PGA Championship 2015: Biggest Questions Entering Saturday
The second round of the PGA Championship ended a little sooner than expected, forcing, among other things, the rewriting of the headline to this piece to read "Saturday," rather than "Moving Day."
The latter, of course, connotes the third round, which will be played Saturday, but so will the conclusion of the second round, thanks to a cell of bad weather that swept through Sheboygan, halting play at 5:28 p.m. CT.
When the horn sounded, Jason Day was tied atop the leaderboard with fellow Australian Matt Jones at nine under par. Day had three full holes left in his round; Jones: six. Justin Rose, preparing to hit his tee shot at the 18th hole, was a stroke back.
There are plenty of questions entering Saturday play at Whistling Straits about the three gentlemen above. Add to them the likes of Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, and you have a bounty of potential queries.
Here are a few of the biggest.
WIll the Suspension of Play Change Anything?
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Here's a question to lead off with: Will the suspension of play make a substantial difference in anyone's round?
Jason Day, who birdied three of his last four holes before Mother Nature said no mas, was obviously feeling it. Will it be the same story early Saturday morning?
Justin Rose was coming off two birdies and likely had the adrenaline to power a tee shot into the stratosphere at the difficult, 520-yard par-four 18th. Will he be dialed in to pipe one when play resumes?
There are likely 20 similar situations on the course of players having momentum derailed by the elements.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, golfers like Tiger Woods, needing a spark to make the cut, likely welcomed the stoppage of play and will be content to tee it up in softer conditions in the morning.
Again, there are likely many similar situations at Whistling Straits.
So, the stoppage will have an effect, but for who? And for good or ill?
Will Jason Day Stay in Position to Break Through?
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Jason Day has come close in majors.
Most recently, he had a putt to make it into the playoff that decided the Open Championship and entered the final round of the U.S. Open tied for the lead.
Day has six top-five finishes in 20 major appearances. Indeed, he has three second-place finishes. As the No. 5 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, Day is arguably the best player in the world without a major victory.
At the suspension of play, the Australian was five under for his second round through 14 holes, tied atop the leaderboard at nine under par with countryman Matt Jones. He'd birdied three of his last four holes when the horn blew and was facing a 15-footer for birdie.
Surely, he couldn't have been happy about the stoppage of play. Yahoo's Ryan Ballengee conveyed the Australian's effort to keep the rally going, even upon seeing lightning crackling in the distance.
"Typically, golfers stop when they see lightning. The whole metal-rod-in-your-palms thing is a bit unsettling. But not for Day. He wanted to keep playing. So after Johnson missed his par bid to card his second consecutive bogey, Day walked to line up his 9-foot birdie putt like it was a sun-shiny Wisconsin evening.
Day tantalizingly missed his bid for three straight birdies, dropping into a semi-crouch of surprise after the putt didn't fall. Lightning flashed again.
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Will he be able to maintain the momentum to finish his second round strong and then show up again, late in the afternoon for his third-round tee time with his best stuff?
If the answer to both those questions is "yes," Jason Day could be a major champion Sunday evening.
Does Tiger Woods Have Any Magic Left?
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Tiger Woods was two strokes outside the cut line at the suspension of play.
That was after rolling in birdies at the second and third holes to move to one over par, which would have placed him a stroke inside the plus-two cut line. Unfortunately, Woods promptly made a mess of the fourth hole, recording a double bogey that wiped out his earlier efforts.
Woods also bogeyed the par-four eighth hole.
When he resumes his third round, Woods will have five holes to make up two strokes (potentially three, if the cut line moves to minus one). It's worth noting that he went one over par for the same five-hole stretch in his first round.
And while he surprisingly committed to next week's Wyndham Championship, Woods needs good things to happen at Whistling Straits if he wants to be a part of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
As the Boston Herald's Ron Borges wrote:
"He pretty much has to win his first major championship in going on eight years this weekend to find any way into the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs that could extend his season. If he does poorly, as he did in failing to make the cut in the previous two majors this year, that season will have ended before summer does.
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Does the fallen former world No. 1 have something up his sleeve, or will he record his third missed cut at a major in a row?
