Play will resume at 7 a.m.to complete the third round with the final round of the year’s final major to follow.
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An afternoon rain storm suspended play at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, and though it initially was announced the delay would only be for an hour, the downpour continued for two more hours saturating the course.
After nearly four hours and with a number of puddles on the course, organisers eventually confirmed play would resume at 7am on Sunday, but it remains to be seen how much action will be possible with further storms forecast.
Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb made it as far as the practice range before clouds gathered, the sky rumbled and storms dumped more rain on an already saturated golf course at Baltusrol.
Otherwise, another Monday finish loomed, and that was only part of the unpredictable nature of this PGA Championship.
The 18th hole at Baltusrol, the second of two par-5s, had a very interesting day.
“I’m happy to join the club that seems to be ever-growing”, the 29-year-old said. “You are going to hit a lot of fairways”.
“Darren knows best and always tells me that, but it’s just difficult when every putt means a lot and it’s nearly one of those things where you try too hard”, Fitzpatrick said. Marc Leishman returned to face a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 18 that he left short.
“Obviously, the rain is going to soften up the golf course, so you’ve got to be a little bit aggressive”, Day said.
Mickelson was one of the few players able to complete his third-round play. Phil Mickelson thinks we might see a 62, even a 61, sometime this weekend, for better or for worse. From 2000-08, I honestly believe the top players felt like, even on their best days, they’d have a hard time beating Tiger. When it does get back into shape, the greens will be soft.
“I don’t know how to explain the incredible feeling it is to play here in this area”, Mickelson said, “to have the people be as supportive and as kind and loyal as they’ve ben to me and my family over the years”.
Should he win, Day would become the first to successfully defend a major championship title since Tiger Woods at the 2007 PGA Championship and the sixth different player to successfully defend a PGA Championship title joining Gene Sarazen (1922-1923), Walter Hagen (1924-1927), Denny Shute (1936-1937) and Woods (1999-2000, 2006-2007).
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But Day has stressed to himself to be patient around Baltusrol, which offers two par-5 holes at the finish, neither of which he has managed to birdie despite his impressive run of seven birdies in eight holes on Friday.
