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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Amid the wind and the havoc at Kiawah Island, there was a semblance of simplicity to the way Corey Conners navigated his way around the Ocean Course for a 5-under 67 and a two-shot lead Thursday in the PGA Championship. RELATED: Once again, 17 provides best theater at Kiawah | Leaderboard He birdied all the par 5s. He made a couple of long putts for birdie. He dropped only one shot. The scorecard alone made it look like a walk on the beach. It just didn’t feel that way. “I’d say it’s impossible to be stress-free around this golf course,” Conners said. “You can’t fall asleep out there on any holes. It’s very challenging. I was fortunate to have a good day. Made it as least stressful as possible on myself.” With a stiff wind into his face for his last five holes, the 29-year-old Canadian played the tough closing stretch in 2 under, one of those birdies a 55-foot putt from just short of the green. He led by two shots over a half-dozen players. That group included Brooks Koepka, who started his day with a double bogey and stayed largely out of trouble the rest of the way; and Cameron Davis, who overcame a triple bogey on the sixth hole. Keegan Bradley, Viktor Hovland, Aaron Wise and Sam Horsfield also were at 69. The seven players to break 70 were the fewest for the opening round of the PGA Championship since there were five at Hazeltine in 2002. “I definitely knew in my preparation that it was possible to have a decent round out here and shoot a 5-, 6-under par round,” Conners said. “So kind of started the day thinking, ‘Why not me?’ There’s birdies to be had.” No one needed them like Koepka, a major presence when conditions are severe. One hole into this major, he had reason to be more worried about his brain than his ailing right knee. His opening tee shot on the 10th hole at Kiawah Island was struck poorly and didn’t quite clear a waste area. Koepka tried to do too much from a soft lie in the sand and barely got it out. It led to a double bogey, and the toughest part of the Ocean Course was still to come. But this is a major, and this is Koepka, and that’s when he’s at his best. He knuckled down from that mess by running off six birdies the rest of the way. “You can’t do that stuff if you want to win. You’ve just got to be more focused,” said Koepka, who has played only twice in the last three months because of surgery to repair ligaments in his knee. “I don’t know if that’s a lack of not playing or what. It was just stupid. I was able to recover, I guess.” So did 50-year-old Phil Mickelson, who had four bogeys through six holes and nothing but birdies and pars the rest of the way to join the large group at 70 that included defending champion Collin Morikawa and former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. More telling were those on the other side of par, some of whom will be scrambling to make it to the weekend. Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world in the midst of his worst stretch in nearly two years, took a double bogey from a wild tee shot on the front nine and a double bogey on the 18th for a 76. He’s in jeopardy of missing the cut in consecutive majors in the same year for the first time in his career. Justin Thomas took double bogey on the 18th hole in the morning and two holes later sent a sand shot over the green and just into a hazard for another 6 on the par-5 second. He had a 75. Rory McIlroy, coming off a victory at Quail Hollow two weeks ago, sent his opening tee shot into a water hazard. He salvaged a bogey, but certainly not his round. McIlroy made bogey on three of the par 5s for a 75, his worst start ever in a PGA Championship. Jordan Spieth, who needs a victory to complete the career Grand Slam, shot 73. The PGA of America moved up tee boxes, as expected, to account for the wind. The course played to 7,660 yards — 178 yards shorter than the scorecard — though that didn’t make it easy. Thomas, for one, still hit 7-wood into the 214-yard 17th. John Daly was among 12 players who shot in the 80s. On the 30-year anniversary of his PGA Championship victory at Crooked Stick, he shot 85. There were birdies to be had, and mistakes to be made, and Martin Laird was example of both. So wild was his round that he made bogey on No. 12, ran off four straight birdies and then closed with two bogeys. That added to a 70, not a bad day’s work. “I kind of went out with the mindset this week, even though it’s hard, don’t give the course too much respect,” Laird said. “You still have to take on shots when you have the chance. When I had a spot where I could go at the flag, I was making sure I kept doing it and hit a lot of really nice shots and managed to make some birdies. “You’re going to hit bogeys on this golf course,” he said. “It’s nice when you can throw in a bunch of birdies, too.” Finally heeled from a left knee injury, Koepka injured ligaments in his right knee in March and has played only twice since then, the Masters and last week in Dallas. He began with a poor 3-wood on No. 10 that didn’t clear the waste area. He took on too much with a soft lie in the sand and barely got it out, leading to a double bogey. But he didn’t flinch and had few complaints about his start. “It’s a major. I’m going to show up. I’m ready to play,” he said. “I love it when it’s difficult. I think that’s why I do so well in the majors. I just know mentally I can grind it out.”

