LIV Golf at 2025 PGA Championship: Highlights from Jon Rahm, David Puig, more

The 2025 PGA Championship, the second major of the year, is in full swing at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina, and this year’s field features 16 LIV Golf players — Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Joaquin Niemann, Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Tom McKibbin, Patrick Reed, Martin Kaymer, Richard Bland, Dean Burmester, John Catlin and David Puig.

Some made the field based on current world rankings, while others qualified with recent major wins or by finishing in the top 15 at the 2024 PGA Championship. There are some special cases too, as past PGA champions earn a lifetime exemption for the tournament, and a handful of LIV golfers received invitations to play in this year’s tournament. 

Here are the highlights after Round 1.

David Puig puts up gutsy even-par 71

Despite a back injury that cropped up late in his final round during LIV Golf’s most recent tournament in Korea, Puig produced a gutsy even-par 71 that leaves him in good position to make the cut. Even though his round ended with a double bogey, the 23-year-old from Spain was pleased, given the circumstances he faced.

“If I’m telling the truth, I think it was a great day overall,” Puig said. “Especially without practicing and with having some sort of back pain. I think I competed very well.”

Puig said his back cramped up on him the last five or six holes in Korea, although he managed to overcome it by finishing eagle-birdie-birdie on his final three holes to slip inside the top 20 of the leaderboard.

Jon Rahm’s rollercoaster stretch

Starting his round off the 10th tee, Rahm played his opening nine holes in a bogey-free 2 under, including three consecutive pars through the dangerous Green Mile. Things went awry from there, with Rahm making bogey-birdie-bogey-bogey-birdie-bogey on his next six holes that undid all the good scoring on his first nine.

Fortunately, a birdie at the short par-4 eighth left him with a 1-under 70 and in a good spot to make an impact going into Friday’s second round. “It’s funny because I made bogeys but didn’t necessarily make horrible swings,” the Legion XIII captain said about this six-hole adventure. “It was just missed it on the wrong places.”

Rahm is used to starting with a 70 in the PGA Championship – it’s the fifth time in nine career starts that he’s opened with that number. That includes his first PGA start in 2017 at Quail Hollow. His opening 70 left him tied for 15th but a second-round 75 dropped him out of contention entering the weekend.

Eight years later, he’ll have a chance to make a more positive move.

Alex Smalley goes from alternate to contender in a span of 20 hours

There were plenty of non-LIV golfers who had strong outings on Thursday as well. 

Smalley was on the putting green at Quail Hollow, going through his drills and looking like any of the other 156 players at the PGA Championship. But he wasn’t. On the eve of the major, Smalley wasn’t sure he would have a tee time.

And then, in a span of about 20 hours, the North Carolina native went from first alternate to a 4-under 67 that kept his name around the top of the leaderboard on Thursday.

“I really prepared just like any other week,” Smalley said. “Obviously, it’s interesting being first alternate. I was losing hope after every passing hour. And you know, you hear about everybody’s ailments being first alternate.”

In this case, it was Sahith Theegala, who had to withdraw during the Truist Championship last week at Philadelphia Cricket Club. And his neck injury never got better for the Californian to play the PGA Championship, a major he finished in the top 15 a year ago. So he was out.

Smalley was in.

He had three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the back nine (after starting on No. 10), dropped a pair of shots on tough par 4s on the front nine and then shot his way back into the mix by holing a 70-foot putt across the green on the par-5 seventh for eagle.

Smalley made a short birdie putt on the short par-4 eighth, managed par on the brutal par-4 ninth hole and had his lowest score in his third appearance at the PGA Championship.

Donald and Bradley turned the opening round of the PGA Championship into their own little Ryder Cup competition Thursday.

Shortly after Donald carded a surprising 4-under-par 67 — his best opening round at a major in 21 years — Bradley checked in with a 68, leaving both Ryder Cup captains in contention at Quail Hollow with 54 holes remaining.

“If it’s tied 14-14, are you talking a playoff? I’ll grab the trophy and go back to Europe,” joked Donald, whose European team bested the Americans 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, meaning they will retain the trophy if they tie or beat the Americans this September at Bethpage Black.

Bradley got a chuckle out of Donald’s comments and said he planned to text his counterpart and let him know he was “pumped” for him.

“It’s unique,” Bradley said of having both Ryder Cup captains in the top 10. “You know, one of the interesting things about becoming captain, only other captains can understand what you’re going through, and the day-to-day process and the pressure and everything that comes with that.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Parts of this piece are courtesy of Mike McAllister in partnership with LIV Golf.

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