So this is how the leaderboard looks after Moving Day. A fair chance of a play-off tomorrow, do you think?! Hope you’ll join us for the final round. Thanks for reading; nighty night.

-6: Alex Smalley
-4: Matti Schmid, Nick Taylor, Jon Rahm, Aaron Rai, Ludvig Åberg
-3: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Reed, Maverick McNealy
-2: Kristoffer Reitan, Chris Kirk, Justin Rose, Joaquin Niemann, Martin Kaymer, Bud Cauley, Ben Griffin, Cameron Smith, Min Woo Lee, Max Greyserman, Hideki Matsuyama, Chris Gotterup
-1: Brian Harman, Mikael Lindberg, Sam Burns, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Harris English, Scottie Scheffler, David Puig

Maverick McNealy’s par attempt is always staying up on the left. It’s a two-putt bogey. He signs for a 71, and ends the day at -3.

McNealy becomes the latest player to take a bit too much sand from these bunkers on 18. The pressure of coming up the last at a major. He finds the green, but he’s not close. A big two-putt coming up to limit the damage to bogey.

A prediction for tomorrow from Ludvig Åberg on Sky: “The guy who runs away with it is going to have a hot putter.”

Smalley up first. Centre-right of the fairway, 177 yards to the hole. He eases his iron 20 feet left of the flag. This has been a hell of a comeback. Then over to McNealy, whose ball is on the slope down to the bunker, in thick rough, with his feet a long way above. This is far from easy, with the possibility of a shank in the equation. So it’s not a bad result when his ball squirts forward and into a greenside bunker. It’s the percentage miss.

McNealy sends his driver on 18 towards the big bunker down the right … and will wish his ball went into it, because it stops on the downslope to the left, inches from the edge of the trap. He’ll not have a great stance. Smalley is smarter, taking 3-wood to find the fatter part of the fairway. Meanwhile up on the green, it’s pars for Matsuyama and Gotterup, and both end the day with 71s, at -2 overall.

Smalley’s downhill left-to-right slider doesn’t do enough sliding left to right. It stays awkwardly up on the high side. Bogey. Par for McNealy.

-5: Smalley (17)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (F), Rai (F), Åberg (F), McNealy (17)

Smalley catches his bunker shot a little bit too cleanly, the ball zipping 15 feet past the flag. But the camber of the green brings it back a little bit. Ten feet left. Then McNealy bundles his wedge from the fringe to six feet. Both left with a job to do.

Smalley and McNealy take turns in missing the par-three 17th green. The former goes into a bunker front right, though it’s sitting up; the latter ends up in the first cut back right, but that’s caught a half-decent lie as well.

Hideki Matsuyama hands a shot back by missing a tiddler for par at 17. His partner Chris Gotterup also drops a stroke, duffing a chip from – yes – the back of the green. That’s his third best-forgotten moment involving wedges from thick greenside rough on this back nine. They’re both -2 now.

Smalley’s eagle effort, a big right to left swinger through a couple of indentations, is pretty good. But not stone dead. He’ll have a little bit of work to do from six feet if he wants his birdie. No problem. In it goes. McNealy meanwhile gets up and down from a bunker for a birdie of his own. They’re -6 and -4 respectively. And up on 18, Min Woo Lee rakes one in from downtown to sign for a 71 that keeps him within striking distance at -1.

-6: Smalley (16)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (F), Rai (F), Åberg (F), McNealy (16)

After all this bunched-up craziness, wouldn’t it be something if one player makes a break for it at the death? Because here’s Alex Smalley, cracking a long iron from the first cut down the right of the par-five 16th, 213 yards out, over the bunker guarding the front left, and into the heart of the green! He’ll have a 50-foot look for an eagle that would take him three clear of the field. This isn’t breaking news, but golf can be real weird sometimes.

Hideki Matsuyama is another player on the comeback trail! Out of sight and mind for most of the round, the 2021 Masters champion steers in an uphill right-to-left putt from the fringe at the back of the par-five 16th for eagle! That follows birdie at 14, and all of a sudden he’s back to -3 and right in this tournament! Meanwhile more chipping-from-cabbage-at-the-back-of-the-green woes for his playing partner Chris Gotterup: he nearly flies the green with his whip out, and with it goes his chances of birdie. Just the par. Both are -3, and one is much happier than the other.

