The third round of the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club has been called for the day after almost four hours of play being suspended by risky weather that included a lot of heavy rain.
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The Associated Press reported that the PGA hopes to play two rounds on Sunday, provided the course could be ready by 7 a.m. This may be another entire washout of a day, in which case we’re just watching footage from last year’s PGA Championship. The final pairing of second-round co-leaders Walker and Robert Streb, who was at 7 under, was scheduled to tee off at 3:16 p.m. Kisner and Harrington took aim Saturday before the rain, each with 65s.
The third round of the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club has been called for the day after almost four hours of play being suspended by risky weather including a lot of heavy rain.
The top 70 players and ties qualified for the weekend, with 69 eventually finishing on one over par to let the likes of Rose, Ernie Els and Matt Fitzpatrick make the final two rounds.
A couple look over the 18th fairway during a weather delay in the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., Saturday, July 30, 2016.
Francesco Molinari knows how to close out a round of golf.
Only 37 of the 86 players who made the cut completed the third round, and 10 players had yet to tee off. Russell Knox lagged his 65-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole to within a few inches, tapped in for par and a 67, and then the horn sounded right as Marc Leishman was getting ready for his 12-foot birdie putt. Those 6 shots saved more than made up for the two bogeys and double bogey that preceded them. He birdied one par-3, three par-4s and two par-5s in his run.
They also ruled that final-round play would be conducted with preferred lies, given the saturated state of the Baltusrol course and more rain expected.
The left-hander, who won the PGA the last time it was played here in 2005, got his round of 2-under 68 started a little better than he did his second round. On Friday, he hit his tee shot well out of bounds on No. 1 and wound up with a triple-bogey 7. That restart includes the very beginning of the third round for the leaders.
He said with the greens being so receptive and with a lack of wind “there’s a 61 or a 62 out there for the taking”.
The record for largest comebacks after the opening round at the PGA is eight shots by three players, most recently Keegan Bradley in 2011 at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Rain was still falling at soggy Baltusrol as the final round rolled on, but that did not hold back three-times major victor Padraig Harrington.
Battling tendinitis in his right shoulder, the 2002 PGA Champion said he was unsure if the pain would affect his swing at Baltusrol, and he didn’t want to go out and hit a driver 260 yards when “Rory McIlroy is hitting 360”.
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He is now tied fourth, two shots off the pace as Jimmy Walker leads in the final round. “Everything is under water, regardless of whether the lightning stopped”, said Streb, who matched the low round in major history with a seven-under 63 on Friday.
