"Due to three heavy thunderstorms that pounded Oakland Hills on Saturday afternoon, the third round of the 90th PGA Championship was suspended until Sunday morning. Play in the season's final major will resume at 7:15 a.m. ET, with the final twosome of leader B.J. Holmes and Charlie Wi scheduled to tee off at 7:40 a.m. ET.The third round of the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club began under cloudless, blue skies Saturday morning. However, before 36-hole leader J.B. Holmes could even tee off, "moving day" got moved by bad weather.
Oncoming rain and lightning forced the suspension of play at 2:16 p.m. ET, 34 minutes before Holmes was due to tee off with Charlie Wi in the day's final pairing.
Not long after the suspension, Oakland Hills was deluged with heavy rains, gusting winds, thunder and lightning.
The pouring rain lasted for just 15 minutes and gave way to promising sunny skies, but just like the third round, that didn't last long.
Play was scheduled to resume at 5 p.m. ET, but just minutes before players were headed out to the course another storm cell moved in, which was even more intense than the first. After about a 20-minute downpour, the rain was reduced to a light drizzle before moving away, but leaving the gray skies.
More rain fell just after 6 p.m. ET and The PGA of America officially postponed the remainder of the third round at 6:28 p.m. ET
"We did obviously try to get play resumed this afternoon," said Kerry Haig, the PGA of America's managing director of championships. "We had a couple of breaks where it looked like we had a possibility to play, but both times, cells built up again behind to the west, so obviously we did not get out."
The third round will resume at 7:15 a.m. ET on Sunday and the three remaining groups left to start their respective third rounds will start as follows: David Toms and Henrik Stenson, 7:20 a.m. ET; Ben Curtis and Justin Rose, 7:30 a.m. ET; Holmes and Wi, 7:40 a.m. ET.
Officials anticipate that the third round will end at approximately 11:50 a.m. ET. The final round is scheduled to begin at 12:20 p.m. ET. with players grouped in threesomes off the first and 10th tees. The final tee time is expected to go off at 2:20 .m. ET.
"The golf course, we had over half an inch and a half of rain, and it is still raining, but it is supposed to stop here in about an hour, hour and a half," Haig said. "We feel we can get the course back in shape for tomorrow morning for the resumption. Steve Cook and the superintendent and his staff and volunteer staff are all ready to go.
"They have done an outstanding job all week and are ready to meet the test once again tonight and tomorrow."
There is a 30-percent chance of rain on Sunday afternoon, which makes for an unlikely chance of a Monday finish.
In the long history of the PGA Championship, there have been only three instances where the tournament was forced into Monday. The first was at Congressional in 1976 when Dave Stockton won; it happened again in 1986 at Inverness when Bob Tway famously holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 72nd hole to edge Greg Norman; and the last time the PGA Championship was pushed to a Monday finish was in 2005 at Baltusrol, when Phil Mickelson hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy."
Players like Australia's Aaron Baddeley and Stuart Appleby would have loved the opportunity to play in the thunderstorm!
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