Alex Smalley cracks a drive down 15. Then an iron into the centre of the green. Then he steers in a gentle left-to-right uphill slider from 30 feet. An amble from tee to flag, straight down the middle of the hole, as simple as it gets! And this is some recovery from the 29-year-old, after those bogeys at 1, 2 and 4! He’s now in credit for his round, and holds the lead all by himself. Meanwhile his playing partner Maverick McNealy carves his second into sand, gets nowhere near with his splash out, and makes bogey. A two-stroke matchplay swing in the final match!

-5: Smalley (15)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (F), Rai (F), Åberg (F)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Reed (F), McNealy (15), Gotterup (15)

Max Greyserman’s tee shot at 17 disappears into the vegetation at the back of the green. He lobs out, but not quite far enough to plop onto the fringe, and the first cut takes nearly all of the juice out of the ball. It does squeak onto the edge of the putting surface, just, but two putts later, that’s cost him a shot. He slips to -2.

McNealy and Smalley have plenty of green to work with, and both whisk their wedges out of the trap and down the slope to a couple of feet. Par, par, we move on. Then back to 18 … and Scheffler’s mojo, having threatened to desert him all day, finally does one. Sheffler’s third, a wedge up onto the green, hits the false front and dribbles back off. Can’t recall the last time he did something like that. A big up and down for Scheffler coming up; he can’t risk a double bogey, surely, with so many players in front of him on the leaderboard.

Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley having followed each other into the cup on 13, now send their tee shots at 14 into the same bunker, front left. Meanwhile up on 18, Scottie Scheffler sends his drive into a fairway bunker down the right, and fails to reach the green with his splash out. All a bit careless.

Maverick McNealy joins the leaders! He walks in a 20-footer on 13. And then … Alex Smalley joins the leaders! He cleans up having wedged his second to five feet, and having started with three bogeys in the first four holes, the 29-year-old from Greensboro has battled back to where he started the day. Chris Gotterup meanwhile has a chance to do the same on the par-three 14th, but his 14-foot effort never looks like dropping. Gotterup remains at -3.

-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (F), Rai (F), Åberg (F), McNealy (13), Smalley (13)

Ludvig Åberg couldn’t make his birdie on 17 … and it’s close but no cigar on 18 as well. But that’s a par-par finish, and he’s now in the clubhouse with a 68. A five-way tie at the top. Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler still can’t purchase one of those delicious birdies, a 30-foot rake across 17 drifting millimetres wide right. So close. More irritation, but despite a round during which he must have felt like wading through quicksand, he’s still level par for the day and just two off that five-way lead.

Scottie Scheffler can’t buy a putt today. He whips out of a deep bunker guarding the front of the par-five 16th, but can’t make the seven-footer he’s left with, the ball horseshoeing out. A bit of frustration creeping in.

In fact Rai is 67 yards from the flag. But the exact yardage is neither here nor there, because he gets nowhere near the green with his splash out, decelerating and taking way too much sand. Every amateur golfer will feel his pain. This is going to cost him any chance of a place in the final group tomorrow.

Aaron Rai’s ball is tangled up in rough … and yet he considers it sitting up well enough to take his hybrid out. He fires it out low and hard, hoping to send the ball scuttling onto the putting surface, but he shoves it to the right, and it disappears into a bunker 50 yards shy of the green. Trouble ahoy.

Aaron Rai almost hooks his drive at 18 into the thick rough down the left. He trudges off after it. Meanwhile back on 17, Ludvig Åberg clips his tee shot pin high, and will have a look at birdie from 25 feet.

Ludvig Åberg sends a gentle fade into the par-five 16th. Pin high. But the 13-foot eagle putt somehow stays up on the left lip. Half a dimple to the right and that was dropping. He can’t believe it. That looked in all the way. Shame, because the approach deserved the eagle. The birdie takes him up to -4, though. Meanwhile Rai and Gotterup lag long putts to kick-in distance, on 17 and 11 respectively. Rai will be delighted to get through the treacherous 17th with his par; Gotterup will be reasonably pleased to have limited the damage to bogey, because that could have gotten ugly real quick. They’re -5 and -3 respectively.

The wind’s back up a little bit. Not dramatically so, but it’s got a bit of whip again. So hats off to Aaron Rai for finding the heart of the par-three 17th amid the swirl. Meanwhile back on 11, Chris Gotterup makes the fatal error of plonking his approach into the thick rough covering a hill behind the green. He has to whip out forcefully enough to get his ball out of the gunk, but land it softly on the fringe so it doesn’t dribble down the sloping green too much. He does all he can, chopping the ball high and sitting it down gently on the fringe, but it still rolls 50 feet past the flag. At least it didn’t keep going off the green, and like I say, the mistake was putting the ball in there in the first place.

