A total of 37 players had completed their rounds before the klaxon sounded to bring play to a premature halt.
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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. If not, the tournament could conclude during the week. Desperate to beat the clock and avoid a second straight Monday finish at Baltusrol, the pairings stayed the same for the final round.
Persistent heavy rain then left parts of the course flooded before play was finally abandoned for the day shortly before 1800 local time, with a resumption set for 0700 on Sunday. Padraig Harrington is also at 5-under.
Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf each had 63 in the opening round of the 1980 U.S. Open, and Thomas Bjorn shot 63 in the third round in the 2005 PGA Championship.
As for choosing start on just the first tee, he said, “We feel it’s important for all of the players, in an ideal world, to play from the first tee and paly the holes in order”.
“Well, as I said earlier”, Haigh said, “and then for the third time, the forecast was very similar to the previous two days, and we were unfortunate that we got hit with them”.
Thunderstorms began to blanket Baltusrol Golf Club and the Springfield, New Jersey area in the early afternoon.
Co-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb had been scheduled to tee off at 2:55 p.m.
Watson turned out to be one of the lucky few who actually finished their third round on Saturday. He birdied one par-3, three par-4s and two par-5s in his run.
Unheralded American Jimmy Walker captured his first major title in wire-to-wire fashion, outdueling top-ranked defending champion Jason Day down the back nine at rain-softened Baltusrol to win the PGA Championship. Streb’s 63 was the 30th shot at a major but he was the 28th player to achieve the feat, Fiji’s Vijay Singh and Australian Greg Norman having done it twice. He started his third round with a bogey 5. I think that theres that 61 or 62 out there that I was probably trying to chase a little too hard..
By the end of the day, it was easy to overlook a familiar figure – Stenson, the British Open champion who made eagle on the 18th at the turn and polished off another 67.
Mickelson made the bold prediction on Saturday, and this was before the downpour of rain even began.
Branden Grace, Williams McGirt, Brooks Koepka and British Open champion Henrik Stenson were all at 9 under when the leaders teed off. Streb was at 7 under. Golf has the No. 62 in major championships. Greg Norman and Vijay Singh both did it twice.
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Day, trying to join Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship in stroke play, came out to the 18th green with his son to watch the finish and quickly found Walker. They’re stuck sending the players off of one tee and in groups of two at this point, but they’re going to try and get things in by Sunday night.
