First round of PGA championship sees some love for Davis Love and respect for Tiger Woods and Luke Donald

During the first round of the PGA Championship, It didn’t take some bright spark on the betting forums long to start a “When will Davis Love III blow it?” thread. He should have saved his fingers. Hardly had the pixels formed his words on the screen than Love obliged - in a style he has almost made his own. His triple bogey on the 17th really spoilt his good walk in spectacular fashion after establishing what looked like an emphatic 7 under just after the turn for home.

What a shame - for me I mean. There I was, dreaming of reminding people how he crashed in flames at the Players Championship with a second round 83 and urging everyone to lay him until their wallets, bank accounts, cash under the mattress and proceeds from any bank robberies ran dry, at some juicy price. As it is 34 does not have quite the same appeal. Ach, I’ll lay him anyway.

Indeed I had dreamt of saying many things as we watched an intriguing day unfold at Medinah. At the start I had thought of saying ‘told you so’ as Tiger Woods bogeyed the first. But the great man recovered his composure to play cat and mouse with his partners until they all ended at 3 under.

Less impressive was Phil Mickelson, spraying things every which way and lucky to finish as well as he did. I don’t think this is going to be Lefty’s weekend, but I’m too much of a coward to put my money where my mouth is.

As for Tiger, his price is right back where we started, having edged out by about a point during play. I think I’ll cash it in now because I’m sure he’ll come out guns blazing Friday. He has to because not even Tiger can afford to let the leaders get too far away and on this course a deficit of three is already a significant ask.

We are left with Lucas Glover and Chris Riley, who actually tell the tale of two golf matches. Glover is there representing the heavy hitter distance players. Riley is the opposite, an accuracy merchant. The divide is starkly reflected among the other top players. So again, size isn’t everything.

Obviously “local boy” Luke Donald is my biggest threat, but then alongside him is one of my tips, Australian Robert Allenby. There’s already a 2-1 profit to be had on him.