… and back on 16, Rai isn’t able to make the 15-footer he’s left himself for birdie, but tidies up for par. Three-putting never feels good, but doing so from 82 feet draws a bit of the sting.

-5: Rai (15)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (F), Gotterup (10)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Reed (F), Åberg (15), Greyserman (12), McNealy (10), Smalley (10)

At 554 yards, the par-five 16th is a whopping three yards longer than the par-four 15th. That’s just the way it is. And while Aaron Rai was unable to get a full connection to his second shot at 15 from rough down the left, on 16 he’s able, from a similar position, to arrow a low runner that scampers all the way onto the front of the green. But the putting surface is huge, and he’s left with an 80-footer for his eagle. He gets nowhere close. And I mean nowhere. Still a long way to go with his second putt. More on that anon, though, because …

A slightly disappointing end to the round for Patrick Reed. After birdies at 13 and 16, he appears to be closing out his third round in style as he screeches his approach at 18 from 147 yards pin high to four feet. But he misreads the birdie putt, which doesn’t drift left to right as he’d expected. That’s a 67, though, and at -3 overall the 2018 Masters champion is not out of this.

-5: Rahm (17), Rai (15), Gotterup (9)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Reed (F), Åberg (14), Greyserman (11), McNealy (9)

Scottie Scheffler grips down on a 3-wood at the driveable par-four 13th. His tee shot trundles through the dancefloor and off the back, into deep nonsense. He still swishes out to four feet … but the old putter woes resurface, as he dribbles a weak effort wide left. That’s a poor miss. A par that’ll feel like a bogey.

Aaron Rai looks to be in a spot of bother on the monster 551-yard 15th, the longest par-four in major championship history. His drive disappears into the rough down the left, and he’s forced to gouge out. But left with 108 yards, he lands his wedge a few feet past the hole and spins it back to 17 inches. He’ll tidy that up for a par that’ll feel like a birdie.

Chris Gotterup has been going about his business quietly. Now he hits the turn in 33, after birdies at 6 and 9. He joins Aaron Rai in the lead at -5 … as does Jon Rahm, who birdies the other par-five on the course, the 16th. Gotterup and Rahm become the 43rd and 44th [subs please check] players to lead this tournament today.

Scottie Scheffler is re-energised. From the bunker guarding the front of 12, he splashes out to kick-in distance. For a split second, the ball looks like dropping for another birdie, but stubbornly shaves the lip. Scottie spins round with great god-darn-it feeling. He thought that was in. But he’s still just three off the lead at -2, and the wind’s dropped a bit, so field watch out.

Problems for Min Woo Lee at the par-five 9th. He’s over the back of the green, and he’s unable to get back up with his chip. He ends up with a double-bogey seven, dropping to -1 overall. Meanwhile on the huge 8th green, Maverick McNealy leaves himself a 100-foot putt (!) and clatters it eight feet past and wide left. He can’t make the next one, and there goes that blemish-free run of pars. He’s -3. But Aaron Rai makes a nerveless save on 14, despite knocking his first putt six feet long. Rai still holds the sole lead at -5.

Finally some positive momentum for Scottie Scheffler. He wedges his approach at 11 over the flag to ten feet, and steers in the downhill swinger, with big right-to-left movement. Very well judged, especially in the context of the much easier putts he’s missed this afternoon, and he pumps the air gently with his fist as the ball drops. He’s back where he started the day at -2.

An incredibly careless three-putt bogey from 15 feet by Ludvig Åberg on 12. Maverick McNealy makes a graceful sandy save from a deep bunker at 7, without too much green to work with. That’s his seventh par in a row today. The new pretender to Nick Faldo’s crown? Because Stephan Jaeger is busy ruining his own steady-as-she-goes reputation: after that run of 29 consecutive pars was broken by birdie, he’s then carded back-to-back bogeys, at 7 and 8, to drop away to -2.

Birdie for Jon Rahm on 14. Reward for a tee shot at the par-three sent from 203 yards to 13 feet, and a putt rodded home. Meanwhile news of a disastrous finish to Justin Thomas’s front nine: bogeys at 7, 8 and 9, and he clatters down the standings to -1.

