Unsweet 16: World's top 3 golfers make mess of 16th hole at PGA Championship, taking double bogey

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele were supposed to be the marquis group to watch on Thursday at the PGA Championship.

It didn’t look like it in Round 1 — at least on the 16th hole at Quail Hollow.

The world’s top three players all made double bogey on the 535-yard, par-4 hole with Scheffler and Schauffele finding the water on their approach shots from the middle of the fairway while dealing with some mud on their golf balls, and McIlroy making a mess of the hole — literally — when he slipped in the wet conditions trying to hit from the deep rough from a sidehill lie.

All three walked off the green separately, dejected and eager to hit the reset button.

McIlroy seemed destined for trouble from the start after the Masters champion hooked his tee shot to the left and watched in disbelief as his ball rolled down a steep embankment, stopping in the deep rough a few yards from the water that runs along the left side of the fairway. That left McIlroy with an awkward stance on a muddy sidehill that had endured two days of heavy rains this week.

As McIlroy attempted to strike the ball, his back foot slipped and he was lucky just to make contact with the ball, which fluttered some 65 yards ahead and landed in some shorter rough. McIlroy couldn't salvage par as his approach shot from 181 yards sailed right of the green. He chipped over a bunker and two-putted for a 6.

The wet grounds affected Scheffler and Schauffele, too.

Both smoked beautiful drives down the middle of the fairway and seemed poised to make birdie on the start on Quail Hollow's difficult three closing holes on the back nine known as the Green Mile.

But playing with muddied balls, both sent their approach shots from about 200 yards into water on the left side of the green in nearly identical fashion, and were forced to take drops. Facing severe uphill lies, both players sent their loft wedges well past the hole, and needed two putts to finish out — with Scheffler making a 7-foot putt just to save double bogey.

It’s the first time since 2022 the PGA Championship has grouped together Nos. 1-2-3 in the world ranking for the start of the tournament.

It was part of an erratic start for Scheffler, who carded an eagle, birdie, par, bogey and double bogey on his first seven holes with the players starting their round on No. 10.

Prior to Thursday, Scheffler had never made a double bogey (or worse) in the first round of a major championship.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, reacts after missing a putt on the 16th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Scottie Scheffler reacts after the 16th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Xander Schauffele chips to the green on the 16th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man accused of steering a U-Haul truck toward a Los Angeles demonstration supporting Iran's protests was released after being arrested on suspicion of reckless driving and has yet to be formally charged, authorities said Monday.

Police first said one person was hit by truck during Sunday’s protest, but on Monday said no one was struck. Two people declined treatment after paramedics evaluated them at the scene, the fire department said.

Messages were sent to the city attorney's office Monday asking about possible charges against the 48-year-old man. Police say he sped into the crowd of demonstrators, some waving Iran’s lion and sun flag, an emblem of its former ruler, the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The protesters gathered Sunday afternoon in Westwood, a neighborhood that's home to the largest Iranian community outside the country.

Videos shared on social media show demonstrators scrambling out of the truck's way while a few chase after it. The vehicle stopped several blocks away, its windshield, mirrors and a window shattered. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed police officers keeping the crowd at bay while demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.

Investigators searched the truck, “with nothing significant being found,” the police statement said.

Police said the protesters tore down a banner on the truck that read “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-backed coup in that year which toppled then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the country’s oil industry. The coup cemented the shah's power and lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.

From exile in the United States, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah who fled Iran just before the Islamic Revolution, has called on Iranians to join the demonstrations. Some Iranians have chanted pro-shah slogans, which were once punishable by death, highlighting the anger fueling demonstrations that began over Iran’s sanctions-crippled economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with military action over its crackdown on protesters in nationwide demonstrations that activists said Monday had left nearly 600 dead across the country.

Associated Press journalists Julie Watson in San Diego and Michael Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.

Signs from a Sunday protest, supporting protesters in Iran, are left on a yard Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Signs from a Sunday protest, supporting protesters in Iran, are left on a sidewalk Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)