2020 PGA Championship Live Updates: Follow along with Tiger Woods' opening...

After more than a year without a major championship due to the coronavirus pandemic, the golf world takes center stage this week with the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

All the stars are in the Bay Area for this one — Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and more. It’s the first time Harding Park has hosted a major, although the San Francisco muni was the host venue for the 2009 Presidents Cup and and the 2015 WGC-Match Play.

Here’s the latest from the first round at TPC Harding Park and the 2020 PGA Championship. This article will be updated frequently as play gets underway.

Thursday at the PGA Championship quick links

— Leaderboard— Expert picks— Tee times— How to watch— Get to know the course— PGA field— Alan Shipnuck previews the PGA

Scott Van Pelt is calling golf again and golf fans are so happy about it

Scott Van Pelt is one of the more popular announcers in sports, but he holds a special place in the hearts of golf fans. Van Pelt is an avid fan of the game who got his start at Golf Channel, and is well-liked among players.

ESPN’s recent lack of major championship rights means fans have only been able to enjoy his commentary sparingly in recent years, but with ESPN’s re-emergence in the space, especially with the PGA Championship streaming on ESPN+, fans were delighted to hear SVP on the mic once again.

And why do people like SVP so much? Apart from his delightful overall demeanor, he’s got a deep knowledge off the game, but always manages to keep it casual, cracking jokes and not taking himself too seriously. It’s a style that certainly resonates with golf fans, who have been raving about the broadcast so far.

Read more about Scott Van Pelt’s return to the golf booth here.

Tiger Woods off to hot start at PGA Championship

With no fans and a couple dozen staffers, volunteers and media nearby, Tiger Woods drove his opening tee shot of the 2020 PGA Championship into the left rough on the par-5 10th hole at TPC Harding Park at 11:34 a.m. ET on Thursday morning. His second shot wasn’t much better, as he flared a wood out to the right, but a great flop shot led to an eight-footer for birdie, which Woods rolled in.

Woods is playing alongside Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas for the first two rounds. Temperatures in San Francisco are currently in the high-50s with a high expected to be around 67.

Woods parred the 11th and 12th holes. On the 12th he missed a seven-footer for birdie. On the par-4 13th he drained a 33-footer for birdie to get to two under and tie for the lead.

But Woods’ quick start hit a bump on the par-4 14th. After driving it in the rough and hitting his approach into the bunker, his seven-foot par try missed on the right. His first bogey of the day dropped him to one under.

Tee times began at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. local) and Scottie Scheffler grabbed the early lead with three birdies in his first four holes.

View the PGA Championship leaderboard here.

How to buy Tiger Woods’ Stars-and-Stripes-themed face covering

With the start of golf’s major championship season comes a critically important window for another industry: golf fashion. The majors are golf’s most visible events, which means they’re a prime opportunity for golf apparel companies to get eyeballs on their products.

If you’re trying to gain the attention of golf fans, Tiger Woods is a pretty good place to start. The 15-time major champion doesn’t do much without drawing the attention of the golf world as a whole, and this year’s PGA Championship has already proven no different.

Woods has found himself in the spotlight for a different kind of wardrobe decision: his face covering. In an effort to adhere to safety procedures in place ahead of this year’s PGA, Woods has been wearing wearing an American flag-styled neck gait at TPC Harding Park.

The face covering, from SA Company, is made of a lightweight, microfiber material that provides sweat and 30 SPF sun protection. To get your hands on one of Tiger’s face coverings, check out the link here.

The last three major champs are on the golf course

Shane Lowry, Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland teed off at 11:11 a.m. ET on the 10th tee, with Scottie Scheffler setting the early pace with three birdies in his first four holes.

The PGA has long grouped the previous major champs together. Koepka has won the last two PGAs (2019 at Bethpage Black), Lowry won the 2019 Open Championship and Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open.

Tiger Woods, the 2019 Masters champ, tees off at 11:33 a.m.

View the PGA Championship leaderboard here.

First-round tee times begin at 10 a.m. ET

The first round of the 2020 PGA Championship begins at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday with the group of Brian Harman, Jeff Hart and C.T. Pan off the 1st tee. The second group, which consists of Scottie Scheffler, Danny Balin and Tom Hoge, tees off on the 10th tee at 10:05 a.m.

With the West Coast start, it will be a long day of action. The day’s final tee time if 5:42 p.m. ET and will likely finish around 10 p.m. ET.

One of the first marquee groups goes off at 10:27 a.m. ET. That threesome consists of Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay, and Danny Willett. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas begin their first round off the 10th tee at 11:33 a.m.

