The Wind was Blowing on Friday at Southern Hills
Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, indeed.
Sustained winds blew across Southern Hills Country Club for most of
Friday’s second round at a steady clip of 25 miles per hour, with gusts nearing 40 also challenging the best in the world.
Early this morning, the PGA of America notified players that due to the forecasted high winds, all practice and golf course putting greens would not be mown on Friday.
During his 32-year tenure, Kerry Haigh – the PGA of America’s Chief Championships Officer – does not believe his team has ever not mown greens due to projected winds at a PGA Championship.
The wind did end up flummoxing many of the best in the world through Friday’s second round.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler shot a 5-over 75 in his second round and will miss the cut. Patrick Cantlay, shot the same 5-over score as Scheffler and will also suffer an early exit.
Brooks Koepka, a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, managed the wind nicely on Friday, shooting a 3-under 67. That was tied for the low round of the day through the early part of Friday afternoon alongside leader Justin Thomas and Bernd Wiesberger.
Koepka knows what it takes to win the Wanamaker Trophy – no matter the conditions.
“If it’s going to be blowing, it’s going to be quite difficult,” said Koepka of the upcoming forecast. “You’ve got to put it in the right spots. But the main thing out here is to put it in the fairway and you should be all right.”
“When the wind gets blowing this hard it doesn’t matter where you’re at,” added Rickie Fowler. “It changes lines, and when it is blowing this hard you can’t necessarily work it against (the wind) or try and hold shots too much.
You kind of have to hit a solid one and let the wind take it. You’ve got to use the wind as your friend.” Thomas led by one as Friday afternoon wore on after back-to-back rounds of 67.
“The conditions were obviously very difficult,” said Thomas. “Although I played solid yesterday, I played really, really well today.”
👆 70 places from yesterday. @BKoepka came to PLAY this morning.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/LYqCn8qTNN
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 20, 2022
