Today started in a calm and pleasant manner and concluded with some mayhem caused by a storm that stalked us from the north.

Another 5.00am alarm broke my slumber and had
me heading for the shower before catching the 6.00am bus to the course. It was
a glorious morning with less wind than yesterday, thus giving the guys who
faced the wind yesterday afternoon a shot at posting a decent score.

I was positioned on hole 5 today and so it
was a brisk walk out there to get myself in position before the first groups
arrived around 7.50am. The 5^th is a ripper of a par 5, especially
with the breeze coming from the west and blowing left to right across the hole,
adding to the protection given by the water in front of and to the left of the
green.

It took around 10 groups to come through
before someone actually had a crack at the green in two. Although they made
birdie it wasn’t really a smart play as the potential for trouble was high. The
vast majority of players laid up to 100 yards out and then stuck it close to
the pin with their approach. One of our big hopes and current leader Jason Day
was a perfect example of this, making 4 easily after finishing just short of
the green in two.

It was very hot out on the course today and
my kidneys must have had a thorough cleansing after all the water that I drank.
There is no shade on this hole so I was being blasted by the sun all day.

Around 3pm we got a radio call from Kerry
Haigh to say that there was a front coming down from Green Bay that was packing
a lot of electricity. It was still 50 miles away and not moving too fast but it
was certainly coming right at us. There was a second front to the west of us
but that was thankfully sliding down to the south of us.

As play continued the course gradually became
dimmer and dimmer as the storm clouds approached. Over to the west the sky lit
up periodically but at least it wasn’t coming our way. The weather updates
became more frequent and all Rules Officials were placed on a state of alert with
airhorns primed for use.

Finally at around 5.30pm the call was given
to sound the sirens. I have to say that the evacuation plan was executed
perfectly and we had all the players and officials under cover before the
heavens opened, the sky lit up and Whistling Straits really blew hard!

We had to shelter in the tournament office
for close to an hour before it had calmed down enough for us to leave. The
"Monster Board" which shows every player’s score, was flattened completely, the
Golf Show studio was damaged and lots of fencing was blown down.

There was not a massive deluge of rain and so
hopefully the course will not have endured too much damage.

Play will resume tomorrow at 7.00am and round
3 will commence around 30 minutes after round 2 is completed. Early start for
me again tomorrow as I need to be in position on hole 5 around 6.45am.

Let’s hope that Jason Day and Matt Jones can
finish off their rounds in style and stay at the top of the leaderboard.

It is 8.30pm now a probably just about time
to hit the sack before another big day.