This post summarizes round 1 of my APBA Golf replay of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills (Sooner Hills). An earlier post described the replay set-up based on conditions for the actual tournament.
Actual Event
In round 1, the starting 156-player field’s average score was 72.8 strokes. Of the 78 players that would play all four rounds of the tournament, the average score was 70.6 strokes. Recall, par was set at 70 making the field over-par, on average.
The best score of the day was a 65 posted by Rory McIlroy; the worst was 82 posted by Sean McCarty (not carded), who was one of the 20 PGA members that entered this event by way of their performance earlier in the 2022 PGA Professional Championship. The first-round Top Ten leaderboard is provided below.
The Replay Event
For round 1, the pin was located at position 4, the prevailing wind was moderate – type ‘A’, and conditions firm (+5 FW roll / 0 green roll).
The average score for 69 replay competitors was 71.3 strokes for round 1. As with the actual players, the average round 1 replay score for the field was over par.
For the replay’s round 1, the best scores were posted by Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele, who both shot a 5-under par score of 65. The worst score for the round was a 79 posted by Lucas Herbert, who in the actual event was tied for 7th place after the first day.
Justin Thomas, the actual tournament’s winner, got off to a slow start in the replay by posting a 3-over score of 73. Of the other top final competitors in the actual tournament, Will Zalatoris came in 2-over par at 72, and Mito Pereira shot 4-over par at 74. Thus, for the replay to match history by the tournament’s end, Thomas, Zalatoris and Pereira have some work to do to catch up to the replay’s current leaders after round 1.
The replay Top Ten leaderboard for round 1 is provided below.
Here are some other round 1 highlights:
- Maverick McNealy aced hole no. 8, a 220-yard par 3.
- Abraham Ancer was the only golfer to hit all 14 fairways. (Ave. = 9.8)
- Matthew Fitzpatrick had the most greens-in-regulation (16). (Ave. = 9.8)
- Corey Conners and Luke List had the longest drives (385 yards).
- Sam Burns sunk the longest putt (64 feet).
- Scott Stallings had the longest total putts made distance (175 feet).
- Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, and Scott Stallings had the fewest putts (23).
Complete statistical results for the round 1 replay can be viewed by clicking the upper righthand corner on the PDF document below.