Play resumed at the 7,428-yard Baltusrol layout under rain and overcast skies, overnight downpours softening a course already hit with more than two inches of rain on Monday, and storms were predicted to dampen the event through the weekend. He was coming off that magnificent duel at Royal Troon, where Henrik Stenson beat him with a record score in the major (264).
Advertisement
Phil Mickelson, who won the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, was also four-over after a bogey on his 11th hole but revived with three birdies in a five-hole stretch from his 12th to card a 71.
Walker, a 37-year-old American, fired a five-under par 65 Thursday to grab a one-stroke lead over Germany’s Kaymer, England’s Ross Fisher and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo at the year’s last major tournament. I started hitting it kind of solid, feeling a little bit like my golf swing again, and obviously made a bunch of putts today.
“The start wasn’t great, and yeah, things weren’t looking great after four or five holes”, Stenson said.
Now though, as Gary McCord pointed out, it appears that Spieth’s left toe may have been touching the water, which would result in a one-stroke penalty.
“I’m pleased with that”. He just stayed away from the golf course, and his clubs. “You get a little momentum and you get it going”.
“My putt on eight (for birdie) was a fairly pathetic effort, but I made up for it on nine”. I hit some awful shots the first 11 holes.
He then bogeyed No. 12, but then birdied three of his next six holes.
Robert Streb became the latest player to shoot 63 in a major, and hardly anyone noticed in a PGA Championship with endless action across Baltusrol on Friday.
Play was initially scheduled to resume at 8.45am but eventually restarted at 8.56am, a total delay of 41 minutes.
“It was tricky out there”. His next shot nearly landed in the backyard of a home adjoining the golf course. “The course played very long, especially the front nine”.
“To be able to go out there and hit it exactly where I’m going and see the shot and what I need to do and actually execute it was exciting for me”.
Spieth got off to a sizzling start with three birdies in his first four holes with a bogey in between after starting the day from the 10th. If I make it, I hope I can win and I can help the team.
“I can’t wait”, he said. I shot a good score yesterday, a very good round today. The hole location sheet given the first group of the day off the 10th tee (Colt Knost, Joe Summerhays and Yuta Ikeda) listed the hole as being on the left side of the 10th green when it was actually on the right.
“I played that hole so bad that it was really frustrating for me”. However, a number of other players found the hole hard and 18 players made a bogey.
PGA chief of championships Kerry Haigh explained the situation to the players after the round and apologized to them.
“I’d rather do that 1 week, 1 week and 1 week”, Grillo said of the compact schedule. “I’m not putting a nice aggressive [stroke] on the ball, but it doesn’t feel differently. I just can’t get a putt to go in from beyond 10 feet”. And yet, even when he did, television replays still showed him with a toe on the edge of casual water – a circumstance from which Spieth said PGA of America rules official Brad Gregory allowed him to proceed.
Advertisement
Mickelson looked to join him after an opening triple bogey, the 46-year-old U.S. left-hander’s tee shot soaring left into an adjoining roadway and his third off the edge of a gravel cartpath almost finding a house next to the course.
