PGA Championship 2012: Bad Weather Will Save Tiger Woods from Major Failure

With Tiger Woods hacking his way out of contention in the third round of the 2012 PGA Championship, the skies over Kiawah Island turned ominous. 

Black clouds with ill-intent covered the course and play was suspended. After hanging in suspension for a while, play was officially suspended until Sunday. 

"

Play is suspended. Third round will resume tomorrow at 7:45am. #pgachamp

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 11, 2012"

This is all good news for Tiger, who is seeking his 15th major championship. Woods began the day in the final pairing and was tied for the lead, but as a sign of things to come, his first tee shot found the rough. 

Tiger managed to par the first three holes, but it was pretty clear his game was just off as it took all he could muster to scrape out those pars. He then bogeyed three of his next four holes before play was suspended, with Tiger through seven holes, and found himself at one-under par for the tournament and five shots off of co-leaders Vijay Singh and Rory McIlroy. 

Woods' bad play stands in stark contrast to the majority of players on the leaderboard. Unlike Friday's Round 2 action, when the course was playing incredibly hard, all kinds of players were putting up red numbers. 

McIlroy and Adam Scott, who is in third at the time of the suspension, are both four-under for their round. Singh, Woods' playing partner for Round 3, is at two-under for Round 3. Two golfers ahead of Woods on the leaderboard, Bo Van Pelt and Steve Stricker, both got in their full round and did so at five-under. 

These guys will now have to wait until Sunday to restart their round, and that is exactly what Tiger needed. 

In 2012, Woods has shown serious flashes of the golfer that used to dominate majors. However, he just hasn't been able to hold that together for four rounds. 

At the Masters, Woods mixed two even par rounds with rounds of two- and three-over. At the British Open, Tiger waited until Round 4 before losing control of his game and ended with a three-over in the final round. 

Then there was the U.S. Open, which is starting to look a lot like the PGA for Tiger. He entered the third round with a share of the lead, but he bogeyed four of his first eight holes to effectively remove himself from contention. 

In the U.S. Open, Tiger followed up his poor Round 3 with a terrible start in Round 4 as he was six-over for the day after six holes. He played the 12 remaining holes at three-under—proving he can quickly get his game back. 

Now Tiger has the luxury of trying to re-find his groove on the practice range, instead of on the course, and he will do just that. 

Tiger now has 29 holes of golf left in this tournament to try and make up five strokes and pass 10 golfers. That is a lot to ask, even if Tiger is at his best, but it isn't out of the question, and it can be expected that he will redeem himself by again moving in the right direction on the leaderboard.