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These days, the course is called Catawba Creek. But back when a 9-year-old Harold Varner III started playing there, it was known as Gastonia (N.C.) Municipal. His father, who was a car salesman, and his mother, a nursing assistant, managed to come up with $100 so their gifted and gregarious son could play golf as many times as he wanted that summer. And the summer after that, and the summer after that. When he eventually got a job at Gaston Country Club doing everything from picking the range to maintenance work, Varner had playing privileges there. He also came under the transformative guidance of Bruce Sudderth, a highly regarded teacher who is a member of the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame. Varner still sees some of those “old men” he met as a precocious kid and played with – and sometimes beat in the weekly dogfight — at Catawba Creek. And he fondly remembers the Par Busters, a group of predominately African-American golfers that his dad belonged to who would keep a youngster like him in check. “It takes a village to raise a kid and Gastonia’s obviously my village,” Varner says of the satellite city of 75,000 just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. “Obviously, the members at Gaston Country Club, the old men at Gaston Municipal, and then the Par Busters — they basically raised a little kid and turned him into a man.” Varner knows the life lessons learned at those clubs and from those men were just as important as the ones he got on the practice range from Sudderth. That’s one of the reasons he wanted to get involved in Youth on Course, which provides affordable access to golf for kids aged 6-18. The organization is the “closest thing to my journey,” Varner explains. Kids enrolled in the Youth on Course program can walk and play 18 holes for $5 or less at more than 1,400 courses across the United States and Canada. The organization also offers caddie and internship programs, and it has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships. “I think it’s going to do a lot,” Varner says. “I think it’s going to do exactly what I’ve wanted every other organization to do — give a kid a chance to play golf. … “They’re going to learn a lot from the people that they encounter, how to talk to a human, how to treat people and then get better at golf.” But Varner has done more than lend his name to the non-profit as an ambassador. His own HV3 Foundation is a substantial supporter of the Youth on Course program and its facilities affiliated with the Carolinas Golf Association. Among the more than 50 courses involved are Forest Oaks Country Club, which was once the home of the Wyndham Championship; Pine Needles Lodge & Resort, which hosts its fourth U.S. Women’s Open next June and the Nos. 1, 3 and 5 courses at Pinehurst Country Club. Adam Heieck, who is the CEO of Youth on Course, sees Varner as the perfect fit as the organization’s first ambassador. “Harold has been a vocal champion of our organization for years, not to mention his significant financial contributions which have made a huge difference for young golfers in the Carolinas,” he said when the partnership was announced earlier this year. So, what is the best lesson the 31-year-old learned from the people in his village when he was a teenager? “There’s a lot of them,” said Varner, who became a father last weekend when Harold William Varner IV, otherwise known as Liam, was born. “Yes sir, no sir, and thank you and please go a long way. We don’t do that now. Like, it’s unheard of. It’s like uncommon. “Like when you hear it — for example (Hideki) Matsuyama’s caddie basically gave respect to the golf course (by bowing on the 18th green at Augusta National after the Masters), and we’re like in awe of it. When did respect become like a shocking thing?” While golf is obviously a focus with the AJGA’s HV3 Foundation All-Stars and the other tournaments it runs for kids, Varner’s foundation is dedicated to promoting affordable access to all sports, particularly for young people in underserved communities. “I’m super excited just give a kid a chance to obviously play golf,” he says. “But the biggest thing for us is providing access through sports in general and that’s where we’re getting closer to.” Paying it forward through organizations like Youth on Course is the goal. “I just want to do great things for the people that have done great things for my life,” he says. “I don’t think it’s hard to do. So, you can put a face if you have to put a face on it. I’ll put my face in it because I like to do things and move in silence and just help cause that’s what you’re supposed to do. “You don’t need recognition to help.”

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