It didn't go well. Wi missed out on qualifying, and at one point in the lengthy day, he began to sound like a kid in the van on a long-distance road trip. “Are we there yet?”
“I was asking my caddie how many more holes we had to play,” Wi recalled yesterday with a smile. “We were counting backward.”
Take the grind of that, add in the pressure of contending in a major championship, on a brutally difficult course, and that's what Wi and others face today in the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club.
After beautiful blue skies and comfortable temperatures welcomed the golfers for the morning of the third round yesterday, the skies turned an ominous black in the early afternoon. When lightning and rain arrived, play was suspended at 2:16 p.m. EDT and, after a couple of false starts sending the players to the range, the golf never resumed.
The three lead twosomes never teed off, including Wi and the second-round leader at 1-under, J.B. Holmes. So they will have the most golf to play – 36 holes – in their drive to win the final major of the season.
“It's going to be like college again,” said Holmes, the 2005 SEC Player of the Year at Kentucky. “It may be exhausting; you're putting that much mental effort and everything into it. It's rough.”
Twenty-five of the weekend field of 73 players were able to complete their third round, including Argentina's Andres Romero, who charged from 48th to eighth by tying the competitive course record with a 5-under-par 65.
Those who need to finish the third round were to resume play at 7:15 a.m. EDT. The fourth round was to be played in threesomes starting at 12:20 p.m. EDT, with the leaders going off at 2:40 p.m.
With a weather forecast for today that has a small chance of rain, PGA Managing Director of Championships Kerry Haigh said he believed the tournament, including a three-hole playoff if needed, could be completed today.
With 23 players four shots or closer to Holmes' lead, it should make for a long and compelling day.
“It will definitely be softer tomorrow,” said Wi, the 36-year-old from Westlake Village who is playing in his first major. “The guys who are four or five shots behind . . . anybody will have a chance because you can make some birdies out there.”
At least a half-inch of rain soaked Oakland Hills in yesterday's storm, and that was before Haigh made the decision to soften the greens with more water Friday night after listening to players complain about the tough conditions for two days.
The scoring average for the golfers who finished yesterday was 73.26, down considerably from the 74.83 of the second round – the highest average in relation to par on the PGA Tour this year.
“It certainly allowed the players to play, and to probably be a little more aggressive today,” Haigh said. “I was very happy with it.”
Tod Leonard: (619) 293-1858; tod.leonard@uniontrib.com
