The second round of the weather-affected US PGA Championship resumed at Whistling Straits on Saturday, with Justin Rose in position to chase a second major title.
Former US Open champion Rose was one shot off the lead with just one hole remaining when play was suspended on Friday evening ahead of a violent thunderstorm hitting the course.
Weather warnings had been posted an hour earlier and Rose thought his group was going to be able to finish after birdies on the 16th and 17th took him to eight under par, one behind Australian duo Jason Day and Matt Jones.
“I opened my big mouth to the boys I was playing with and said the end was in sight,” Rose joked. “Thirty seconds later they blew the horn, so my name was mud walking up the 18th.”
Day and Jones had four and six holes to play respectively when play resumed at 07.00 local time on Saturday, with Sweden’s David Lingmerth the clubhouse leader on seven under, one ahead of Masters and US Open champion Jordan Spieth.
After Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata had equalled the lowest round in major championship history with a superb 63, Spieth had carded a second round of 67 to remain firmly in contention to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players to win three majors in season.
“We are free-rolling now,” Spieth joked after making the cut in the US PGA for the first time at the third attempt. “I’m just happy to be back in contention and position. If I’d had a bit of a lull today it would have been too hard to make up.”
As well as victories at Augusta National and Chambers Bay and two other PGA Tour titles, Spieth was one shot outside the play-off at the Open and has recorded eight other top-10 finishes in 2015.
But the 22-year-old added: “I feel good. I’ve got a chance to win a major championship. Just thinking about that gets you enough adrenaline that there won’t be any issues.
“I noticed last year for the first time I felt fatigue and felt like I had overworked and kind of burned out the end of the year, as we had to go through the four play-off events without a break and then into the Ryder Cup. This year I’ve done a better job of when I take time off, when you limit the practice coming back, how to prepare.
“As far as mentally in this position, the way the year’s gone, I approach each event as if it’s the only event of the year when I stand on the first tee. That gets me through it. I’m sure at the end of this year, it will be nice to sit back and hang the clubs up for a couple weeks, but until then we have got a lot to play for.”