PGA Is All Wet

The PGA Championship, golf’s final major of the year, will wrap up today, weather permitting. The tournament usually takes place in the middle of August but was moved up a couple of weeks in order not to conflict with golf at the Olympics, which many of the top players have opted to skip for various reasons including the fear of Zika. Most of yesterday’s round was rained out and the forecast for today and tomorrow is for showers so with a bit of bad luck this tournament may not end until Tuesday. Tournament directors were criticized by the press for not doubling up the tee times (starting players on holes 1 and 10) yesterday in order to get the full third round completed before the expected rains came, but that would have meant the round would have finished around 3pm. The money and TV demands for filling that Saturday afternoon and early evening time slot with championship golf meant that the split-tee option was never going to happen, despite the press criticism. But, because of the washout yesterday, the PGA has decided not to re-pair the groups by score as they usually do but to keep the same pairs that started the third round. This puts certain players, who may be in contention after good third rounds, in the unusual position of playing their fourth round while other contenders or leaders are still playing their third rounds. This is somewhat reminiscent of the debacle at the US Open this year when the USGA informed the leader Dustin Johnson that he may be assessed a penalty based on a review after the round, leaving Johnson and his contenders unsure of what the leading score actually was. Today, that same situation will apply to a large portion of the field. As of this writing, the third round is being completed and world #1 Jason Day is currently the leader with British Open winner Henrik Stenson in contention. It promises to be a long day, or perhaps days, of golf for whoever the eventual winner will be.