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Winners and losers from Round 1 at Oak Hill

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The opening day is in the books at the season's second major, with Eric Cole holding a one-stroke lead on Bryson DeChambeau with play suspended due to darkness at the PGA Championship.

A challenging layout at Oak Hill put birdies at a premium, with only 19 players under par on their rounds and a number of top names struggling to get anything going.

With the dust now cleared, here are the winners and losers from Thursday.

Winner: Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler's play in majors has been a revelation since he turned professional, with the World No. 2 posting seven top-10 finishes in 14 starts. Despite that brilliant showing, he still accomplished something new on Thursday at Oak Hill. For the first time in 51 career major rounds, Scheffler got around all 18 holes without a bogey en route to a 3-under 67. The round lowered Scheffler's career major scoring average to 70.41 - the lowest all time of any player that has at least 50 rounds, according to ESPN Stats and Info. The Texan sits tied for third and is in excellent shape to make a run at his second career major championship.

Loser: Jon Rahm

Rahm and Scheffler have taken turns with the World No. 1 ranking all year, but the current top man was well off his game on Thursday. It was a steep drop after Rahm birdied his opening hole, with the Spaniard making six bogeys and a double-bogey to finish with a 6-over 76. It's his worst round in 362 days since the third round of last year's PGA Championship. Rahm now faces an uphill battle Friday to keep his cut streak alive at major championships. The 28-year-old hasn't missed the weekend since the 2019 PGA Championship.

Loser: Rory McIlroy during his 1st 10 holes

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It hasn't been pretty for McIlroy on the golf course lately, as the World No. 3 came to Oak Hill with missed cuts at both The Players and the Masters this season. The four-time major champion looked worn out over the opening nine holes, battling a two-way miss and hitting just one fairway en route to a 3-over 38. It looked like it was once again going to be a first-round disappointment for McIlroy as he continues his quest to win his first major since 2014.

Winner: McIlroy during his last 8 holes

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For a world-class golfer, sometimes all it takes is one shot to turn a bad day around. That was exactly the case for McIlroy on the second hole, his 11th, on Thursday. After sending a poor pitch over the green and down into a run-off area, McIlroy seemed destined for yet another bogey to drop to 4-over on the day. He then summoned some short-game magic and poured in the putt to save a crucial par.

That spurred McIlroy on, as he birded his next two holes and added another at the par-4 eighth to post a 1-over 71 and remain in the thick of the tournament. The fact he was able to still finish with a decent score despite hitting only 2-of-14 fairways should be very encouraging for the 34-year-old.

Winner: Players who recently dropped weight

DeChambeau and Keegan Bradley are both sporting very svelte figures compared to what we saw last year. DeChambeau admitted to shedding at least 20 lbs after he added 50 lbs in a rapid body transformation to chase distance, while Bradley dropped 30 lbs in the last five months of 2022 on a meat-heavy diet. Both players are seeing immediate results based on Thursday's play at Oak Hill. The pair, who played together, combined for 13 birdies on the day across a challenging layout in Rochester to sit second and tied for sixth, respectively.

Loser: Recent winners on TOUR

Winning on the PGA TOUR comes with a large payday and exemptions on the circuit and into golf's biggest events. Judging by Thursday's results, it doesn't necessarily mean strong play is bound to happen in those tournaments. It was a rough opening round for four of the last five individual winners on TOUR:

Player Event won Round 1 score
Jon Rahm Masters 76
Matthew Fitzpatrick RBC Heritage 76
Wyndham Clark Wells Fargo Championship 77
Jason Day Byron Nelson 76

Rahm and Fitzpatrick's names on the list are perhaps the most shocking, given their major prowess, but both Day and Clark have been red-hot all season until Thursday. Last week's winner Day didn't make a birdie over his 18 holes, while Clark was able to muster only one.

Winner: Tom Kim's chances in the PIP

The PGA TOUR's Player Impact Program rewards players who generate the most positive interest in the TOUR with cash payouts. The circuit might as well just send the $15-million top spot to Tom Kim after Thursday. The Korean standout fired a 3-over 73, eight shots off the pace, but his adventures on the sixth hole left everyone talking about the 20-year-old. Kim found the creek off the tee and went into the hazard to try to play his ball. Unfortunately for Kim, but fortunately for viewers, he fell in the mud - at which point, the broadcast found the scene.

Kim was a great sport about the affair, offering an incredible reaction after the round when he found out the entire thing had been captured on TV.

Loser: People who questioned LIV stars

This is the second major championship since LIV Golf essentially finalized its roster, and early returns say those who questioned the stars on the rival circuit were very wrong. There's no question that the depth of LIV is lacking, and its tournaments may not hold the same serious vibe as those on the PGA TOUR. However, the top talent on LIV doesn't appear to have lost a step when those stars compete against the PGA TOUR's best.

After Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, and Patrick Reed all finished inside the top five at the Masters, DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson turned in very strong performances on Thursday at Oak Hill. It looked for most of the round that Johnson would join DeChambeau at 4-under, but a bogey on the 18th saw him fall to third. Regardless, the two-time major champ clearly built off last week's victory at LIV Tulsa.

While some of the middle-tier players that went to LIV seem to have fallen off, the stars have continued to bring it at a high level at the majors. Whether it lasts over the next three days remains to be seen, but we know enough now to say it was foolish to doubt the top players at LIV on the major stage.

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