Thomas Björn’s hopes of winning the US PGA Championship remained strong after the final round at Baltusrol Golf Club was called off due to the threat of lightning with the final groups approaching the final few holes. The 34 year old European Tour Member will resume at 10.05am on Monday morning at three under par with four holes to go, tied with Steve Elkington, the duo both one shot adrift of Phil Mickelson.
Björn showed all the grit and determination which has seen him claim eight European Tour International Schedule titles to battle back into contention after an indifferent start to his final round.
Like the majority of the field, Björn found the Baltrusol course a different proposition to the first three rounds, firmer greens and a swirling wind, allied to the ever present stifling heat, combining to make scoring extremely difficult. He bogeyed the second, sixth and tenth but began his climb back up the leaderboard with a 30 foot birdie putt at the 13th.
A measure of how hard the conditions were was the fact that all 18 players in the final nine pairings were over par, the first man under par for his round being World Number One Tiger Woods, who got his final round finished, a two under par 68 giving him a two under par total of 278 and still, theoretically, in with a chance of a play-off if the leaders fall back or, outright victory, if they fall back considerably.
But Björn – one of 12 players scheduled to come back and finish off - was not thinking about that and admitted that he was eager to return and complete the job in hand and claim his first Major Championship.
“I probably need a couple of birdies over the last four holes to try and win this golf tournament and I am going to try and do just that,” he said. “Obviously I would have liked to have kept going because I was feeling good – but it was getting very difficult out there.”
The man he will have to pass is Mickelson who, like Björn, struggled in the early part of his round with four bogeys in five holes around the turn. But he birdied the 13th to move to four under par with five to play.
“I think this actually gives me a tremendous advantage because we get a few extra holes to play and hopefully some calm weather tomorrow after some rain which will maybe soften the course up a bit,” he said.
Alongside Björn is Elkington, the 1995 Champion at Riviera Country Club, who epitomised the up and down nature of the final round for the majority of the leading contenders with two birdies and three bogeys in his seven holes from the ninth, on his way to being three under with three to play.
Aside from the leading trio, other players still retaining a hope of victory are defending champion Vijay Singh and Davis Love III who are two under par with three and five holes to play respectively, while Retief Goosen will need a major turnaround if he is to win, standing at one under par with two to play.
Two players who will not win are England’s Greg Owen and Lee Westwood, who were the unluckiest of the dozen players left on the course, the European Tour duo being forced to come off the course as they stood over respective birdie putts on the 18th green.
It was the end to a disappointing day for both players as Westwood stood at three over par for the tournament while Owen was seven over. “We knew it was coming and we tried to get through as quickly as possible on the last but we must have missed finishing by about one minute,” said Owen. “It is very frustrating.”
