Thunderstorms that prevented leaders from starting the third round of the PGA Championship on Saturday set the stage for a weird finish at rain-swamped Baltusrol. More rain was in the forecast. “The body is normally fine to play two rounds of golf”, said Henrik Stenson, the reigning Open Championship victor, who needs to play 36 holes. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
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The PGA of America, which runs the last of the season’s four major championships, faced questions about whether it should have rearranged tee times Saturday to put players in threesomes and start them off on both the first and 10th tees – as the PGA Tour does in threatening conditions. The twosomes from the third round were to stay paired for the fourth, with the final round set to begin at 8:40 a.m.
Forecasters called for rain Saturday night, Sunday and into Monday. “It’s really disheartening. As I said, I need to go back to the drawing board and see where we go from here”.
Robert Streb shot a 7-under-par 63, which tied the low round ever in a major.
“The course looks like it is unplayable”, Streb said during Saturday’s delay, “Everything is underwater, regardless of whether the lightning stopped”.
Three-times major victor Padraig Harrington of Ireland showed low scores were available in the early going on Saturday with a five-under 65 that moved him to four-under for the championship. Only 18 groups were about to finish up on Saturday before play was suspended. Their 131 total through 36 holes also ties the best score in PGA Championship history.
Spieth has a shot, but not other big names • Jordan Spieth hit just enough shots, and holed just enough putts, to get back into the mix at a major championship. And Mickelson himself was the victim of a 63 two weeks ago when Henrik Stenson shot it in the final round at Royal Troon to win the Open Championship, beating Mickelson by three strokes.
“We feel it’s important for all the players to play from the first tee and play the holes in order”, Haigh said. If you get off to a bad start, you’re thinking about it. “I guess just go home, hang out with the family, and might be waiting (Sunday) morning, too”. You can also follow along throughout the tournament for scores and updates on our live leaderboard (below).
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“You’re going to hit a lot of six, seven and eight irons at the pin and have the ball just stop right by its divot is taking away the challenge of the greens”. Another bogey on the following hole made it four bogeys for the day and Lahiri seriously needed to recover with a couple of birdies.
