And the five-time major victor did return with a bold prediction about what might be to come.
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“The golf course is susceptible”, said Mickelson, whose putt on 18 for a 62 at Royal Troon lipped out. “It’s really disheartening. I need to go back to the drawing board and see where we go from here”. None of the leaders got a chance to tee off.
The 23-year-old Texan was sharp early with five birdies opposite one bogey on his first nine holes but cooled off with a bogey and eight pars to close.
They never struck a shot.
“Tee to green was good, but it was just pathetic when I got onto the green”, said McIlroy.
The weather created a tricky scenario for the rest of the tournament.
Thousands of fans lined the first fairway to watch two-time major victor Jordan Spieth begin his round just before 2 p.m. Spieth stood on the second green when an air horn blew at 2:14 p.m. Around 3:30 p.m., tournament officials announced that a second weather cell was about 35 minutes away and that it had yet to be determiend when play might resume. It wasn’t raining yet, but play had been suspended for unsafe weather in the area.
Stenson finished third or better in five of his last seven starts on the PGA Tour, including second in the British Open, third in the PGA and victories in the Deutsche Bank Championship and Tour Championship to claim the FedExCup before winning the European Tour’s end-of-season Race to Dubai final. The 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black on Long Island also was forced to Monday by rain.
“There was definitely a score on the golf course”, Harrington said of his third round at Baltusrol.
“I was able to fight back and be patient, start to make a birdie here or there”, the Open runner-up said after shooting a 70 for one-over 141, 10 strokes behind leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb.
Haigh responded that the Saturday forecast wasn’t much different from the previous days, and they were caught off guard by the intensity and length of the storm.
Jordan Spieth, who had played just one hole when the horn sounded, speculated that given the weather forecasts, the PGA could even extend into Tuesday.
Kevin Kisner’s 65 and moved him into a tie for fourth; Padraig Harrington’s bogey-free 65 with three birdies on the back nine moved him into a tie for tenth.
Haigh called it “an interesting dynamic for sure, add to the excitement, actually”.
Defending champion and world No. 1 Jason Day had moved into third. And I really thought I was going to go out and light it up.
That was Mickelson’s point about a possible 62.
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Walker, winless this season after winning three tournaments in 2014 and two more previous year, also emerged from nowhere, after finding his putting stroke, notwithstanding his sole bogey of the day on the par-five 18th.
