NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Braden Shattuck hit the opening shot of the 108th PGA Championship on Thursday, leading to uncertainty that greeted the second major of the year at Aronimink Golf Club.
Shattuck, one of 20 club pros in the 156-man field and given the honor of the opening shot, pulled his drive toward the fence line and was unsure whether it stayed in bounds. He wound up hitting a provisional, only to learn his original shot landed just inside the fence.
Aronimink has not held a major since the 1962 PGA Championship, and a restoration project nearly 10 years ago added bunkers and removed trees. Overnight rain might soften the course. Drier weather was in the forecast, along with the possibility of wind that would change the dynamics.
That’s what awaited Masters champion Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth in the morning, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the afternoon.
McIlroy and Spieth in the same group brought the Grand Slam into focus.
Spieth needs to win the PGA Championship to become the seventh player to have won all four majors, while McIlroy is the only player who can win the calendar slam. Not since Spieth in 2015 has anyone captured the first two majors of the season.
Shattuck is the PGA director of instruction at Rolling Green, about 10 miles away from Aronimink. He had to take a one-shot penalty for an unplayable lie next to the fence, hacked out of the rough and made double bogey.
