Defending champion Jason Day, the world’s No 1-ranked player, and British Open victor Henrik Stenson also did not hit a single shot Saturday.
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Robert Streb became the latest player to shoot 63 in a major, and hardly anyone noticed in a PGA Championship with endless action across Baltusrol on Friday.
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, who won this tournament in 2008, had a bogey-free 65 to move up to four under.
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. “It’s really disheartening”, said the world number four.
Friday’s second-round leaders never made it to the course on Saturday.
He didn’t make up much ground, shooting 2-under-par 68 at Baltusrol Golf Club to get to 1 under for the tournament. “They’ve really gone up a lot since the British [Open], and since I started to play at that level, that I’m kind of forcing the issue rather than letting it happen the way I did there [at Royal Troon]”.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, victor of the British Open earlier this month, is alone in fifth place at six-under 134.
Adding to its reputation as the most unpredictable major, the PGA Championship now is awash in a new drama. Another bogey on the following hole made it four bogeys for the day and Lahiri seriously needed to recover with a couple of birdies.
In a press conference, the PGA of America’s Kerry Haigh, who leads the championship, was peppered with questions about the PGA’s handling of the weather situation. The twosomes from the third round were to stay paired for the fourth, with the final round set to begin at 8:40 a.m. “You are going to hit a lot of fairways”.
In addition to Streb’s Friday feat, Thomas Bjorn shot 63 at Baltusrol in the third round of the 2005 PGA and Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf each opened on 63 at Baltusrol in the 1980 US Open. “I need to have a long hard think about that”. The greens are pristine.
Over a nine-hole stretch from eight through 16, he used just 26 shots.
Stenson saved a shaky start in the rain at Baltusrol with a 3-wood that just landed on the front of the green at the par-5 18th and settled 3 feet away for an eagle, turning his fortunes and sending him to a 3-under 67 for the second day in a row. They are soft, so you can get the ball very close. You can tell. He’s just not striking his putts with the same confidence as he is his driver.
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“I think if you had given anyone else in this field my tee shots this week, they would have been up near the top of the leaderboard”, McIlroy said. “But when you’re able to fly right at the hole and stop, that is negated”.
