But if the weather misses the area, Day will need to negotiate 36 holes to be the champion.
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He made birdies six and nine to make his push into the lead, the first a mammoth putt from 22 metres.
Day, trying to join Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship in stroke play, came out to the 18th green with his son to watch the finish and quickly found Walker.
The weather created a tricky scenario for the rest of the tournament.
The third round will resume at 7 a.m.
The PGA of America, which runs the last of the season’s four major championships, faced questions about whether it should have rearranged tee times Saturday to put players in threesomes and start them off on both the first and 10th tees – as the PGA Tour does in threatening conditions. The forecast showed 20 minutes of lightning and an hour of rain.
Holding a major in NY metropolitan area in the summer is to play weather roulette.
It comes after the four-time major victor also missed the cut in the US Open in June.
“It’s a major championship and we certainly try and look at starting from one tee wherever we can”, Haigh told reporters after play was called on Saturday.
Players haven’t so much as figured out the greens over the past two days, as they have taken advantage of the soft surfaces to give themselves shorter putts and used the slower greens to putt more aggressively and eliminate some of the break. My tee to green game, there’s not much wrong with that – it’s pretty solid.
Five groups never hit a shot Saturday, including the co-leaders at 9-under, Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb, who will go off at 7:40 a.m.
“It’s all about being there for Sunday afternoon, and so far so good”, Stenson said.
They hold a two-shot lead over reigning champion Jason Day and Emiliano Grillo, with Open victor Henrik Stenson a stroke further back in fifth. “Obviously if you get off to a bad start, you’re thinking about it, and vice versa is if you get off to a good start, you’re thinking about it, as well”, he said.
“I’ve hit the ball really well this week and I’m walking away not playing the weekend”. The final birdie on the 17th was the most important because he had a cushion. Day shot 65 in a second round that included seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch and eight overall.
It is extremely rare for this rule to be enacted in a major championship.
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Mickelson shot 63 in the opening round of the British Open two weeks ago at Royal Troon, and Big Lefty was beaten in a sensational final-round duel there by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who fired his own 63. “I need to have a long hard think about that”, he added. “I would be surprised if it wasn’t”. When you are able to fly it at the hole and stop it, that is negated..
