PGA Championship gets heavy rain and no spectators for first official day of practice

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler was among the few players to get in a little practice at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship, arriving a day early before rain soaked the course Monday and relegated most players to the practice areas only between burst of showers.

The PGA of America closed the course to spectators on the first official day of practice because of the heavy rain. They can either seek a refund or use their tickets the next two days.

But one thing was clear: Quail Hollow became a little bit longer from the rain that drenched the 7,626-yard course.

Quail Hollow is familiar to most players in the 156-man field, hosting a PGA Tour every year since 2003 except for when it held the PGA Championship in 2017 and the Presidents Cup in 2022. Even so, it leads to a short week of practice.

Sunday would have been an ideal time to see the course, but there were only a few players here.

“They’re all at tournaments,” said Kerry Haigh, the championships director at the PGA of America.

Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele led a parade of stars at the signature event at Philadelphia Cricket Club, won by Sepp Straka. There also was a PGA Tour event at Myrtle Beach, which featured more than a dozen players in the field at the PGA Championship. That includes Ryan Fox, who won his first PGA Tour title that earned him a spot at Quail Hollow.

Scheffler skipped the Truist Championship, typical for the world’s No. 1 player because he plays the two stops near home in Dallas — the CJ Cup Byron Nelson two weeks ago, which he won by eight shots, and the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial next week.

This is only the second time he has played Quail Hollow. The other was the Presidents Cup, when the course had a different routing. He knows the holes, just not in the right order.

Scheffler played the front nine on Sunday afternoon, spending most of his time chipping around the greens as caddie Ted Scott — with a long history at Quail Hollow from when he caddied for Bubba Watson — presenting different options with different pins.

The course already had received plenty of rain and was soft, particularly the fairways. Scheffler hit one drive to the left on the 530-yard, par-4 ninth and immediately said, “Give me the 5-wood.” He sometimes goes with 5-wood out of the rough.

He hit another drive in the fairway. This required a big 3-iron to get near the green, an example of how much longer Quail could play.

Some players tried to get on the course. Nicolai Hojgaard played the opening two holes in the rain, hit his tee shot on No. 3 and then walked over to the range.

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