-5: Rai (12)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (F), Rahm (14), Åberg (11), Gotterup (7), McNealy (7)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Lee (8), Greyserman (8)

When Justin Thomas won his second PGA four years ago, he came back from a seven-shot deficit after 54 holes. That matched the PGA Championship record set by John Mahaffey in 1978. Thing is, there were just six players above Thomas on the leaderboard at that point; when Mahaffey did it, there were just four above him. Now this is purely for illustrative purposes, but right now there are 55 players within seven shots of the lead. Should Aaron Rai drop a shot, there’d be 65. Not entirely sure what I’m trying to say here, other than this leaderboard is glorious nonsense … and nobody will be coming back from seven behind this week, you can be pretty sure of that.

No, hold on, make that four off the lead … because Aaron Rai rolls in a 15-footer on 11 for his third birdie on the bounce, and the popular Englishman grabs the lead for himself! Given no English player has won this title since Jim Barnes in 1919, I’ll have to update the leaderboard now. Because just look at it!

-5: Rai (11)
-4: Schmid (F), Taylor (16), Åberg (10), Jaeger (6), Gotterup (5), McNealy (5)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Rahm (12), Lee (7), Greyserman (7)

Scottie Scheffler can only par the par-five 9th, and he turns in 36 strokes. Not the performance anyone expected. And yet he’s just three off the lead at -1.

Chris Gotterup joins the leaders. Birdie at 6. This is getting old. I’m not updating the leaderboard yet. I’m not sulking, I just … I just can’t. I will soon, promise.

… so how did Stephan Jaeger join the leaders? Well, the simple answer is, with birdie at 6. But what’s really eye-opening is that the birdie snaps a run of 29 consecutive pars. That run makes Nick Faldo look like Maurice Flitcroft.

Make that a round dozen. The 38-year-old Canadian Nick Taylor is on a heater: birdies at 3, 6, 9, 14 and now 16, and he’s joined the ever-growing pack at -4. Two pars and he’ll match Kristoffer Reitan, Chris Kirk and Justin Rose’s best-of-day 65s. Meanwhile one par for Matti Schmid and he’ll have done that, after parring 17.

-4: Schmid (17), Taylor (16), Rai (10), Åberg (9), Jaeger (6), McNealy (4)

It’s been an up-and-down round for Min Woo Lee so far. Bogeys at 3 and 4, followed by birdies at 5 and 6. The latter birdie was a swashbuckling affair: a 380-yard tee shot at the driveable par-four, into the heart of the green … then an aggressive eagle putt that races six feet past. But he makes the one coming back … and now he’s set up another birdie chance at 7. Meanwhile back-to-back birdies for Aaron Rai, at 9 and 10, and according to Sky Sports (because I’m certainly not going back to count) he becomes the 11th different leader today! It’s quite the leaderboard all right.

Matti Schmid is looking to become just the third male major champion of all time, behind Bernard Langer and Martin Kaymer. The 28-year-old hasn’t come close before: his silver medal for low amateur at the 2021 Open at Sandwich, which saw him finish in a tie for 59th, is still his best effort in any major. But on PGA Championship debut this week, he’s finally making his presence felt. Birdies at 13, 14 and now 16 have whisked him into a share of the lead. And he’s joined there by Ludvig Åberg, after birdies at 4, 6 and 9. Many think Åberg’s major breakthrough, which surely will happen sooner or later, is most likely to come at Augusta, but here we are. This is quite the leaderboard.

-4: Schmid (16), Åberg (9), McNealy (3)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Taylor (15), Rahm (11), Rai (9), Thomas (7), Lee (6), Jaeger (5), Gotterup (4)
-2: 15 players, life’s still going along at way too quickly a clip

Scottie Scheffler follows up one three-putt bogey with another. His tee shot into the par-three 8th nearly finds a bunker at the front. Instead it pings off the shoulder, to the right and then back to the front of the big green. His first putt up and over a ridge sails five feet wide left, and his uncertain par prod dribbles wide right of the green. Some shocked mumbling from the gallery, who haven’t seen Scottie putt like this since the early stage of his career, before something clicked with the flat stick and he went stellar. He’s back down to -1, and his expected charge across this supposedly easier front nine simply hasn’t materialised.

The wind is beginning to pick up now. Flags whipping. Trouser legs flapping. It’s not causing Justin Thomas any problems yet, though. The two-time champion birdies 5 and 6 to join the leaders. Meanwhile up on 18, Xander Schauffele pars the last to match Rory McIlroy’s 66, while Rickie Fowler signs for a blemish-free 68. They’re -3 and -1 respectively.

