Charlotte (AFP) – Third-round play in the PGA Championship finally began on Thursday after a severe storm near Quail Hollow postponed the start and forced organizers to re-draw groups into threesomes to try and complete play before sunset. Chile’s Joaquin Niemann struck the opening shot off the first tee at 11:43 a.m. (1543 GMT) to launch the round about 3.5 hours after the originally scheduled start time.
Americans Sam Burns and Max Greyserman were preparing to tee off in the first group at the first hole at 8:15 a.m. when the weather warning horn sounded to signal everyone should seek shelter. About 45 minutes after the delay began, the PGA of America announced the third-round groups would be re-drawn and played in threesomes off the first and 10th tees in a bid to finish the round before darkness.
Related news
World number two Rory McIlroy, who won the Masters last month to complete a career Grand Slam, and third-ranked Xander Schauffele, the defending champion and reigning British Open champion, were set to start in the second group and were on their way to the first tee from the practice area when the horn blew. Now they will be joined by American Chris Kirk and tee off in the penultimate group from the 10th tee at 1:38 p.m.
McIlroy, who has won four times at Quail Hollow, and Schauffele scrambled on Friday just to make the cut on the number at one-over par 143 and stood nine strokes adrift of leader Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela. Vegas was on eight-under 134 and after the re-draw was set to tee off in the final trio on the first hole at 1:55 p.m. with France’s Matthieu Pavon and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who both share second on 136 with South Korean Kim Si-woo.
Kim was set for a 1:44 p.m. start off the first tee alongside the two Americans tied for fifth on 137, Max Homa and world number one Scottie Scheffler.
© 2024 AFP
