Thursday afternoon, Graeme Storm shot a 31 on the back nine on his way to a 65 to lead the PGA Championship over John Daly by two strokes. Yes, the same John Daly that is only in the tournament with a lifetime exemption as a past champion. In fact, it is also the same John Daly that isn’t even fully exempt on the PGA TOUR this season.

"I haven’t played this course since ‘94 and didn’t play a practice round this week because it was too hot," said Daly. "But the angles were really good for me today and I hit the driver real well."

Graeme Storm started the day hot by carding birdies on three of his first four holes. On his second hole of the day, Storm played the par three 11th nearly perfectly by stuffing his tee shot to just six inches.

"It was just one of those rounds, really, when I never really thought about anything. I just kept on doing the things that I was trying to do, which was just enjoy myself.
And, yeah, I did get off to a fast start. I nearly had a hole-in-one at the 11th, which was my second hole. So 2-under through the first two holes is always nice."

One of the biggest stories of the day was the severe weather the players had to endure. With temperatures pushing through triple digits it was just another reminder that this is an endurance race and not a sprint.

When asked about the heat, Tiger Woods (+1) said, "Well, it’s warmer than Florida but nowhere near as humid which is nice. That’s one of the reasons why you run all those miles ought here in the heat and stay in decent shape."

John Daly also had a similar response. "I’m used to it, let’s put it that way. I grew up around this area. I’m used to kind of little valleys where you don’t get a lot of — you don’t get any air and there’s a lot of humidity and it’s tough to breathe. I light up a cigarette and drink some caffeine and it actually works. It does bother me but I’m used to it, let’s put it that way. When you grow up around this area it’s not the heat that bothers you, it’s more the humidity than anything. And anybody that lives around here knows that. You can deal with heat. I can go to Palm Springs, California, Phoenix, Arizona, right now it could be 120 and you hardly sweat. So humidity is brutal and we’re used to it."

Daly had an excellent day on the course; especially since he had not played there since 1994. Daly’s routine is somewhat different from Tiger Wood’s 6am practice rounds.

"I’ve been playing slots over at Cherokee Casino. Did good the first day; didn’t do too good the other day. But I played their golf course yesterday. I went out just in a cart. They gave me the golf course from 10:00 to 1:00 yesterday. I got a lot of practicing in."

 If anyone is wondering wether or not Graeme Storm can keep up the pace, they won’t have to wait for long. Storm is currently slotted for the very first tee time on Friday morning, which may give him a bit of a reprive from the heat. According to www.weather.com, the temperature in Tulsa will feel like 107 tomorrow about the time the last groups are teeing off.

"I haven’t thought about it. I still have to tee off tomorrow morning so I’m quite lucky in that respect. Hopefully get a decent night’s kip and see what happens. Like I say, I have not been playing well the last few weeks, shooting high scores. I thought, well, technique, just enjoy the moment and play golf. Enjoy it, that’s what we’re here for."