-4: Rahm (10), Thomas (6), McNealy (2)
-3: McIlroy (F), Schauffele (F), Schmid (15), Taylor (14), Åberg (8), Jaeger (4), Gotterup (3)
-2: 17 players, life’s too short

A careless bogey for Scottie Scheffler on 7. He gets a good break with his drive, which looked to be heading for the rough, but takes a bounce back onto the fairway. But he doesn’t take advantage. Distance control uncharacteristically awry, he flies the flag, and can’t get down in two putts from a higher portion of the green. Back to -2 for Scottie, and gaining and keeping momentum has been an issue for the world number one all week. Meanwhile Aldrich Potgieter fails to get up and down from greenside sand at 3 and hands the shot he’d just picked up straight back to the field. He slips out of the joint lead.

McIlroy’s driver has been misbehaving over this closing stretch, and there’s one last act of petulance from it. He sends his tee shot at 18 into thick rough down the right. He’s only able to scythe a wedge back onto the fairway, and now faces a very testing up and down to avoid an unwelcome bogey-bogey finish. It’d beat four in a row I guess. But he’s not enjoying these closing holes this week.

Rory does pretty well to limit the damage to bogey. A graceful chip from the thick surround that dribbles up to tap-in distance. But that’s cost him a share of the lead. Alex Smalley drops out of it too: though he finds the green from the trees with his second at 1, he seriously overcooks his first putt, and can’t make the 12-footer that’s left coming back. But coming the other way: Jon Rahm, who can’t make a 20-foot eagle putt on 9, but birdie will do. Meanwhile birdie for Scottie Scheffler at the short(ish) par-four 6th, and it’s all happening at the top.

-4: Rahm (9), Potgieter (2), McNealy (1)
-3: McIlroy (17), Schauffele (16), Schmid (14), Åberg (7), Kim (6), Scheffler (6), Greyserman (3), Jaeger (2), Matsuyama (2), Gotterup (2), Smalley (1)

Rory McIlroy gets a bit too clever on the par-three 17th, not once, but twice. He goes aggressively for the pin, tucked away back right behind a bunker, instead of going for the safer play. He dunks his tee shot into said trap, and his ball is plugged halfway up the face. Shortsided, he gets too delicate with his splash out, and though the ball escapes the bunker, it nestles in the first cut surrounding the green. Percentage play eschewed on both occasions, he’d now grab a bogey four with both hands and move on. So yeah, according to those aforementioned Justin Rose Rules, this closing stretch really was all about getting home without attracting trouble.

Aldrich Potgieter walks in a birdie putt on 2 to join the leaders. Hideki Matsuyama should do the same on 1, but fails to hit an inviting five-footer. He remains at -3. Meanwhile up on 18, Martin Kaymer pars for a very impressive 66. The 2010 champion is making an unexpected bid for a third major, fuelled by some PGA dolt asking him at the champions’ dinner whether he was still playing competitive golf. Suitably piqued, he’s now -2. He couldn’t, could he?

The final pairing come to the party. Alex Smalley is first up, and the North Carolinian wangs a wild opening drive towards the trees down the right. That didn’t even bother any of the punters lined along the hole. Maverick McNealy then blooters his tee shot down the left side of the fairway, and that’s everyone out now. A big evening for these two young men, neither with any story in the majors, and some of the biggest names in golf on their tail, coming up.

Greyserman makes a pretty good fist of the long par putt from the fringe at 2. It’s never dropping, but it’s close. He tidies up for bogey; to be honest, that could have been much worse after three extremely average shots. He’s back to -3 … as is, but in a much better mood, Aaron Rai, who birdies 6.

Greyserman catches a break, sort of, in so much as he’s got a clean lie as opposed to pure filth. But he airmails the green with second, long and left, and is extremely heavy handed with the chip from the swale coming back. The ball nearly topples off the other side of the green, and he’ll be putting up from the bottom of a ridge. Two putts for bogey will be a result here. Meanwhile belated news of Joaquin Niemann, who pars the last to finish with a 66. He’s -2 and well positioned for a tilt at a first major title tomorrow.

