The dangerous weather that delayed the start of play at the PGA Championship has forced organisers to send players off in groups of three instead of pairs and from split tees in an effort to get the third round completed on Saturday.

The third round of the year’s first major, where Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas leads by two, will start at 11:43 a.m. (1543 GMT), a nearly 3-1/2 hour delay from when the first tee shots was initially scheduled to be struck.

Players will set off from the first and 10th tees at Quail Hollow Club instead of everyone starting at the par-four first.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who made the cut on the number and is nine shots back of Vegas, was on the bridge headed toward the first tee for early tee time when the horn sounded to signal play was suspended.

The Northern Irishman, who was set to head out in the second pairing with defending champion Xander Schauffele, was none too pleased as he slumped his head, turned around and grinned in disbelief while appearing to utter a profanity.

About an hour earlier, practice at the year’s second major was suspended for 17 minutes due to dangerous weather and those outside were instructed to seek shelter. Practice facilities re-opened after a second suspension that lasted about an hour.

According to the forecast, there is a severe thunderstorm watch in the area until 12:00 p.m. ET while scattered showers are expected to exit the area around mid-morning and give way to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon.

Intense rains pelted the course earlier this week and the soft conditions led to top players like Scottie Scheffler and Schauffele voicing their displeasure about how so-called mud balls impacted their opening round.

Because players were not able to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the soggy fairways, the mud balls left some players with little control over where their next shot would go.