From the late wave, World No. 16 Joaquin Niemann navigated a 2-under 35-33=68 in R1 of the 104th PGA Championship to sit T7 on the board, three in arrears of two-time past champ and leader Rory McIlroy.
The Chilean is in a nine-way T7, joined there by countryman Mito Pereira, and was happy about that. “It’s nice to see on the first page two Chilean flags and a Mexican flag, too.” Last week in Texas at the Byron Nelson, he was solo 3rd thru 54 holes, two back, and swallowed a 2-over 74 out of the final threesome to plummet to T25. That 74 was the only over-par lap of the final three groups -- and the only one not in the 60s -- but has brushed that off with a strong beginning today in Oklahoma. On nine (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, the 23-year-old lost 0.032 strokes on approach but gained 1.612 off-the-tee, 1.190 around and 2.056 with the flat stick, buoyed by three scoring conversions from between 14 and 28 feet. This is his fifth PGA with a best of T30 last year, and so far, has just one top 25 in 12 overall majors, a T23 at the 2021 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. See link below to post-round comments.