FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 9th, 2018

NOTABLE QUOTES: “GOLF CENTRAL LIVE FROM THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP” (OPENING ROUND)

Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis, Mo.
Thursday, August 9

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100th PGA Championship (Opening Round)
Gary Woodland          -6
Rickie Fowler              -5
Brandon Stone           -4
Zach Johnson             -4

On Thursday’s opening round at the PGA Championship
Brandel Chamblee – “This was a lot like watching a great drama for the third time – nothing surprised you. I can’t remember a day where there was literally no surprises.”
David Duval – “I think the golf course gave us what you want in a major championship. Certainly it’s a little bit softer than you may have wished, not quite as firm. But you have kind of shorter hitters on the leader board, medium hitters, longer hitters. You have younger players, [players in their] 30s and you’ve got 40s. It was fairly democratic in that way. It was a fair test for everybody… All-in-all, with all the talk of the heat, with the early rain in the week, the golf course held up well.”
Frank Nobilo – “Things are starting to at least calm down where you can sort of predict what’s going to happen. And once they get the rollers on the greens they’re going to become more consistent and be a better surface each and every day… The scoring will continue to get better.”

On Gary Woodland (6-under, leader)
Chamblee – “He’s only made five putts all year long from 20-25 feet [prior to today]… He made about half as many in four or five holes [today]. What he had was just an epically good day on the greens.”
Nobilo – “At times he looks like a weightlifter when he has the short stick in his hand… This is an area that has to improve because he’s too good… If he could just get to where his chipping and bunker play are average, these events we’d be seeing Gary Woodland’s name regularly on that leader board.”

On Rickie Fowler (5-under, 2nd)
Chamblee – “This golf course fits him the way Augusta [National] fits Bubba Watson, the way Augusta fits Jordan Spieth.”
Nobilo – “I think the emotion that runs through him, sometimes it provides the energy… In some respects you wished he was a little more a flat-liner sometimes. Because that might result actually in perhaps more victories.”
Duval – “I believe that he’s going to break through that door… But you do have to go out and win the golf tournament. He has all the tools. It’s just a matter of putting them all together at the right time.”

On Tiger Woods (Even, T-48th)
Nobilo – “There should be a stat called ‘strokes gained gutting it out’. And I think he was about three shots better than the rest of the field.”
Duval – “It might not have been Tiger of 2000, but it was the guts of Tiger Woods that you expect to see.”
Chamblee – “What this round lacked in cleanliness, it made up for in tenacity. The ability to self-correct in the middle of the round was beautiful… I absolutely think he could factor into this championship. You could tell something clicked. He found something.”

-NBC Sports Group-