You’ll have spotted a new co-leader. It’s Max Greyserman, who at 30 years old has no wins on the PGA Tour, and has done nothing of note in any of the majors. What a time this would be to right a couple of wrongs. He rolls in a 12-footer for birdie at 1, having landed his approach pin high, and there he is at -4. However he has just carved his drive at 2 over the gallery on the right, his ball bounding off towards a tent with the words Pouring Bar on a sign atop the main flap. Depending on the lie, he could be tempted in.

… so yes, the 15th is the longest par four in major-championship history. The scorecard yardage is 546, matching the 14th at Chambers Bay for the 2015 US Open, but add five to that total today. So imagine how chuffed Rory McIlroy is, having left his chip from 52 yards 11 feet short, to roll the par saver confidently into the centre of the cup. “What a boost!” trills Paul McGinley on Sky. Compare and contrast to Scottie Scheffler, who from the centre of 2, leaves a weak approach from 123 yards 22 feet short, and fails to make the birdie putt. Scheffler, stuck on -2, hasn’t got going yet; McIlroy has the wind in his sail. And yet there’s just the two strokes between them on the leaderboard. The defending champ will hardly be panicking yet.

-4: McIlroy (15), Greyserman (1), Smalley, McNealy
-3: Schauffele (14), Conners (11), Rahm (7), Cantlay (6), Lee (1), Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup

The par-four 15th is playing at 551 yards today. A 551-yard par-four. In other words, don’t miss the fairway, because you’re not getting on in regulation otherwise. And Rory McIlroy misses the fairway. Not by much, a few feet to the left, but the first cut is almost as thick and lush as the main cabbage, so it’s all McIlroy can do to hack out with a 7-iron and hope the ball scampers a long way. He makes a good job of it, but he’s still 40 yards short of the green and now has work to do if he’s to save his par. If Justin Rose’s final few holes and subsequent interview are anything to go by, the rest of Rory’s round could be primarily focused on getting home having copped as little damage as possible.

At the risk of belabouring the point, please let me quote Sky summariser Wayne Riley, who just announced that “the average round” this morning was 69. “That’s a good round now,” he observes. The current clubhouse leaders Kristoffer Reitan, Chris Kirk and Justin Rose (-2) swing their feet up onto the desk in unison.

… so does Scottie calmly walk in the par saver? Of course he does. He remains at -2, and that could be a subtle momentum-swinger. Bogey for Aaron Rai at 4, however; he slips back to -2, alongside Scheffler.

Rose also said that should the later starters fail to get off to a quick start, they may start doubting themselves as the wind gets stronger and the greens harden under the sun. So Scottie Scheffler won’t be in the best humour right now. Having missed that short birdie putt at 1, he sends his tee shot at 2 into the thick rough, from where he can’t generate the spin required with his wedge to hold the green. His chip up from the swale behind the green stops ten feet short, and this is a big par putt coming up.

Justin Rose, his work today done and looking very relaxed as a result, has just been speaking to Sky Sports. The gist of his interview: he felt the wind picking up and swirling around a bit towards the end of his round, and things are unlikely to get any easier from here on in. So the later starters will be cursing the good fortune of the early birds. Two phrases stuck out: “Less gettable as the day goes on” and “Hold on a second, why is it not so easy for me?!” Rose wasn’t captured on camera sauntering off whistling a jolly tune, hands in pockets, hello sun, hello birds, hello flowers. But that’s not to definitively say he didn’t do it. We just don’t know. He was certainly in a good enough mood.

Rory McIlroy joins the leaders! His tee shot at the drivable par-four 13th doesn’t fade as he intends, and ends up in a bunker on the left. But no bother. He splashes out to five feet, and tidies up for his sixth birdie of the day. (Just the one blemish on his card, at the 4th.) Meanwhile Jon Rahm follows up birdie at 1 with another at 5, and though Joaquin Niemann takes a step back with bogey at 17, it’s safe to say the big guns are assembling. Penny for the thoughts of Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy, no doubt keeping an eye on the clubhouse TV.

-4: McIlroy (13), Smalley, McNealy
-3: Schauffele (12), Rahm (5), Rai (3), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup

Scottie Scheffler sends his wedge at 1 to five feet … only to shove the birdie putt wide right. A disappointing par in the circumstances, and he stares back at the hole with feeling. He remains -2. Meanwhile two consecutive birdies for Aaron Rai, at 2 and 3, and Wolverhampton’s finest is suddenly just one off the lead.

