2017 PGA: First Round This And That

It's Glory's Second-To-Last Shot Before The Move To May!

The 2017 PGA gets underway at Quail Hollow, which was renovated in 89 days and, at least architecturally, conveys the feeling of a rush job lacking design permanence. Insipid two-dimensional bunkering, overzealous green contouring and several discreet anti-scoring touches explain why you've heard so few players offering praise for what is otherwise a world-class facility.

Michael Collins at ESPN.com with a fun caddie confidential on the player/caddie griping and plans to already fix one of the greens here.

Mercifully, superintendent Keith Wood's team is providing exceptional conditioning, the Charlotte fan energy is off-the-charts and more elite players seem to be on form heading into this major compared to the first three Grand Slam legs.

The weather forecast? Still ominous but Thursday is perfect and as Kyle Porter notes, it is expected to be a part of this championship.

Your live streaming, TV Times and groupings from PGA.com.

Golfweek's listing of times and groupings.

The renovated first hole is a nice par-5 in the minds of players (Casey/Golfweek).

The Green Mile is still the biggest part of the Quail Hollow test. (Romine/Golfweek).

Jason Day is trying to salvage his season, if he can get the putter going. (Menta/GolfChannel.com)

Phil thinks the winning score will be close to even par (Lavner/GolfChannel.com)

Josh Berhow at Golf.com puts a bow on the early week shorts discussion, with comments from Gary Player endorsing the relaxing of rules.

Michael McCann with legal analysis on Tiger's DUI arraignment and plea.

Golfweek's live blog will keep you updated.

And as for the story of the week, Jordan Spieth, Brian Wacker says the Champion Golfer of the Year's resilience is noticed by his peers.

Gary Williams and I discussed why Spieth is so confident and may be able put his great iron play to extra-special use this week.

And on trying to become the youngest to achieve the greatest feat for a golfer, he's not feeling the pressure. From his Wednesday press conference:

JORDAN SPIETH: How? There will be pressure. This is a major championship. I mean, this is one of the four pivotal weeks of the year that we focus on. So there will certainly be pressure. I'm simply stating, there won't be added expectations or pressure.

How? I don't know. I just don't feel it. I just -- it's not a burning desire to have to be the youngest to do something, and that would be the only reason there would be added expectations. The more years you go on playing PGAs, and if I don't win one in the next ten years, then maybe there's added pressure then, and hopefully we don't have to have this conversation in ten years. But if we do, then it might be a different.

But it was only two weeks ago that I was able to get the third leg, and that's so fresh in my mind. I'm so happy about that that I can't add pressure to this week. I'm free-rolling. And it feels good. I'm about as -- I'm about as kind of free and relaxed at a major than I think I've ever felt. Maybe since Chambers Bay, arriving at Chambers Bay after the Masters and just, you know, almost like I've accomplished something so great this year that anything else that happens, I can accept. That takes that pressure, that expectation away.

Now, you get into the heat of things, certainly that changes things, because I recognize where we are and what it would mean to win a major. Not anything else other than that. And so getting into position this week, this is a very, very, very tough course, and it's one that I need to drive the ball better than I've been driving it to have a chance to win this week, and I've been working hard on it and seeing some improvements. So as long as I can do that, then I should have chance.