With the greens still soft and receptive, there wasn’t a lot the PGA could do to make Oak Hill a tougher challenge. Mother Nature, however, could give the players a more difficult task with the strongest wind of the week.
PGA Championship: Will the wind have an impact on Saturday?
The leaders may go low again on Saturday at the PGA Championship, but to do so they’ll have to battle some wind which has come up in Rochester.
There was a slight breeze blowing early on Saturday, but the wind has since picked up. In his weekend forecast, SB Nation’s Brian Neudorff said to expect a breeze between 10 and 20 mph during the third round. While that breeze won’t cause the leaders to fall out of the red, it will make the course play harder. Rory McIlroy has already had issues with the wind, changing clubs on the tee box twice in the early going.
A breeze between 10 and 20 mph would force players to take a club more or less depending on the direction it’s blowing. That could mean players are forced to hit an extra club or two into the greens and aren’t able to fire at pins with a wedge. Going into the wind, several holes will play considerably longer than they did during the first two rounds.
The wind will have the biggest impact off the tee. As if Oak Hill’s fairways aren’t narrow enough, attempting to avoid the thick rough with a directional wind is almost unfair. As we’ve seen all week, there are low scores to be had at Oak Hill, but it’s very difficult to make birdies out of the thick rough.
The afternoon groups had better scoring conditions on Friday, but if the wind continues to pick up, that won’t be the case today.
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