The defending champion Scottie Scheffler gets down to work … and sends a booming drive befitting his world number-one status miles down the 1st fairway. He’ll have noticed some of his biggest rivals making hay, and will be salivating accordingly. For example, here’s Joaquin Niemann, a king over the water at LIV, making birdies at 9, 10, 13 and 15, and now a kick-in eagle at 16. All of a sudden the 27-year-old Chilean is right in the thick of it.

-4: Smalley, McNealy
-3: Burns (16), Niemann (16), McIlroy (12), Schauffele (11), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (F), Kirk (F), Rose (F), Kaymer (14), Conners (8), Rahm (3), Cantlay (3), Rai (2), Åberg (1), Kim (1), Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas

Some other good early rounds of note. Brian Harman is in with a 66; the erstwhile Open champ is -1 overall. Taylor Pendrith has shot 67; the Canadian is +1. And Padraig Harrington, who won this tournament in 2008, has followed yesterday’s 69 with a 67. The 54-year-old veteran is level par for the week so far.

… and now joining McIlroy and Schauffele at -3: Sam Burns. He’s just made four birdies in a row, at 13, 14, 15 and 16, though he needed all of the hole with his short putt for the last of those. He’s five under for his round, and on course to match the best-of-day 65s of Reitan, Kirk and Rose. A fair chance those won’t be the lowest rounds today, mind.

Xander Schauffele fancies reclaiming the crown he won in 2024. He turned in 32, and now he’s just made his fifth birdie of the day at 11. He joins Rory as the only currently active member of the group at -3.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, is very much on the charge. He hit the turn in 32, taking advantage like others before him of the relatively benign early conditions. Now he’s made another, sending a lob wedge at 11 to six feet and rolling in the putt. He’s looking as confident as he looked irritated after that inexplicable run of four consecutive bogeys to close round one, and if he continues like this, and posts something out there, the leaders Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy will have some work to do, with the wind expected to pick up a little bit later. Rory is -3.

Justin Rose was the next player after Michael Kim to get stuck in. He carded five birdies on the front nine, at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9, turning in 30. Another birdie at 13 was instantly cancelled out with bogey on 14, since when he’s been forced to make a series of staunch par savers. But they’ve all gone in. He’s hanging onto his score, and he’s one par away from a 65 that will revive his bid for a second major. To think he needed to make birdie on 9 last night in order to survive the cut … and chipped in for eagle! Rose is -2 overall.

Chris Kirk won’t be making his record-equalling 62. He takes Texas wedge from off the front of the 18th, and rattles a very excitable 45-foot birdie attempt 12 feet past. He’ll now have a job on to card 63.

The first sign that low scoring was afoot today was provided by Michael Kim. The 32-year-old, born in South Korea but representing the USA, has come out of a mid-career slump that saw him at one point miss 23 cuts in a row. He won the French Open last year, and has reestablished himself as a regular participant in the majors, if not one making any serious waves. He was due to miss the cut yesterday, and was +7 with six holes to play, but birdied 4 and 6 before chipping in for eagle at 9. Then this morning he birdied 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, a run spoiled by a single bogey at 4. He turned in 30. Sadly a double bogey at 10 scuppered his momentum, and though he came close to making a hole-in-one albatross at the driveable par-four 13th – six feet short, for the record – he shot 37 on the back nine. Still, that’s a fine 67, a round he wasn’t expecting to play six holes from home yesterday. He’s level par overall. Kim is the current clubhouse leader, alongside Nicolai Højgaard, who shot 66 today.

Actually, let’s immediately revise that, because Chris ‘Captain’ Kirk has just raked in a long birdie putt across 17. It’s his eighth birdie of the day. Just the one bogey, and so a birdie up the last would give the 41-year-old from Tennessee a 62, equalling the lowest-ever round in a men’s major, a record jointly held by Branden Grace (2017 Open), Rickie Fowler (2023 US Open), Xander Schauffele (2023 US Open and 2024 PGA) and Shane Lowry (2024 PGA). Oh, and it gives him a share of the lead.

-4: Kirk (17), Smalley, McNealy
-3: Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (16), Rose (15), McIlory (9), Åberg, English, Kim, Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas

Here we go, then … and the scoring was much better this morning. The ball running further, the wind down. And as a result, a few players have made a run towards the top of the leaderboard. Let’s catch up on exactly how things stand at the minute, and then we can work out how we got here …

-4: Smalley, McNealy
-3: Kirk (16), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (16), Rose (15), McIlory (9), Åberg, English, Kim, Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas