Glory Delayed

Thanks to a band of severe weather that hit New Jersey early Sunday evening, the 87th PGA Championship was suspended until Monday. Play will resume at 10 a.m. EDT with Phil Mickelson leading Steve Elkington by a slim shot.

Marino Parascenzo, Special to PGA.com

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. (PGA.com) -- Thanks to threatening weather Sunday evening, the big question at the 87th PGA Championship at Baltusrol was whether it would help or hurt to have play carry over for another day.

Which it will. Play will resume Monday at 10:05 a.m. EDT with 12 players still on the course, and with from one to five holes left to complete.

Phil Mickelson, who reversed his shocking front-nine slide and retook the on-board lead, Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn, both a stroke behind, thought it was a dandy idea. The way the day was going -- the way a hotter, harder and windier Baltusrol was grinding on them -- there was some reason to wonder whether they could get to the finish line still upright. And this with Tiger Woods sitting as the clubhouse leader, with six guys out there who still can beat him.

"Oh, this is a tremendous advantage," Mickelson said. "Because we get a few extra holes to play and hopefully calm weather after, hopefully, some rain, maybe soften it up a little bit."

The horn ending play caught Mickelson on the 14th green, where he had just badly missed a 6-foot putt for birdie and will face a tough 3-footer coming back for par when play resumes.

Said Elkington: "I only have three holes left, and two of them are par-5s [17th and 18th]. So my mindset as of right now is, I'll probably be the first one with a chance to post a score better than Tiger's, and hopefully it's about 5-under."

Elkington two-putted from about 6 feet for a bogey at the 15th to slip a stroke behind Mickelson. He'll resume at the 230-yard, par-3 16th.

Bjorn has had some unwanted experiences with delays. But this time, he's encouraged.

"I would have liked to have kept going, but I've got a good lie in the rough on 15, which is obviously a good thing," the Dane said. "I've got that to think about all night, and that's a good break, knowing that I can go out tomorrow morning and I do have a good lie, and then finish it off."

Bjorn was 3 under, facing his second shot at the par-4 15th.

But the delay might strike Tiger Woods as a lousy idea. With a strong burst for home, he was the leader in the clubhouse. He birdied the last two holes, and three of the last five, for a 2-under-par 68 and a 2-under total of 278. And the way the rest of the field was backing up, it seemed Woods might have been left on the beach when the final tide went out, clutching his third PGA Championship and his third major of the year.

Woods went out in 1-over 35 on the tougher front nine, with two bogeys and a birdie, but he came in 3-under 33 for his 68.

"I wish I would have gotten off to a better start," he said, "because this golf course ain't easy. Especially the first seven holes."

With time and golf course running out on him fast, he went after both closing holes, both par-5s, with a vengeance. Especially the tough 17th, all 650 yards of it. He went after it again on his second shot. He just missed the flag, and the ball scooted across the green. He got down in two from there for his birdie. He also went over the green at the 18th, and got down in two for another birdie.

That might have been a sigh of relief in Mickelson's smile when someone asked whether it would be an advantage to come back on Monday. He'd started the day tied for the lead with Davis Love at 6 under par, both a stroke ahead of Bjorn. But both leaders wilted, Love more than Mickelson.

Mickelson seemed to be on his way when he birdied No. 4 and stretched his lead to three. Then his game slipped, his putting mostly, and he bogeyed Nos. 6, 7, 9 and 10.

"I don't feel like that today was a slide like yesterday," Mickelson said, meaning three bogeys over his first six holes. "I thought the course was playing tremendously harder. Every bogey I made, I put myself in the proper spot to get up-and-down. So I gave myself chances to do that. I don't feel there were any spots where I wasted a shot, or where I couldn't saver par."

He stopped the bleeding with a birdie at the 13th.

Whatever that was Mickelson went through, he had slipped from the lead and had trailed the surprising Elkington for four holes.

Elkington is 42, and allergies and health problems have kept him an iffy golfer. He hasn't won since the 1999 Doral-Ryder Open. On the PGA Tour this year, he's played in 14 events, missed only two cuts, and tied for sixth in the Players Championship and for fifth in the U.S. Bank Championship of Milwaukee.

Vijay Singh was expected to be more of a force, but he hurt himself early. He double-bogeyed No. 3, where he missed the green, chipped on and three-putted, then bogeyed No. 4. A birdie at No. 8 got him back to 2-under, and the receding field got him back into the hunt. He was 2-under with three to play and one of the six who can beat Woods.

Someone wondered whether Woods might stick around Baltusrol Monday.

"Yeah," he said, chuckling. "There's a free lunch."