ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Sports Network) -- With the pressure of playing professional golf at the highest level, and this week in one golf's four major championships, most golfers enlist the services of a sports psychologist.
Rod Pampling doesn't need one. His wife, Angela, is a clinical psychologist who often walks the course with her husband.
"We don't interact while we're out there," said Pampling. "She more or less just looks at the way I react to certain shots. If I've hit a bad shot, she'll just see how I react, just to make sure I'm keeping on top of it and not letting it get to me. We do a lot of work before the round, just to make sure I'm prepared for what to expect, if something happens.
"It's a huge part of the golf game now. It's just another link, I suppose, that can get you to the top of the game, and that's an area that you need to be good at to perform out here."
Pampling might need a session with Angela Thursday night. The only other time he held the first-round lead in a major championship was at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie and he turned around and carded an 86 in the second round to miss the cut.
Another interesting piece of information on Pampling is that his clubs were stolen out of his garage in mid-April.
"Generally, we swap clubs around, but when you lose 14 clubs, there's a couple of clubs that you've had for a long time in there and that puts pressure on other parts of the game that it normally doesn't," said Pampling. "It took a while to sort of get around that."
ACES FOR ALLENBY: Robert Allenby recorded the first ace in two years at the PGA Championship Thursday. He used a 4-iron at the 225-yard 11th hole and watched the ball roll seven feet and into the bottom of the cup.
The Aussie carded an even-par 70 and is tied for 13th.
Allenby's ace was the first since the 2001 tournament at Atlanta Athletic Club. Eventual winner David Toms, Scott Hoch and Nick Faldo all made holes-in-one two years ago.
HARDEST HOLE: The hardest hole Thursday at Oak Hill Country Club was the 495-yard, par- 4 17th, which played to an average of 4.7. The easiest hole in the first round was the par-4 16th, which played to an average of 4.1.
MORE POWER: The power outage that affected the northeast section of the country impacted Oak Hill Country Club as well. The lights were out in the players locker room and candles were used to illuminate the area.
WILD WHACK: PGA Professional John Guyton started the 85th PGA Championship Thursday morning. Unfortunately, he drove it out of bounds right and the ball landed in the backyard of a neighboring house. He took a double-bogey on the hole and finished with a round of 10-over-par 80.
GO FOR IT: The par-4 14th was going to be one of the most interesting holes of this championship and it delivered on Thursday. At 323 yards and uphill, there was a question as to whether some players would try to drive the green. Hank Kuehne, Vijay Singh and Aaron Baddeley all used driver and all missed the putting surface and made pars.
FIRST-TIMERS: With Mike Weir, Jim Furyk and Ben Curtis as 2003's major winners, there is a chance that all four Grand Slam champions can be first-timers. That hasn't happened since 1969. First-round co-leaders Phil Mickelson and Pampling are both majorless.
HARD EIGHT: Tom Watson participated in his eighth major championship of 2003 Thursday when he teed it up at Oak Hill. Bruce Edwards, his long-time caddie afflicted with ALS, is not on the bag and is in the Bahamas receiving a new form of treatment. A member of the gallery gave Watson a check for $1,000 Tuesday to go toward the ALS effort.
LOW BEEM: The 2002 champion Rich Beem opened with a 12-over 82, the highest score by defending champion in the following year's first round since the tournament went to stroke play in 1958.
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