How to watch the 2020 PGA Championship on Thursday

ESPN and CBS will broadcast the 2020 PGA Championship. ESPN will handle the first- and second-round broadcasts and the early weekend coverage. CBS will broadcast the majority of the weekend action after ESPN’s lead-in coverage.

The first round on Thursday can be streamed on ESPN+ from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. (you can access that here), and the TV broadcast takes over from 4-10 p.m. on ESPN.

The Caddie House: Why four top loopers are crashing together at the PGA Championship

John Wood got to pick the house.

“Being the NorCal guy, I was assigned the rental for the week,” he said.

Wood caddies for Matt Kuchar, the No. 22 player in the world. Of the four caddies sharing a roof this week in San Francisco, Wood’s looping for (by far) the least famous player.

“Yeah, I’m definitely the minor leaguer of the group,” he added.

In this case, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. That’s because the loopers’ lair is filled out by three legends of the craft: Joe LaCava, Michael Greller and Jim “Bones” Mackay.

Wood insists that this is nothing unusual during big events.

“It’s honestly not that unique! We’ve stayed together in rental homes at majors a bunch over the years,” he said.

Unique or not, there’s something notable about four men at the absolute peak of the caddying profession settling into the living room to shoot the breeze — and provide off-the-record analysis — after a day’s work.

“Suffice it to say when golf is on and we are all there, it’s like Mystery Science Theater 3000, PGA version,” Wood said.

The house falls somewhat short of the glamorous rentals that have housed gaggles of top pros at the Open Championship in recent years, like the Portrush abode that Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Kevin Kisner, Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker called home last summer. But it’s a step above the rental that Joel Dahmen’s caddie Geno Bonnalie proposed as a U.S. Open stay to Aaron Flener.

“Lol Geno it’s 100 square feet,” Flener wrote back in a text exchange he posted to Twitter. “I like you but not ‘enclosed in 100 square feet with you‘ like you.”

Read the complete story on The Caddie House here.

AskAlan mailbag: Will the winners of this year’s fan-less majors deserve an asterisk?

GOLF senior writer Alan Shipnuck answers your questions about this week’s PGA Championship.

If Jordan, Phil or Rory complete career Grand Slam this fall with no fans present, will it be considered legitimate or will there be an asterisk? -@MuirFalls

Totally legitimate! This has been one of the most challenging and unusual golf seasons ever. Any player who finds a way to peak at the right time and conquer one of these proud courses should be applauded, not denigrated.

Who finishes higher, Tiger or Phil? Do either of them finish top ten? -@DavidAStorm

Tiger, because I don’t think Phil (coming off a rousing performance in Memphis) can put together eight straight good rounds. I think Woods will grind out a solid finish but not quite a top-10.

Will golf have limited fans at Augusta this November? -@double_bogey

The green jackets certainly have the resources and infrastructure to do whatever they want in terms of fans, assuming the various governmental agencies sign off. They can erect even more towering grandstands and fill only every third seat, allowing thousands of fans to safely encircle most of the greens. In the fairways it would be easy enough to color code the ropes, denoting where you can stand and where you can’t. Masters fans are always on their best behavior, out of respect for the venue and a low-grade fear of having their credential pulled. With an army of Pinkertons on hand to offer gentle reminders I think you could have proper social distancing. The usual 25,000 fans a day is probably a non-starter but, say, a third that number would certainly add lots of ambiance and energy.

Read Alan Shipnuck’s entire mailbag previewing the PGA Championship here.

Eerie quiet hangs over fan-less PGA Championship site as first major of 2020 creeps closer

A PGA Championship unlike any other is underway, and on Tuesday at Harding Park it was as quiet as church. With no fans on property — and only skeleton crews of reporters, volunteers and player entourages — the competitors enjoyed peaceful, intimate practice rounds. Dustin Johnson, waiting to begin his stroll around Harding Park, spoke loudly into a cellphone. (He was requesting a “52”; presumably that’s the degrees on his gap wedge, not the size of his blazer.)

Standing on the rope line, it was so quiet you could eavesdrop on the conversations in the middle of the fairway. Danny Willett pured a 6-iron and his swing coach Sean Foley offered a one-word verdict: “Cheeky.” Foley later recommended some reading for these complicated times: Between the World and Me and The New Jim Crow. Phil Mickelson (who flexed in shorts on a foggy, blustery day so frigid Gary Woodland was wearing rainpants for extra warmth) dropped a trio of balls in the 10th fairway and feathered short-irons through the breeze, consulting a Bible-sized launch monitor after each swing. “It’s heavy,” he said of the coastal air.

