PGA Will Be Back in a Flash

And the winner of the 87th PGA Championship, in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon, with the sun setting, is ... to be continued.

What was shaping up as an exciting conclusion to the season’s last major was rudely interrupted when a thunderstorm scatter-shot through Baltusrol Golf Club and shut down all birdie and par production.

The weather horn sounded at 6:35 p.m. local time with Phil Mickelson leading at four under par on the 14th green, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington, who had just bogeyed the par-four 15th.

Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn also is at three under.

An earlier weather/storm alert had delayed play 39 minutes.

Play was rescheduled to start at 10 a.m. today local time, and it is presumed a champion can be crowned before nightfall. The last time a PGA Championship ended on Monday was 1986, at Inverness.

You can blame the weather for this postponement, and even argue that CBS, which is televising the event, did not have to send the final group off at 3 p.m.

“We certainly talked with CBS and I guess mutually agreed on what is an appropriate finish time,” said Kerry Haigh, managing director of tournaments for the PGA of America.

The golf decision, though, was easy.

You don’t play with the threat of lightning and Retief Goosen, who was struck by a bolt when he was a kid, playing the 17th hole.

“Look, I love this championship, OK?” Mickelson said. “But I want to live, man.”

So think of the PGA Championship as one of those CBS daytime soap operas, where they leave you dangling, with a crescendo of organ music, at the end of an episode.

... Be sure to turn in tomorrow to see if Phil holds off Steve in the exciting conclusion of “As the Tee Shot Turns.”

The event is not lacking in plot lines.

Tiger Woods, believe it or not, has not been written out of the script. He started the day at even par, six shots behind co-leaders Mickelson and Davis Love III, and bulldogged his way into the clubhouse at two-under 278.

Woods shot two-under 68 in a round that began with bogeys on the first and third holes.

He is two shots behind Mickelson after trailing him by 12 on Friday, when he needed a birdie on No. 18 to make the cut.

Now Woods is tied for fourth place with Vijay Singh and Love -- but he is the only contender to have completed four rounds.

Bjorn is at the 15th, Singh is on No. 16 and Love is paired with Mickelson.

Woods has to hope the leaders come back to him and force a playoff -- a three-hole aggregate-total format at the PGA.

Although anything is possible, the odds appear against Woods’ pulling off one of the great comebacks in golf history, given that the back nine has been giving out more birdies than the front.

The only two par fives on the course, No. 17 and No. 18, could provide an exciting backdrop. Woods birdied both holes Sunday to get into contention.

“I only have three holes left, and two of them are par fives,” said Elkington, who is looking for his second major victory after winning the 1995 PGA at Riviera Country Club. “So you know my mind-set as of right now is I’ll probably be the first one with a chance to post a score better than Tiger’s.”

The 18th hole has played the easiest all week with a 4.50 scoring average.

Woods has gone from 113th place after the first day, to tied for 62nd, to tied for 20th, to tied for fourth.

He’d like to tell about what a terrific year it has been at the majors, except the majors aren’t over.

“I won two, I was close in one, and I don’t know about the other one yet,” a smiling Woods said.

This tournament definitely deserves the heading “Anything Can Still Happen.”

Mickelson, for instance, has played hot-potato with the PGA lead all weekend.

He had a three-shot lead after 36 holes but gave it back Saturday with a two-over 72.

He and Love began Sunday tied at six under, playing in the last group.

It appeared early that Mickelson was going to run away with his second major victory in two years.

He took a one-shot lead after Love made bogey on the par-four third hole, and then there was a dramatic, two-shot swing at the par-three fourth.

Mickelson seemingly put the clamps down when he plopped his tee shot six feet beyond the pin while Love had a severe downhill, left-to-right putt.

Love would aim well left of the cup and watch the ball make a 90-degree turn and trickle eight feet past the hole. He ended up three-putting for bogey and set the stage for a two-shot swing.

“Make it and it’s over!” a Mickelson fan shouted from behind the ropes.

Mickelson made it to go three up on the field, but it wasn’t over.

He bogeyed the sixth and seventh holes and also the par-three ninth, all on relatively short par putts.

Before you knew it, the lead was gone.

Elkington holed a chip shot from the rough on No. 11 to get to five under and was one shot up on Mickelson.

Elkington stretched his margin to two before he bogeyed No. 13 and No. 15, allowing Mickelson to regain the lead when he rolled in a birdie putt on the par-four 13th.

With Mickelson looking over a three-foot par putt on No. 14, play was halted, and the course was cleared.

After four days of the PGA, six players still have a chance to win.

“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,” Bjorn said. “I’ve got to think about that all night.”