Bob MacIntyre handily-placed as seven players share PGA Championship lead

Making his sixth appearance in the Wanamaker Trophy event, having finished in the top ten in 2024, MacIntyre mixed three birdies with three bogeys alongside FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwod and Genesis Scottish Open title-holder Chris Gotterup.

MacIntyre dropped a shot at the par-4 third after missing the green with his approach before moving into red figures on the back of birdies, both from around four feet, at the seventh and ninth.

The Oban man was back to level par after missing the green at the par-3 14th and being unable to get up and down, as was the case at the 17th, another tough short hole on this Donald Ross-designed course near Philadelphia.

In between, though, he converted a 12-footer for a birdie at the par-5 16th and, all in all, it was a decent start on a day when Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau were among those to struggle.

The effort left MacIntyre, the sole Scot in the 156-man field in Pennsylvania, sitting joint-34th as he heads out early in Friday’s second round.

First for world No 1 Scottie Scheffler in majors

Meanwhile, world No 1 Scheffler shares top spot on the leaderboard with Aldrich Potgiester, Martin Kaymer, Min Woo Lee, Stephan Jaeger, Ryo Hisatsune and Alex Smalley after the seven players all signed for matching three-under 67s.

It’s the first time that four-time major winner Scheffler has found himself either leading or sharing the lead after the first round of a major.

“I think the emphasis would be share of the lead,” said a self-deprecating Scheffler said. “I's a really tight leaderboard. At this moment, it's anybody's tournament. It’s nice to get off to a good start. Get some rest tonight and wake up and do more of the same tomorrow.”

“Definitely the best start I've gotten off to this year, maybe besides American Express maybe,” added the American, who won the PGA Tour event in California by four shots after an opening 63.

“Yeah, I felt like, especially going into the weekend when you look at like the Masters and Hilton Head and Cadillac, finishing second was probably not all that bad from where I was starting the weekend. Definitely nice to get off to a better start this week.”

Scheffler ignited his round with four birdies in six holes from the sixth. He holed an eight-footer for birdie there followed by a 39-footer for birdie on No 7. After pars on 8 and 9, he got back on the birdie train at No. 10 making a 28-foot putt. On 11, he made a putt just inside 10 feet.

Scheffler’s lone back-nine bogey was at the par-3 14th, where he missed a par putt from about five feet and laughed as it slid past the hole.

“I mean, there's a ton of slope on the greens,” he said. “That putt in particular on 14, it was like the pin was on the very highest point of the green. It was like everything around it went like this.

“There's just not much you can do there other than laugh. That's part of the game. Sometimes you get good and bad breaks. I holed a couple of long putts today, and any time you're able to do something like that, you've got to take the good with the bad.”

Scheffler hit 13 of 14 fairways in the first round, which was key to scoring as he found himself playing from spots where he could attack.

“It's always important to get the ball on the fairway,” he said. “I think around this golf course there's a lot of run-ups on the greens, and they put the pins on some of the high points. So your scores are definitely going to be lower if you hit the ball on the fairway, but it's still really, really difficult to make birdies.

You hit some really nice iron shots in there to 10, 15 feet, and you've got putts with a ton of break on them. This golf course, especially on the greens, is quite challenging.”

Martin Kaymer off to strong start at Aronimink

Kaymer, the 2010 champion who also won the US Open in 2014, hasn’t had a top 10 in a major since a T7 at the 2016 PGA Championship.

“Didn't make many mistakes,” said the German of his eye-catching opening effort. “Stayed out of trouble. Avoided those five, six, seven footers for par that can be quite stressful.

“It can be a quite intimidating golf course, especially with that cold wind we had today. So, the goal was to hit fairways and greens and try to hit a lot of those lag putts. I made one poor tee shot and the rest of it was very consistent.”

Two-time winner McIlroy described his golf as “s***” after four bogeys in a row to finish left him having to settle for a four-over 74 while double US Open champion DeChambeau could only manage a 76.

Jordan Spieth, who is chasing a career grand slam, sits handily-placed on one under alongside Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, with in-form Matt Fitzpatrick matching MacIntyre’s effort.