Aussie surges into shock lead as Scott fires; world No.1 fumes over baffling ruling — LIVE

Australia’s Cam Davis is in a share of the lead at the PGA Championship as a Scottie Scheffler blow up grabbed headlines during the opening round at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.

Davis signed off on a superb first round 66 to stand atop of the leaderboard alongside American Ryan Gerard at -5.

The 30-year-old from Sydney showed off his scoring power with seven birdies around the course where he impressed during his Presidents Cup debut in 2022.

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Davis held the solo lead with three holes to play after he drained a near 22-foot birdie putt at the 241-yard par 3 sixth.

The two-time PGA Tour winner’s work with the putter has been the best in the field as he gained a whopping 5.907 shots on his rivals with the flat stick.

He took just 24 putts for the round, including making 163 feet, eight inches worth of putts.

LEADERBOARD: All the scores from Round 1

Davis dropped a 29-footer at the tenth and a near 16-footer at the fourth for birdies, while he saved par with a 17-footer at the 11th, a near 11-footer at the 12th, a near 25-footer at the 16th and a near 15-footer at the third.

But a bogey at the monster 531-yard par 4 ninth after missing his 244-yard approach short and right, brought him back level with Gerard.

“I haven’t been having the best results on course lately over the last few months and been working really hard to turn that around, and to see the first real sign that it’s turning around happen in the first round of a major, it’s very encouraging,” Davis said.

“But yeah, rolled a lot of putts that went in and kept the momentum going, and I feel like for a major, when you’re playing a difficult golf course, if you can do that, you can keep things moving forward.

“Very happy with my work today. But it’s still a four-round event. But you can definitely help yourself a lot by having a good first round.”

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox is part of the chasing pack, which also includes European Ryder Cup Luke Donald, Alex Smalley, Stephen Jaeger and Aaron Rai, a shot back from Davis and Gerard.

Australian Adam Scott was only one shot off the clubhouse lead with three holes to play, but bogeys at 16 and 17, part of the daunting ‘Green Mile’, slipped him back to -2.

Scott ignited his round with a hat-trick of birdies at holes six, seven and eight.

He was ranked fifth in the entire field for strokes gained off the tee with his majestic swing in full flow, but failed to capitalise.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy had a round to forget with a three-over par round of 74, the same score as Australian Min Woo Lee.

In the same group as McIlroy, defending champion Xander Schauffele shot +1 as Scheffler put himself in a good spot at -2.

But one year on from being infamously being arrested at Valhalla, it was the absence of the preferred lies rule causing the world No.1 grief.

Quail Hollow was lashed with rain in the days leading up to the first round, prompting players expect to be able to lift, clean and place their ball.

It was on the 16th hole, his eighth, that was the brunt of Scheffler’s frustrations as his second shot from the fairway ended up in the water courtesy of a mud ball.

“I hit in the middle of the fairway, you’ve got mud on your ball and it’s tough to control where it goes after that,” Scheffler said. “It’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go.

“You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes. But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules.”

Scheffler then continued to say that too much luck was involved without preferred lies being used.

“If you’re going to go play links golf, there’s absolutely no reason you should play the ball up. It doesn’t matter how much rain they get. The course could be flooded and the ball is still going to bounce because of the way the turf is and the ground underneath the turf,” he said.

“In American golf it’s significantly different. When you have overseeded fairways that are not sand-capped, there’s going to be a lot of mud on the ball. When you think about the purest test of golf, I don’t personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.

“I understand how a golf purist would be, ‘Oh, play it as it lies.’ But I don’t think they understand what it’s like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance. In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don’t think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down. I want the purest, fairest test of golf.”

Schauffele backed up his playing partner, saying the situation is going to get worse as the tournament progresses with the course experiencing more wear and tear.

“The mud balls are going to get worse,” said the defending champion. “They’re going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it’s kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through. Maybe hit it a little bit lower off the tee, but then unfortunately the problem with hitting it low off the tee is the ball doesn’t carry or roll anywhere, so then you sacrifice distance. It’s a bit of a crapshoot.”

One of the highlights of the opening round was undeniably Eric Cole’s ace at the 186-yard par 3 fourth.

The American, who shot -1, landed his tee shot short on the pin, it took three bounces and rolled into the cup.

Justin Thomas also created some unforgettable moments as he lifted himself off the canvas.

The champion the last time the PGA was played at Quail Hollow in 2017, Thomas started with a front nine of 39 but clawed things back with a run of three straight birdies at 14, 15 and 16, the latter coming via a stunning chip-in from near the water’s edge.

Bryson DeChambeau hung tough as he was even par after 15 holes, while fellow LIV stars Phil Mickelson (+4) and Dustin Johnson (+7) struggled.

Australia’s high-profile LIV player Cameron Smith also has his work cut out for him to make the weekend as he was +4 with four holes to play.

Australian PGA champion Elvis Smylie made an impressive start to his second career major as he was -1 after 12 holes.

Ten years on from winning this tournament at Whistling Straits, Jason Day made it to the first tee despite a neck injury and managed a +2 round.

PGA Tour rookie Karl Vilips is the other member of the seven-strong Australian contingent but he battled to be +7.

Adding another layer of intrigue to this year’s Ryder Cup is that European captain Luke Donald (-4) and his American counterpart Keegan Bradley (-3) are among the early contenders.

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