Rory McIlroy, Vijay Singh, 5 Ahead of Tiger Woods in Delayed PGA Championship

With co-leader Rory McIlroy through nine holes and the other leader, Vijay Singh, through seven holes, the 2012 PGA Championship was halted Saturday afternoon at 4:32 due to lightning and approaching thunderstorms.  McIlroy and Singh are tied at six-under.  Tiger Woods had fallen to one-under, tied for 11th.

“Pin positions were easier, tees were up a bit, and the wind was not as strong as yesterday,” McIlroy said about the conditions Saturday afternoon before play was suspended. 

McIlroy birdied five holes—the first, second, fifth, seventh and eighth—and bogeyed the ninth and was six-under when the horn blew. 

He had already experienced a strange shot at the third hole where his tee ball struck a dead tree and lodged in a limb.

“I knew the line of the ball was right on the tree,” McIlroy said about the his tee ball.  They spent about three minutes looking for the ball in the wood chips on the ground when they were told by television personnel that it was in the tree.  “It wedged itself between the tree bark and the actual tree,” he added. “I was happy to get it up and down for four. That’s the first time a ball has ever got stuck up a tree on me.”

McIlroy took an unplayable lie and went back to the tee, and subsequently made par after sinking a six foot putt.  If it were hockey, the blimp would get an assist for tracking the location of the “tree shot.”

At the ninth, McIlroy hit a nine-iron left of the green and did not get up and down for par, his only scorecard blemish. 

Woods, meanwhile, had a rough beginning to the third round. He bogeyed three of his first seven holes.  Although he started with two pars, his round started to slide at the third where Vijay Singh made a long birdie putt and Woods had a shorter putt to tie Singh, but he was not able to convert. 

Then at the fourth, Woods hit a doublecross off the tee and autographed a glove for an injured fan.   Worse yet, his second shot on the hole was also errant, and it became a two-glove hole.   

He bogeyed the par three fifth hole by overdrawing a six-iron tee shot into the mounds on the left of the green. His chip was short, leaving him a putt of six to seven feet which he pulled for a second bogey. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, Woods’ tee shot on the par five seventh went right into the waste schmutz.  He eventually got to the waste area left of the green, and from there made bogey.  It was suggested by announcers that if that kind of play this kept up, he would run out of gloves.       

Vijay Singh, meanwhile, started with a birdie after holing a putt of about 15 feet.  At that point he had the lead in the tournament until he was tied by McIlroy with birdies at the second and third.  Singh also birdied the par five seventh, his last hole before play stopped.   

Singh had 17 one-putts in the first two rounds and has said that his putting has never been better.  He is using the long putter again—he has gone back and forth between long and short several times in his career.    

Forty-six golfers had finished for the day when play was stopped.  Steve Stricker had moved up 30 places and is now at two-under through three rounds. Padraig Harrington, former PGA champ moved up 13 places to one-under, also with a complete round.     

“I got it a little closer today in some spots and made a couple of putts,” Stricker said. “You just had to kind of grind it out yesterday. 73 yesterday was probably like a three‑, four‑under round.”

Stricker said he would need help from the leaders as they complete round three on Sunday morning.

“If one of those leaders goes out and shoots a five‑under round, bang, I'm seven back again,” he said. “I'm going to have to have another good one or better one tomorrow.”

“Through 16 holes I felt like I'd left a number of shots out there,” Harrington said about his round. “But to hole a bunker shot on 17 and then to get up‑and‑down from 35 yards on the last, yeah, I've got to be comfortable.”

He added that if four-under ends up leading after the third round he still has a chance, but if six-under is leading, it would be tough.  “I would have settled for the guys to play the same conditions we played and have them play the back nine in the wind because the back nine was a lot tougher than the front nine, “ he said.

Those who are finishing the third round will begin play at 7:45 a.m. Sunday.   Then the final round, which will be played in groups of three, will start from both Tee #1 and Tee #10, with starting times beginning at 11:44 a.m. through 1:45 p.m.  Players with the lowest scores will start last from Tee #1. 

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.