PGA Championship frost delay: See why play was suspended at Oak Hill due to chilly weather

Jacob Camenker

PGA Championship frost delay: See why play was suspended at Oak Hill due to chilly weather image

The weather was expected to be clear for the PGA Championship in Pittsford, N.Y. this weekend, but Mother Nature still found a way to wreak some havoc ahead of the major tournament's first round.

An early morning frost set in on the course at Oak Hill Country Club on Thursday before the PGA Championship began. That will delay the start of play at the course, which was originally expected to begin at 7 a.m. ET.

Here's what to know about the delay, the weather in Rochester area and when golfers can be expected to tee off in the quest for the Wanamaker Trophy.

LIVE: Follow Thursday's PGA Championship action at Oak Hill Country Club

PGA Championship weather updates

The frost delay at Oak Hill Country Club isn't expected to be a long-term issue. While it was a cold morning in Rochester, temperatures are expected to reach a high of 62 degrees, per Weather.com. There is a zero percent chance of precipitation, so it should be a clear day at the course once the frost thaws.

Still, the frozen course caused delays for golfers who were expected to tee off in the first two hours of the tournament.

The PGA Championship announced that tee times would be delayed by a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes. That meant the first groups of the day — Shaun Micheel, Braden Shattuck and Steven Alker on the first tee and Sam Ryder, Gabe Reynolds, Brandon Wu on the 10th tee — would begin play at 8:50 a.m. ET.

Additionally, the practice facilities available to golfers did not open until 7:35 a.m. ET with the practice greens opening at 7:45 a.m. ET. Meanwhile, fans and patrons were not able to begin entering the facility until 8 a.m. ET.

Nonetheless, the issue is only expected to be a short-term one and soon enough, the action will be underway at Oak Hill.

MORE: Ranking the top 30 golfers playing at the 2023 PGA Championship

PGA Championship frost delay

Frost delays are exceedingly rare in golf given that the sport is often played in the summer or in areas with typically warm or mild climates. As such, Thursday morning's delay was something that golf fans don't often see — especially at a major event.

So, what does a frost delay look like? Here's a smattering of images from Oak Hill before the course thawed on Thursday morning.

PGA Championship Frost Delay
(Getty Images)
PGA Championship frost delay 1
(Getty Images)
PGA Championship frost delay 2
(Getty Images)
PGA Championship frost delay 3
(Getty Images)
PGA Championship frost delay 4
(Getty Images)
PGA Championship frost delay 5
(Getty Images)

PGA Championship updated tee times

Below is a full look at the updated tee times for play on Thursday.

First tee

Time Grouping
8:50 a.m. Shaun Micheel, Braden Shattuck, Steven Alker
9:01 a.m. Ben Griffin, Chris French, Joel Dahmen
9:12 a.m. Wyatt Worthington II, Nico Echavarria, Wyndham Clark
9:23 a.m. Tom Hoge, Ryan Fox, K.H. Lee
9:34 a.m. Paul Casey, Adam Svensson, Beau Hossler
9:45 a.m. Zach Johnson, Kurt Kitayama, Sahith Theegala
9:56 a.m. Corey Conners, Ockie Strydom, Joaquin Niemann
10:07 a.m. Kevin Kisner, Jimmy Walker, Padraig Harrington
10:18 a.m. Alex Noren, J.T. Poston, Mackenzie Hughes
10:29 a.m. Lee Hodges, Callum Tarren, David Lingmerth
10:40 a.m. Taylor Moore, Denny McCarthy, Brendan Steele
10:51 a.m. Jeremy Wells, Justin Suh, Adri Arnaus
11:02 a.m. Anthony Cordes, Mark Hubbard, Dean Burmester
2:20 p.m. Matt Cahill, Taylor Montgomery, Cam Davis
2:31 p.m. Michael Block, Hayden Buckley, Taylor Pendrith
2:42 p.m. Alex Beach, Brendon Todd, Sihwan Kim
2:53 p.m. Patrick Reed, Rasmus Hojgaard, Nick Taylor
3:04 p.m. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, John Somers, Chez Reavie
3:15 p.m. Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Hideki Matsuyama
3:26 p.m. Adam Scott, Max Homa, Tony Finau
3:37 p.m. Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson
3:48 p.m. Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson
3:59 p.m. Alex Smalley, Russell Henley, Mito Pereira
4:10 p.m. Adam Hadwin, Matt Kuchar, Talor Gooch
4:21 p.m. Justin Rose, Billy Horschel, Francesco Molinari
4:32 p.m. Russell Grove, Patrick Rodgers, Ben Taylor

10th tee

Time (ET) Grouping
8:55 a.m. Trey Mullinax, Josh Speight, Kazuki Higa
9:06 a.m. Adam Schenk, Colin Inglis, Thriston Lawrence
9:17 a.m. Min Woo Lee, Andrew Putnam, Emiliano Grillo
9:28 a.m. Harold Varner III, Scott Stallings, Nicolai Hojgaard
9:39 a.m. Steve Holmes, Adrian Otaegui, Davis Riley
9:50 a.m. Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland
10:01 a.m. Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa
10:12 a.m. Shane Lowry, Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland
10:23 a.m. Matthew Fitzpatrick, Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm
10:34 a.m. Luke Donald, Adrian Meronk, Yannik Paul
10:45 a.m. Kenny Pigman, Davis Thompson, Maverick McNealy
10:56 a.m. Keegan Bradley, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau
11:07 a.m. Jesse Droemer, Matt NeSmith, Rikuya Hoshino
2:15 p.m. Sam Ryder, Gabe Reynolds, Brandon Wu
2:26 p.m. Sadom Kaewkanjana, Ben Kern, Thorbjorn Olesen
2:37 p.m. Webb Simpson, Y.E. Yang, Danny Willett
2:48 p.m. Sepp Straka, Harris English, Robert MacIntyre
2:59 p.m. Thomas Pieters, Keith Mitchell, Pablo Larrazabal
3:10 p.m. Lucas Herbert, Brian Harman, Callum Shinkwin
3:21 p.m. Tom Kim, Sam Burns, Abraham Ancer
3:32 p.m. Sungjae Im, Chris Kirk, Seamus Power
3:43 p.m. Si Woo Kim, Stephan Jaeger, Anirban Lahiri
3:54 p.m. Victor Perez, Aaron Wise, Jordan Smith
4:05 p.m. Chris Sanger, J.J. Spaun, David Micheluzzie
4:16 p.m. Thomas Detry, J.J. Killeen, Matt Wallace
4:27 p.m. Nick Hardy, Greg Koch, Eric Cole

It isn't yet clear whether the near-two-hour delay will impact the anticipated tee times for Friday. Those have not yet changed, but they may, depending on whether the golfers can complete all of the Round 1 play by day's end on Thursday.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.