5 things that caught our eye through 2 rounds at Quail Hollow

Sure, it doesn't have the pomp, circumstance, or drama of the Masters, but an intriguing major championship has emerged after two rounds at Quail Hollow.

The leaderboard is a mix of surprise names with a number of accomplished players lurking as the weekend hits at the PGA Championship.

Here are five things that have caught out eye through two days in Charlotte.

Mud balls!

The story from the opening day of the PGA Championship was unquestionably the mud balls players dealt with around Quail Hollow. The course got absolutely drenched with five inches of rain earlier in the week. However, while the PGA TOUR opts to let players use preferred lies at an almost-embarrassing rate, the major championships typically don't allow it. The PGA of America followed that plan and made the field play it as it lies in the opening round. That led to a number of mud balls - much to the anger of a number of top players such as Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.

"I don't think they understand what it's like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance," Scheffler vented after the round, according to ASAP Sports.

Schauffele didn't use as many words to get his point across about the decision.

"It is what it is, and a lot of guys are dealing with it, but it's just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It's kind of stupid," the defending champion said, per ASAP Sports.

While it's certainly frustrating to hit a perfect drive and face a mud ball on your approach, playing the ball down without preferred lies is something that separates a major from a regular PGA TOUR event. It's much needed at a course the players play every year anyway - especially because it's had almost no changes to host the major.

We will give the final word on mud balls to Max Homa, who sits near the top of the leaderboard in the quest for his first major win.

"I particularly like playing the ball down," Homa said, according to ASAP Sports. "I think it just causes chaos for the fans. It's supposed to be entertaining, so seeing people who can look like robots for a while look completely silly isn't the worst, except when it's you."

Vegas baby, Vegas

With four career wins under his belt, Jhonattan Vegas is certainly a name golf fans know from his time on the PGA TOUR. However, the Venezuelan has been largely invisible when it comes to major championships until this week at Quail Hollow. Vegas made the PGA TOUR for the first time in 2011, but in the 14 years since has only qualified for 16 majors. He missed the cut in 10 of those with a tie for 22nd at the 2016 PGA Championship his only top-25 finish.

According to Justin Ray of the Twenty First Group, Vegas is just the third person ever to hold multiple-shot leads after both Rounds 1 and 2 of the PGA Championship and the first since 1982. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus never did it, but Vegas has accomplished that feat with two impressive rounds at Quail Hollow.

Rory's awful driving

Aside from Bryson DeChambeau, there's nobody in men's professional golf who's as prolific off the tee as Rory McIlroy. Excellence with the driver has been McIlroy's calling card since he burst onto the scene as a teenage prodigy, and it's remained that way throughout his illustrious career. That history is what makes his struggles off the tee through two rounds at Quail Hollow even more baffling. The Masters champ has hit just 10 of 28 fairways, ranking an astonishing 152nd in the 156-man field.

A partial explanation for McIlroy's driving issues emerged Friday afternoon with Johnson Wagner and Taylor Zarzour of Sirius XM PGA TOUR Radio reporting that his regular driver was deemed nonconforming this week during USGA testing. That forced McIlroy to remove that driver from his bag and put his backup in play, which may be behind his issues off the tee.

It's not uncommon for a PGA TOUR player to have a driver taken out of his bag during testing, as the speeds they operate at often cause damage to the face. However, seeing it happen the week of a major certainly isn't ideal for McIlroy, who barely made the cut and sits nine back through two rounds.

Major failings from DJ, Brooks, JT

There was a time where Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Justin Thomas were near the top of the leaderboard at seemingly every major championship. However, those days seem long ago as the star-studded trio once again failed to produce in a major championship this week at Quail Hollow. That trio now has 11 missed cuts and just two top-15 finishes in the past eight major championships - a combined total of 24 starts.

Johnson is 47-over during that span, Thomas just slightly better at 41-over despite the two being at different points in their careers. Johnson never seemed like someone who would be grinding into his 40s in professional golf, pointing to the money and the opportunity to play less golf as a driving factor in his move to LIV Golf.

However, Thomas is in the prime of his career and ranked fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking and Data Golf rankings. He recently snapped a winless drought with a victory at the RBC Heritage but has time and again failed in the majors in recent years.

Koepka was once the most feared major player in golf, amassing five titles in a very short period of time. While he initially kept that form after moving to LIV Golf with a runner-up and win at the 2023 Masters and PGA Championship, he hasn't contended since. It might be too early to write him off entirely, but things are not trending in the right direction for Koepka.

Si Woo Kim's record-setting ace

If you watched the last couple Presidents Cup events, you are more than familiar with Si Woo Kim's electric persona. The 29-year-old is undoubtedly the most entertaining player on the International team, with a history of rising to the occasion and then celebrating wildly.

He brought that flair to Quail Hollow on Friday, making the longest ace in major championship history on the 252-yard par-3 6th hole.

It's Kim's sixth ace on the PGA TOUR since 2016 - the most by any player during that span - and marks his second straight major with a hole-in-one. It also helped him fly up the leaderboard into a tie for second.