Streb and Walker were on nine-under 131 after 36 holes, two shots ahead of Day and Grillo with Stenson fifth at six-under as the mental and physical challenge loomed.
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“Sometimes a par is tough”, Walker said. “It was a battle all day”.
While Walker, Streb and others were left watching, Kevin Kisner took full advantage of his moving day in the early going. “It’s a very special moment to be able to celebrate on the 18th green”.
In third place on 10-under was American Daniel Summerhays, who fired a closing 66, with South African Branden Grace (67), Hideki Matsuyama (68) and American Brooks Koepka (70) another shot back. After dodging disaster on Friday morning with only a 45-minute delay of the second round, the PGA was not as lucky on Saturday as only 37 of the 86 players to make the cut finishing their third round play before the delay began.
Yeah, well, 20 under won the last major. “But I played some nice golf out there”.
Kerry Haigh, the association’s managing director of championships, said that the threesome possibility was discussed, “but not significantly…”
“We feel it’s important for all the players to play from the first tee and play the holes in order”, Haigh said. There will be no re-pairing according to score like you’re used to getting on the weekend at every golf tournament.
Groups kept their third-round pairings for the last round in another time-saving bid.
Day surged into the lead with a 75-foot birdie putt on No. 7 from the front to the back of the green, and a tee shot to 4 feet on the par-3 ninth. Day, who is the event’s defending champion, is a mere two strokes behind the leaders after stringing together seven birdies in eight holes following a double bogey on No. 7 on Friday.
The Australian flipped his club in despair as he neared the green, seeing the leaderboard and realizing that cheer behind him was Walker answering with a birdie on 17. Despite three birdies in his first five holes, Watson scrambled through an equally disastrous stretch of three bogeys in four holes on the back.
Heavy rains forced the third round to be suspended Saturday with 10 golfers not ever having started their rounds.
“Jason is a true champion – eagle at 18, I would expect nothing less”. His first putt ran three feet past the hole but he sank the nerve-jangler to become a major champion.
A waterlogged Baltusrol will likely not play easy, particularly if the forecast of more rain comes to fruition.
“The rain really changed the way it’s played”, Mickelson said. “I can’t be disappointed”.
None of which would normally be a problem for a player in Kisner’s position as he would simply wait till the third round was complete and see where he stood. Robert Streb matched the mark Friday at Baltusrol.
“It’s tough to play 36 in one day”, Stenson said.
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“So you’re going to hit a lot of fairways and the ability to hit 6-, 7-, 8-iron at the pin and have the ball just stop right by its divot is taking away the challenge of the greens”.
