PGA Championship 2025 leaderboard LIVE: Latest scores as Rory McIlroy tees off for Round 1

Luke Donald has also made an early birdie, his coming at the fourth after leaving himself four feet or so off the tee. Good stuff from the visored one

A lovely tee shot on the par-three 13th keeps Ryan Fox moving, a little bit of left to right shape to take it over the bunker and then the flag, and a tidy putt to convert the birdie chance.

With no Tiger Woods in the field, Brooks Koepka is the most successful PGA Championship player at Quail Hollow. The American will be hoping that three titles become four come Sunday to match the tally of the absent Woods and leave him one short of the record of Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus – though it’s not the best of starts for the LIV rebel, starting off with a bogey six at the par-five 10th.

A double bogey at 11 is not what Seamus Power would have wanted after a positive start, the Irishman slipping back from a leading trio of Ryan Fox, Alex Noren and Max McGreevy.

Well, Fox’s was the only birdie. Seamus Power is also off to an excellent start with a birdie at the 10th with the field split today in getting underway on the front or back nines.

Back on that tee, another Irishman is about to begin – Shane Lowry looked in lovely touch at the Truist Championship last week before fading from Sepp Straka late on. Can he mount a charge? Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler are his playing partners in a fun little three-ball.

The only birdie of the day so far, incidentally, has gone to another of last week’s winners. Ryan Fox booked his spot here thanks to a play-off victory at the secondary Myrtle Beach Classic event on the PGA Tour. Having started with a birdie on the back nine, perhaps it was little surprise that the son of great All Blacks fly half Grant Fox liked No 10.

Sepp Straka looks a safe bet to be heading for New York in September, the Austrian adding a second PGA Tour title of the year to his collection at the Truist Championship last year. Could a major breakthrough be on the cards? Straka missed the cut at the Masters and has largely failed to figure at the top of leaderboards in golf’s biggest events since tying for second at the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2023.

This could be a big week for some of the fringe Ryder Cup hopefuls, someone like Niklas Norgaard (who really gives it a whack) the type of player that might go well on a course that favours the crushers. The Dane is not currently on our list of European contenders for Bethpage – find out who Jack Rathborn and Luke Baker, The Independent’s own Ballesteros and Olazabal-esque dynamic duo, currently have making the team.

Speaking of Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald appears to have left the door ajar for Jon Rahm to seize his spot at Bethpage Black – though there are a couple of pretty major stumbling blocks to be overcome…

The first group of the day are on the tee: Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington and Martin Kaymer would have been a fascinating trio a decade ago but is unlikely to provide a contender this time around. The European stalwarts will nonetheless hope to use their wiles to go well.

A bit of late injury news, though. Sahith Theegala had been due to kick off on the 10th hole in at 12.27, but withdrew last night; Alex Smalley replaces him in a three-ball with Max McGreevy and Sepp Straka, winner at the Truist Championship last week. A shame for Theegala, who has been struggling with a neck issue.