KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C.—In a PGA Championship with a liquid leaderboard, on a course with more moods than an overcrowded Lamaze class, there is the promise of one last Sunday of manic, major golf.
While the season's final grand-slam championship often fights for respect, this one is at least earning distinction for its volatility. One day it's a bear. One day it's a kitten. Who knows what's next? The script for this one should be written on the back of a lithium prescription.
In Saturday's rain-shortened third round, the Ocean Course opted to show its friendly side again. Players were asked to shift from the survival mode they adopted Friday to a go-get-you-some posture Saturday. It just all depends on the whim of the wind.
A chunk of the field took advantage of the milder conditions Saturday, with one extra-large exception.
The front nine Tiger Woods was authoring would have been OK for just any guy off the street paying the $360 weekend greens fee here. But for a 14-time major champion with designs on Jack Nicklaus' legacy, it was just the kind of golf that has kept him from winning one of these marquee events for the past four years.
Beginning the day tied for the lead, Woods immediately had to rescue par from the deep rough of the first hole. When his three-foot birdie putt on No. 3 slid two feet past the hole, Woods was visibly wounded and never recovered. He put up bogeys on three of his next four holes — eventually falling five strokes off the two-and-a-half-round lead shared by Vijay Singh and Rory McIlroy (at 6 under). When play was suspended, his frame of mind matching the darkening sky, Woods was facing another tricky par-saving putt. It was as if nature were giving him a standing eight count.
Woods, in a quote released through the PGA, announced that he wasn't going to just pack up his clubs and steam home on his yacht. "I'll come back tomorrow morning and see what happens," he said. "There are a lot of holes left to play."
If nothing else, it was a great day for collecting Tiger Woods memorabilia. Twice Saturday he signed a glove and handed it to a fan who was nicked by one of his wayward shots.
Otherwise it was splendor in the paspalum grass for 15 players who momentarily tied or leap-frogged Woods on the leaderboard.
If you happened to be one of the lucky ones who teed off early and completed a round, you could really feel good about your life. Gloated Bo Van Pelt, who shot 67 to stand 3 under for the tournament, "It's nice to just be done for the day and get to go home and relax."
There were 26 players with unfinished third rounds when play was halted. They were scheduled to return to where they left off at 7:45 a.m. Sunday. Playing in threesomes, teeing off from both No. 1 and No. 10, the field was scheduled to begin the last round shortly before noon.
Among the others who made the bolder moves Saturday were Adam Scott and McIlroy.
Scott shot a 4-under 32 on the front side Saturday before fleeing the course. That moved him to within one shot of the lead. His shortened day was highlighted by holing out on No. 5 from a sandy indentation in the earth that because of local rules cannot be called a bunker this week.
McIlroy was magnificent, in a small dose. At last year's PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club his aggression cost him when he injured his wrist trying a risky shot off a tree root. He broke out the daring golf again Saturday, putting up five birdies on his first eight holes.
But his best play may have been his save on the par-4 third hole, after his tee shot lodged in the bark of dead tree. He plucked his ball like low-hanging fruit, dropped it, and got up and down for par. Thinking back on Atlanta, he joked, "I'm just glad I didn't try to play that ball from the tree."
McIlroy faces the prospects of playing 27 holes Sunday, intensifying the demands of the last day of a major. One thing in his favor, he's 23 years old. The other man tied at 6 under, Singh, is 49, just a few months shy of qualifying for the Seniors Tour.
"I'm happy to play 27; and if it was 36, I'd be happy as well," said the young Irishman. "You've just got to take what you're given and get on with it and make the best of it.
"I said coming in here all I really wanted to do was put myself in position [to win], and I've been able to do that."
The unanswerable question is what kind of long, frantic day awaits McIlroy and all the rest? That is the intrigue. There is just no telling when this place wakes up what its personality might be.
