Jimmy Walker Leads PGA Championship as Favorites Struggle

The first round of the PGA Championship was not what many, including myself, thought it would be. Jimmy Walker went out and posted a 65 in his first round at Baltusrol. That 65 was good enough to give him the clubhouse lead, which he held on to for the entirety of the round. Walker’s season has been very up and down. His best finish, a T4, came in January at the Farmers Insurance Open. He finished T29 at the Masters, and missed the cut at the Players, U.S. Open, and Open Championship. In his last eight events, he’s missed four cuts and finished in the top 15 only once.

Walker isn’t new to winning; he won two tournaments in 2015, the Sony Open and Texas Open, and three in 2014, the Frys.com Open, Sony Open, and AT&T Pebble Beach. However, Walker’s best finish in a major was a T7 at the PGA Championship in 2014. That year he also finished T8 at the Masters and T9 at the U.S. Open. He currently holds a one-stroke lead over Emiliano Grillo, Ross Fisher, and two-time major winner Martin Kaymer.

Other than Henrik Stenson at three-under and Rickie Fowler and Jason Day at two-under, the bottom half of the leaderboard looks more like the top should.

• E – Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, and Adam Scott
• +1 – Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Sergio Garcia, and Bubba Watson
• +2 – Masters champion Danny Willett
• +4 – Rory McIlroy
• +7 – U.S. Open champion and Vegas favorite Dustin Johnson appears to have completely ejected

Any of these guys could turn things around, but the weather is getting worse and the forecast projects rain in the morning through the afternoon.

The second round is going to be very important as players fight to make the cut.