Making his PGA Championship debut and beginning off No. 10 tee, non-member and World No. 86 Sam Horsfield tossed up a 3-under-par 35-34=69 in the first round of the 103rd edition to sit T2 on the board, two swings short of leader Corey Conners.
This is the Englishman’s fourth overall major, missing three cuts at the U.S. Open, most recently the 2019 playing at Pebble Beach (75-74). Overall, it’s his 15th PGA TOUR event with one prior top 10 among two top 25s, a T9 at the 2019 Zurich in his debut on a sponsor exemption, teamed with countryman Ian Poulter. The University of Florida product is in the top 10 after 18 holes for a second time, first since T7 at the 2017 John Deere as an open-qualifier, where he faded to T55 (66-73-67-71). On 10 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he posted 1.030 SG: Off-the-Tee, 1.147 SG: Approach, 0.988 SG: Around, and 3.473 SG: Tee-to-Green. The 24-year-old squared two bogey-5s at 13 and 4 (failed scrambles), outpaced by five circles at 11, 14, 16, 6 and 7, two from between 11 and 24 feet. He registered 1.583 putts per GIR and 2.236 SG: Putting with 26 total putts, aided by a hole-out par at 3 from 15'4" away. Horsfield checked in off a T21 at last week’s Betfred British Masters, preceded two weeks prior by a missed cut at the Valspar on a sponsor invite (71-71).