PGA Championship 2022: This might be the best start ever for a club pro at the PGA

As winner of last month’s PGA Professional Championship, Jesse Mueller is the proud leader of the PGA of America’s #TeamOf20 club pros getting the chance to go shot-for-shot with the best in the world at this week’s PGA Championship. He may not draw the fans of the Tiger/Rory/Spieth pairing, but that doesn’t mean that the 39-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz., can’t make some noise of his own.

Starting on the par-4 10th hole at Southern Hills in this opening round Thursday afternoon, Mueller found the fairway off the tee and left himself 102 yards with his approach … which he proceeded to hole out for eagle 2. It’s as animated as you’ll get from an announcer on Thursday as Scott Van Pelt gave the shot the royal treatment with a vintage “Welcome to the competition!”

With that eagle, Mueller began his day with a quick two under and made his way into the top five on the leaderboard despite a relatively late tee time of 1:47 p.m.

Clad in a bright-purple get-up repping his school, the Grand Canyon University, where he’s general manager of the school-owned course and a volunteer assistant for the men’s and women’s teams, Mueller got to celebrate the moment with his wife, Jessie. She is on the bag this week in Tulsa, just as she was when Mueller won the PGA Professional Championship last month in Austin.

Fun fact: They had their anniversary dinner at a Domino’s Pizza after finishing their round late on a Sunday.

Oh yes, they did!

Regardless of what happens the rest of the round, Mueller has an amazing memory already locked up.