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Will a Top Golfer Make a Run?
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Let's look at a few of the golfers two to five strokes out of the lead (-9):
- Jordan Spieth (-6)
- Dustin Johnson (-5)
- Hideki Matsuyama (-4)
- Billy Horschel (-4)
- Brandt Snedeker (-4)
- Matt Kuchar (-4)
That doesn't even include Rory McIlroy, Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson at two under.
Johnson, Snedeker and Paul Casey still have holes to play in their third rounds when play resumes.
A third-round 65 or 66, in what will likely be soft conditions, could put any one of the golfers above in great position entering the final round, depending on what Jason Day, Matt Jones and Justin Rose (-8) do. Day, of course, has holes to play. But assuming he enters the third round at 10 or 11 under par, the chase will be on for the gentlemen above.
Will any of them make a big move on moving day at Whistling Straits?
Will the Clock Strike Midnight for the Club Pro?
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Brian Gaffney, head professional at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York, birdied a playoff hole at the PGA Professional National Championship too book passage into the PGA Championship.
Gaffney, who didn't make the cut in three previous PGA Championship appearances (2000, 2009, 2012), put together an impressive opening-round 71.
The 2010 New Jersey Open winner held his nerve Friday, posting a one-over 73 and an even-par total after two rounds.
A club professional hasn't made the cut since 2011. Gaffney seems assured of doing that, as he sits two strokes inside the cut line at the suspension of play. A club professional hasn't finished inside the top 30 since 1992 when Tom Wargo finished tied for 28th.
Gaffney is tied for 52nd entering Saturday.
Can he keep up the quality play? Will he pull off a top-30 finish?
Can David Lingmerth, George Coetzee Keep It Up?
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David Lingmerth (-7) and George Coetzee (-5) were listed at 100-1 and 300-1 odds at Odds Shark, respectively, entering the tournament.
Thus, unless you're a big Swedish or South African homer or a member of one golfer's family, you likely weren't placing a big wager on Lingmerth or Coetzee this week.
Coetzee, the 68th ranked golfer in the world, hasn't finished better than a tie for 70th in his last six starts. And he missed the cut in his three previous PGA Championships, averaging 74.67 strokes in his six rounds.
So it makes sense then that the Pretoria, South Africa, native went out and carded a second-round 65, right?
Crazy game. However, Coetzee's seven-birdie barrage brings up another question: Can he keep it up? With no precedent for any level of success in past PGA Championships, it will be interesting to see what Coetzee does on moving day.
Lingmerth, who won the Memorial earlier this year, was surging heading into the PGA Championship. He tied for sixth at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational a week after finishing third at the Quicken Loans National. Still, as a golfer who had only competed in one PGA Championship in his career and who missed the cut in that appearance, rounds of 67, 70 to lead the tournament are impressive.
Will Lingmerth and Coetzee be able to keep up the quality play as they enter uncharted territory?
Can Rory McIlroy Go Low Saturday?
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The good news: Rory McIlroy's much fretted over ankle is holding up just fine at Whistling Straits.
In response to a question about how his ankle was feeling in his post-round press conference, the Ulsterman said succinctly, per ASAP Sports: "It feels good." That was after telling Vince Cellini, reporting for TNT on the telecast, that he hoped the questions about his ankle were answered and over.
McIlroy carded a second consecutive 71 to enter the weekend at two under par. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation for the day. His only significant snafu came with a double bogey at the 18h hole (his ninth of the day).
McIlroy said as much in his post-round remarks, expressing some disappointment with this short game, per ASAP Sports:
"Drove the ball pretty well again. Maybe my iron play wasn't quite as good as it was yesterday and the greens that I did miss I wasn't very sharp around the greens. You're going to do that, you're going to miss greens around here. You're going to have to have more of a short game to be able to salvage par sometimes. I wasn't quite able to do that today at points. But there's still enough good stuff to give me encouragement and make me feel that I can shoot a low one tomorrow and get myself back into it.
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Starting his third round at two under, McIlroy won't be able to afford any blown par saves, and he'll need the putter to cooperate. You have to think he needs 65 or 66. Can he do it?
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