For PGA leader Gary Woodland, almost a home game

ST. LOUIS — Statistics revealed that Gary Woodland’s successful putts totaled 152 feet, 5 inches, which was noteworthy on a day when many top golfers had trouble with the occasionally bumpy greens. The measurement that meant most to him, though, was the comparatively short distance of 311 miles from his hometown of Topeka, Kansas.

That is right around the corner by Midwest standards, when it comes to golf. Major championships do not come to this part of the country very often. That was why Woodland said, after having shot 6-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead in the PGA Championship, “I’m just happy and excited to be as close to home as I’ll ever be.”

He said he had “a million friends and family out here, which is really cool” (later acknowledging that he personally recognized about 75 to 100). He added that Missouri fans treated a rival like a neighbor, “and I really fed off the energy.”

And he did putt extremely well, having benefited from lessons by short-game guru Phil Kenyon since the British Open. The result was a strong afternoon in which he took first place away from morning leader Rickie Fowler, the supposed Best Player Never to Have Won a Major, who shot 65.

The two headliners for this major were not near the top of the leaderboard but were not out of the running, either. Tiger Woods, seeking his first major title in 10 years, got off to a horrible start. He chunked an early shot into the water to go 3 over for the first two holes, then recovered and finished with par 70. Jordan Spieth, trying to complete the career Grand Slam, shot 71.

No one seemed as comfortable as Woodland, 34, the former basketball star at Shawnee Heights High School who played golf at the University of Kansas. “There’s a lot of bad blood there between Kansas and Missouri.  There were a lot of chants going on, a lot of jokes making fun of Jayhawks. I heard a lot of stuff that actually made me laugh,” he said.

What is no joke to him is his record in majors. He never has done better than a tie for 12th at the 2016 British Open. The three-time PGA Tour winner was particularly frustrated on the way to a tie for 67th at Carnoustie last month. His agent, Mark Steinberg (also Woods’ agent) took action.

 “Steiney and I were staying together that week and I think he had had enough of me complaining about it so he called Phil,” Woodland said.

After some new drills and a new type of grip on the putter itself, Woodland had confidence to overcome the difficulty of putting on soft greens that grew choppy with a day’s traffic. He birdied seven of his last 11 holes.

Fowler was just as pleased with his own round. He asserted what he often has said, that he does press in the majors, despite seeing his good buddies Spieth and Justin Thomas win them. “I’m definitely happy, but on Thursday, you can’t go win the golf tournament,” he said.

The fashion-conscious golfer added that he switched from his scripted blue shirt Thursday to bright yellow to honor Jarrod Lyle, the PGA Tour player who died Wednesday night. Fowler reflected the feelings of many golfers who wore yellow ribbons in memory of a cheerful golfer who wore a yellow cap.

“It’s been fun to be thinking about him while we’re out there playing because he would probably be the one to kind of kick you in the butt if you started feeling sad or bad,” Fowler said.

Woods also changed shirts, but did it during the round, after his second hole. He explained that his vastly improved play after that had nothing to do with wardrobe. “I sweat a lot,” he said, adding that he usually changes shirts after his warmup but didn’t see a place to do it.

Of his round, Woods said: “Being 3 over through two, a lot of things could happen. Not a lot of them were positive, but I hung in there and turned it around.”