Luke List acknowledges the gallery after hitting off the 14th tee at Bethpage Black during the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday in Farmingdale, N.Y. The Baylor School graduate was tied for fourth and five shots out of the lead after opening with a 68.FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - Brooks Koepka delivered on the biggest stage again, this time with Tiger Woods at his side.
At times overlooked even after winning three majors in the past two years, Koepka gave thousands of fans a record-setting round to remember Thursday morning on the brawny Black Course at Bethpage State Park as he began his quest to repeat as the winner of the PGA Championship.
He shot a 7-under-par 63, making him the first player in 101 years of the PGA of America's major tournament to hit that number twice. He broke the course record and became the first player to post a 63 at a major in consecutive years.
"That was one of the best rounds I've played probably as a professional," the 29-year-old Koepka said. "This golf course is brutal."
Danny Lee was nearly as impressive and made eight birdies in the afternoon, including on the final two holes, on his way to a 64 that exceeded his expectations and had him alone in second, three shots ahead of England's Tommy Fleetwood.
"My mindset was honestly some kind of under-par round would be good," said Lee, a 28-year-old New Zealander who was born in South Korea. "I did a lot better than that today."
Baylor School graduate Luke List was tied for fourth as one of five golfers who opened with a 68. The 34-year-old former Ringgold resident totaled six birdies - three in the first five holes, one each to close the front and back nines and another on the 13th. He had a pair of bogeys as well as a double on the 17th that kept his closing birdie from having an even bigger impact.
List is in the PGA Championship for the third straight year but missed the cut in his first two tries. He was joined in fourth by Rickie Fowler, Pat Perez, Chez Reavie and Sung Kang, who is coming off his first PGA Tour Victory at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Keith Mitchell, another former Baylor standout, was tied for 91st after shooting a 74 in his first round at any PGA Championship. He made the cut last month at the Masters, his first appearance in a major tournament. The 27-year-old Chattanooga native teed off with the second group at 6:56 a.m. Thursday, with such early starts a necessity for some in a field of 155 golfers.
By the end of the long day, no one prove better than Koepka, including the only two guys ahead of him in the World Golf Ranking - No. 1 Dustin Johnson was tied for ninth at 69 and No. 2 Justin Rose was among the crowd another stroke back in 17th - and the biggest name in the sport.
Woods, though, had not played Bethpage Black since his nine-hole practice round Monday and had not played a tournament since he won the Masters in early April for his 15th major title.
He opened with a pair of double bogeys on the back nine and ruined a torrid start to the front nine - two birdies and a 30-foot eagle in a four-hole stretch - with a pair of three-putt bogeys. That gave him a 72, leaving him nine shots behind and ending 12 consecutive rounds at par or better in the majors dating to the U.S. Open last summer. He was tied for 51st.
Make no mistake: A gallery that trudged through muddied walkways to the 10th tee in the early morning was there primarily for Woods, who created a new era of Tigermania with his stirring comeback after four back surgeries to win the Tour Championship last September and a fifth green jacket last month.
What they saw was a major performance. Just not from him.
How special was Koepka's round? Even on a course still soft from rain earlier in the week, only 16 players broke par. He was 10 shots better than the average score in the opening round.
Jordan Spieth, who is a PGA Championship victory short of the career Grand Slam, overcame a double bogey on the 10th hole for a 69 and was in a group that included not only Johnson but five-time major winner Phil Mickelson, 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, among the best current golfers without a major title.
"The course is not easy, but Brooks obviously made it look real easy," Perez said. "I saw that on Tuesday when I played with him (during a practice round). I actually congratulated him on his win."
It's far from over, though, which should have been obvious even before Lee made his afternoon move to cut into the lead. Fowler was bemused when asked how close he would have to be to Koepka heading into the final round Sunday.
"What makes you think he's going to be leading?" Fowler said. "I would say there's no lead really safe here."
Woods is the only player to win back-to-back titles at the PGA Championship in stroke play - he did that twice - and Koepka had an ideal start in a bid to catch him. He won at Bellerive Country Club in steamy St. Louis last August by two shots over a hard-charging Woods. Koepka played in the group in front of Woods in the final round at the Masters and finished one back.
This time they were together, along with 2018 British Open champion Francesco Molinari (72), but it was a one-man show. Koepka's display began with a 40-foot birdie putt from just off the back of the 10th green, and it ended with a birdie putt from just inside 35 feet on the ninth hole for the 17th score of 63 in the PGA Championship.
"I think that was probably the highest score he could have shot today," Woods said.
Koepka failed to birdie the two par 5s, missing a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 13 and scrambling for par on the easier fourth hole. He also missed a seven-foot birdie putt on the 11th and an eight-foot birdie putt on No. 2. Yes, this could have been even more special, but then again, he also made four birdie putts of 15 or more feet, including the long ones at the start and end of his round.
"When that putt went in on No. 10, that was kind of the momentum that set me," Koepka said. "But I never once thought about the course record or anything. I was just trying to shoot the best I could. Simple as that. Just keep going and total them up at the end."
He is the ninth player to open a major with 63, and only two of them went on to win - Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 U.S. Open and Raymond Floyd in the 1982 PGA Championship.
There is a long way to go, but considering Koepka's record in the majors - three wins and a runner-up in his past seven - it felt shorter. Koepka came seriously close to a bogey only one time, when he made a 10-foot par on the sixth hole.
Woods managed to get under par, but only briefly.
His opening tee shot took enough bounces to barely get into the rough, and it left him no option but to hack out. The mistake was a wedge shot that sent the ball over the back of the green, and Woods threw his head back knowing his mistake. His fast pitch went six feet by, and he missed to open with a double bogey. His other double bogey came on the par-3 17th, where he went into the face of a bunker, blasted out longer and took three strokes to get down from there.
A birdie-birdie start to the front nine plus a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fourth brought him to 1 under. Then he bogeyed three of the next four holes.
"I fought my way back around there," he said, "and unfortunately, I just didn't keep it together at the end."