke par over the 6,949-yard layout, tying the PGA record.
“You get fresher greens in the morning,” said Gallagher, who was in early with his 64. “The ball is sitting up in the fairway and you feel you can go right at the pins.”
John Adams, winless in an 18-year tour career during in which he has had to reclaim his playing privileges four times, tied a PGA record with a 6-under 29 on the front nine and was 8 under after 11 holes before falling back for a 65 and sole possession of fourth.
Kirk Triplett, formerly of Pullman, is eight strokes back after a 71.
John Daly, sporting a bald head on his corpulent body and looking like a golfing version of Uncle Fester from the Addams Family, put on his own private horror show.
On his way to a round of 76 that dented his chances of making the Ryder Cup team (he needs at least a tie for fifth this week), Daly chopped up the green at the par-3 sixth and lost a ball in the barranca on the 12th hole, where he made a triple bogey.
At the sixth, the only hole in America with a bunker in the middle of the green, Daly hit a 7-iron on the wrong side of the trap. He then chunked a slab of sod out of the putting surface, stubbing his chip into the fringe of the bunker. He chipped 6 feet past and two-putted.
xxxx Leaderboard Leaders after Thursday’s first round of the PGA Championship at the Riviera Country Club, 6,949-yard par 71 Michael Bradley 30-33-63 Mark O’Meara 31-33-64 Jim Gallagher Jr. 31-33-64 John Adams 29-36-65 Gil Morgan 32-34-66 Greg Norman 31-35-66 Chip Beck 34-32-66 Jeff Maggert 33-33-66 Lee Janzen 32-34-66 Ernie Els 34-32-66