Scottie Scheffler had an up and down round in more ways than one on the opening day of the 2025 PGA Championship.
The world No.1 finished his opening round two under par – five shots off Day 1 leader Jhonatan Vegas – in what was a rollercoaster Thursday.
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Rainy weather in North Carolina led to boggy conditions at Quail Hollow and a number of players struggled with ‘mud balls.’
Scheffler was one of the victims as he found the water on the brutal 16th hole that saw the three best golfers in the world card double bogeys in the same pairing.
Partners Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele – ranked second and third in the world respectively – didn’t recover as well as the Texan and both finished over par.
Bidding to earn his first win at the tournament, Scheffler hit out at the decision not to play preferred lies, which would allow players to lift and clean their ball before placing it close to where it originally lay.
“By the way, this is going to be the last answer I give on playing it up (preferred lies) or down. I mean, I don’t make the rules,” Scheffler said, preempting what will be a major discussion point throughout the weekend.
“When you think about the purest test of golf, I don’t personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.
“On a golf course as good of conditioned as this one is, this is probably a situation in which it would be the least likely difference in playing it up because most of the lies you get out here are all really good.
“So I understand how a golf purist would be, oh, play it as it lies.
“But I don’t think they understand what it’s like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.
“In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down.
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“When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion maybe the ball today should have been played up.”
Despite his frustrations over the rules, Scheffler kept his composure and bounced back.
He hit an eagle on the 15th before his double-bogey and managed three birdies on the back nine for a solid round.
“But like I said, I don’t make the rules. I deal with what the rules decisions are,” he added.
“I could have let that bother me today when you got a mud ball and it cost me a couple shots.
“It cost me possibly two shots on one hole, and if I let that bother me, it could cost me five shots the rest of the round.”
Schauffele also expressed his frustration with the conditions and predicted the problem would only get worse.
“It sucks that you’re kind of 50/50 once you hit the fairway,” Schauffele said.
“The mud balls are going to get worse as the place dries up.
“They’re going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it’s kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through.
“Maybe [you can] hit it a little bit lower off the tee, but then the ball doesn’t carry or roll anywhere, so then you sacrifice distance.
“It’s a bit of a crapshoot.”
The marquee group of Scheffler, Schauffele and McIlroy will resume their tournaments at 6:47pm UK time on Friday.
Despite his frustrating opening day, Scheffler is well placed, sitting just three shots off second.
Schauffele is in a large group of players at one-over while McIlroy has a lot to do on Friday to avoid missing the cut as he sits T98 on three-over.
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