LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When the tee times for the first round of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club were announced Tuesday, it was easy to see where the most fan attention would be directed.

Teeing off in back-to-back groups were Louisville native and two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and golfing legend Tiger Woods. Neither golfer is currently operating at the peak of his career, but they were still certain to attract the largest crowds in Louisville.

Fans who showed up to follow the groups teeing off just before 8 a.m. were not disappointed, but both Thomas and Woods took a back seat in performance at least to Xander Schauffele, who tied a major championship record by shooting a 62 while playing in the same group as Thomas. The performance marked just the fourth time — including once previously by Schauffele — someone had shot a 62 in a major.

“It’s a great start to a big tournament,” Schauffele said. “One I’m obviously always going to take, but it’s just Thursday.”

Thomas shot a 2-under-par 69. Woods finished the first round with a 1-over-par 72.

In Valhalla’s third turn hosting the PGA Championship, Thomas earned the chance to play his first major tournament in his hometown. He could relate to the throngs of fans following Woods throughout the course since he was among them as a 7-year-old during Woods’ win in the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

“The Kentucky/Louisville sports fans, they’re sports fans and we don’t get golf tournaments really ever, let alone major championships,” Thomas said Tuesday. “And when it comes here I think you see that with some other Midwest venues, that they love it. Just the energy was crazy that week (in 2000) and just hearing the roars in person. You’re on one side of the course, you hear it on another side of the course. Or maybe I’m inside and I could hear it wherever it was going on.

“As a 7-year-old, that’s pretty cool to hear in person. You think you can do anything when you’re that age, but watching Tiger and Bob May duel it out and how it all ended and me being a Tiger fan that I was, it was about as perfect of a week as I could have imagined. … Not that you know what you want to do when you’re 7 years old, but I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to play golf.”

The round began slowly for Thomas. After starting on the back nine, he hit the turn at even-par but began to build some momentum with back-to-back birdies on four and five. A bogie followed on six before two more birdies on seven and eight.

Playing in the group behind Thomas and Schauffele, Woods was 1-over-par at the turn. Birdies on three and seven appeared to build momentum, but he closed his round with back-to-back three-puts for bogies on eight and nine.

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