To be sure, the players have grown accustomed to performing in a vacuum ever since the Tour restarted two months ago without galleries. But this is a major championship, and Tuesday at the PGA traditionally has some of the biggest, unruliest crowds of the season. The competitors certainly felt the difference this time around. “I definitely miss having the fans out, just to give you that extra rush and energy of major championship golf and just championship golf in general,” Tony Finau said.

Read more about what it’s like on site for the first major of the season here.

McIlroy, Koepka, DeChambeau the early betting favorites

Rory McIlroy won four times last year but hasn’t raised a major trophy since the 2014 PGA Championship, which was his fourth major title. Brooks Koepka has went a year without a victory but is still the two-time defending PGA champion. And Bryson DeChambeau, who has transformed his body over the last year, picked up his sixth career PGA Tour win last month.

These three are early favorites to win the PGA, according to Golfodds.com. The website puts all of their odds to win at 12/1, which is slightly better than Jon Rahm (14/1) and Justin Thomas (14/1). Tiger Woods is 20/1 to win his 16th major title.

View odds to win for the entire PGA Championship field here.

Does Tiger Woods have a chance?

Tiger Woods has played sparingly in the 2019-20 season, with just four starts total (although one was a win in October). He took some time off due to injury prior to the Tour shutting down for three months due to Covid-19, and his first event back was the Memorial three weeks ago. He tied for 40th.

Woods showed up to Harding Park on Sunday and has had plenty of time to practice for the PGA.

“I feel good; obviously I haven’t played much competitively, but I’ve been playing a lot at home,” Woods said on Tuesday. “So I’ve been getting plenty of reps that way. Just trying to get my way back into this part of the season. This is what I’ve been gearing up for. We’ve got a lot of big events starting from here, so looking forward to it.”

Read more on Tiger Woods’ pre-tournament press conference here.

Bryson DeChambeau has transformed himself. But will he also transform the game?

Bryson DeChambeau has single-handedly changed the way we think about the limits of what’s possible on a golf course, with ball speeds and driving distances that boggle the mind. How has he done it? What is his ceiling? And what might his transformation mean for the game? They’re meaty questions — so meaty that we enlisted a panel of our expert writers to explore every angle of DeChambeau’s ascent.

Six weeks ago, on the 9th tee at the Travelers Championship, outside Hartford, Conn., Justin Thomas finally let it rip.

He was two over par and one hole away from signing his card and flying home. After laying up during the first round on the short par-4, the only move now was to bomb driver up over the trees and cut the corner. His drive, caught on the TV broadcast’s ProTracer, was pure, modern distance — 309 yards of carry, 324 yards total, out into the fairway. The real macho move is what followed.

“Where you at, Bryson,” Thomas said, rhetorically, which was picked up by the nearest microphone on a silent course. It was a playful jab at the man everyone was talking about, and who is single-handedly pushing the distance threshold in golf: Bryson DeChambeau.

Thomas’s playful comments were ironic, of course. He knew where Bryson was at. All of the golf world did. He was beginning his second round, a five-birdie 67, en route to finishing T-6 — his sixth-straight top 10. One week later, he beat the field by three in Detroit in the most decisive result of a very changed golfer. In his nine-month quest for unthinkable distance gains, DeChambeau has added 40 pounds to his frame, transformed his swing, altered his equipment and has made success seem inevitable.

Vegas has noticed, making him one of the top betting favorites at this week’s PGA Championship. Among his peers, plenty more than Thomas have noticed. They stare at DeChambeau on the driving range, whisper about him when he’s not around and, in the case of another preeminent long-hitter, Tony Finau, have begun to adopt his go-for-broke methodology. Still, larger questions remain, about DeChambeau and the revolution he is trying to lead.

Read the complete story on Bryson DeChambeau’s evolution here.

Get to know PGA Championship host TPC Harding Park

It has the same pedigree as a nearby private club: The closing stretch of Harding Park looks across Lake Merced at the green fingerlings of another golf club: the Olympic Club, no less, a storied private venue and five-time host of the U.S. Open. The Olympic Club was designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting and — guess what? — so was Harding Park. The duo’s design fee for Harding Park was $300. That was in 1925. On weekends these days, $200 is the base fee that out-of-towners pay to play the course.

It has another 9: From a bird’s eye view, the routing at Harding Park resembles the cross-section of a cinnamon roll, with the front nine folded inside the back nine. And folded within them both? Another course. The Fleming 9. A nine-hole, par-30 layout named for Jack Fleming, a golf architect and former city golf caretaker for San Francisco.

It has a presidential connection: And not just in the form of the Presidents Cup, which Harding Park hosted in 2009. The course is named for Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States and an avid golfer, who died of a heart attack in 1923 while staying at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Read the complete history of TPC Harding Park here.