SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey Phil Mickelson thinks a major championship record low round will be shot at Baltusrol Golf Club over the last two rounds of the PGA Championship and that someone might take it as low as 61.
Advertisement
Defending PGA champion Jason Day is in Saturday’s second-to-last group that tees off at 2:45 p.m., weather permitting. However, the weather forecast for Sunday includes a good chance for rain most of the day.
They were two strokes behind Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb, who shared the 36-hole lead at 9-under.
It was the second time the PGA rolled the dice at Baltusrol and failed.
“It’s a major championship, and we want it to be ran and perform as a major championship”. “Unfortunately, the weather didn’t help us”.
Rain is once again in the forecast for Sunday, and with so many golfers yet to start their third round, even the slightest delay could push the tournament into a Monday finish.
There were 86 players who made the cut this week, a massive number considering the cut line was top 70 and ties. Massive, but hardly untenable in this situation.
The adage in golf is that players can’t win a major on Thursday, but they can lose it.
Based on the numbers, there’d be 26 threesomes and four twosomes.
Kerry Haigh, the association’s managing director of championships, said that the threesome possibility was discussed, “but not significantly”.
And R ussell Knox then completed a 67 just seconds before play was suspended at 2:15pm local time (7:15pm BST) due to an approaching storm, the Scot hurrying to tap in his par putt on the 18th after spotting an official was about to blow the horn. They started on the 10th tee.
Play will resume at 7 a.m.to complete the third round with the final round of the year’s final major to follow.
Such a round may not come on Saturday, as the threat of lightning in the area caused a suspension of play before co-leaders Walker and Streb had teed off. The course was pounded with rain and players eventually were sent home. Maybe it would’ve taken longer to finish; maybe that logjam would’ve impacted the pace of play. Harrington didn’t even think he played that well and still shot a 65, his lowest ever in a PGA Championship. They are soft, so you can get the ball very close.
The PGA said players would stay in the same pairings and go off in the same order for the final round, starting as early as 8:40 a.m.
Advertisement
The final twosome is scheduled to start the final round at 3:25 p.m. Sunday, which means that, if all goes according to plan – if the course is playable first thing in the morning and if there are no further delays – we just might have a champion tapping in his final putt in the gloaming. “But our primary aim is to try and finish tomorrow evening”.
