PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Suddenly, rain was the least of anyone's problems Saturday in The Players Championship.
Not with wind that was gusting to 40 mph, making No. 17's famous island green look more like a postage stamp. Not with temperatures plunging by the hour. And certainly not for the players who had to survive 18 holes of a second round that was shaping up as to be one of the toughest in PGA Tour history.
"This is as tough as golf as you're ever going to play," Keegan Bradley said after a 1-under-par 71, which he called one of the best rounds of his life.
Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson did the unthinkable. They didn't make a bogey. Bradley would have joined them in not dropping a stroke except for a double on No. 16, where he was assessed a two-shot penalty for not playing his putt from where the wind had blown it away.
"You're not really making that many swings. It's just a lot of shots," Thomas said after a 69 with a series of beautifully flighted shots - and some numbers that showed just how much the wind affected shots.
He hit two pitching wedges from 185 yards. He hit a 5-wood from 193 yards. The most satisfying was a 5-iron from 167 yards.
"Some of the most bizarre conditions I've played in," Thomas said.
And to think: The Players Championship is not even at the halfway point because of rain that dumped four inches at TPC Sawgrass and saturated the Stadium Course so much that it took 54 hours and 16 minutes from the start to the end of the first round.
When darkness halted play Saturday evening, 27 players had yet to tee off in the second round. The wind might not be quite as strong Sunday, but temperatures when the round resumes were expected to be in the upper 30s.
Tom Hoge will go into the day with his name atop the leaderboard. He still has played only 18 holes. He opened with a 6-under 66 on Thursday and was tied with Tommy Fleetwood, who was at par through three holes of the second when play was suspended Saturday.
Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell was part of the three-way tie for third at 5 under, and he hasn't taken a competitive swing since finishing off a 67 on Thursday. Fellow Baylor School graduate Stephan Jaeger has a first-round 77 behind him and four holes ahead of him in the second round; he was tied for 93rd at 3 over.
Thomas and Watson shared the clubhouse lead at 3-under 141 through 36 holes. They left in a tie for 15th on the leaderboard, and six of the players ahead of them had not finished a single hole.
Kevin Kisner reached 6 under in his second round until missing a short par putt on No. 4 and going from rough to water for a double bogey on the next hole. He shot a 74 and was at 142. Dustin Johnson birdied his final hole for a 73 and was at 142, with two double bogeys on the par 5s over 36 holes.
Those who spent more than six hours on the course Saturday held on for dear life, especially when they came to the notorious island green on the par-3 17th.
Over the first two days, only four players hit into the water. On Saturday, the first four players couldn't find the green. Scottie Scheffler had the wind die and went long into the water. Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele caught a gust and came up short, as did Collin Morikawa in the group behind them.
By the end of the day, 29 balls had gone into the water.
The average score for the second round when play was suspended was 75.37, and it was certain to go higher Sunday morning. The average was 75.41 for the opening round in 2007, the first year the PGA Tour's big money event was in May. The highest ever for the opening two rounds was 76.19 in 2000, when it was in March.
Scoring tends to get lower after the cut. The highest average score for any round was 76.51 in the third round of 2005.
"Insane," Thomas said to describe the challenge.
Thomas thought he was going to end up on the good end of the draw when they started out Friday in soft, still conditions in the rain. Returning to 30 mph wind on Saturday morning to finish the round and then facing 18 holes of that in the afternoon? Not so much.
"There's always one person who play good on the bad side of the draw," Thomas said. "I kept saying, 'Be that guy.' I'm very proud of myself today."
So many others went the wrong direction.
Schauffele was 4 under for his opening round, two shots out of the lead, when he hit into the water on the 17th for bogey. On the next hole, he went from rough to rough and then to the water, had a wedge spin back some 75 feet away and made a quadruple bogey. He went back out for his second round and shot a 78.
Brooks Koepka was 3 under when he returned and was just left of the par-5 16th in two. It took him four shots to get down, and then put his tee shot in the water on the 17th on the way to a double bogey and an eventual 72. He followed that with an 81, matching his highest score on the PGA Tour.
Asked to describe the 17th, Koepka said, "It's luck."
He hit 8-iron from 205 yards on the 16th hole in the morning. He estimates his 8-iron on the 17th going the other direction went 105 yards in the air, and then some 20 feet to the bottom of the pond.
"It's brutal, man. It's pure luck and somewhat loss of integrity of the tournament in my opinion," Kisner said. "We've got 36 more holes to figure out who's playing the best."