After the sharp conclusion to yesterday’s play, today was always going to be a big one with around 60 players yet to complete round 2 before we embarked on round 3.

The last couple of days have been early starts but the 4.15am alarm call was quite a shock to the system this morning and the 5.00am bus to the course was surprisingly full.

Our rosters had been shuffled around a bit to accommodate the shotgun restart and I found myself back on hole 8 for the day, meaning that around 8 groups still had to come through my station.

For any restart after a suspension it is essential that the Tournament Director is completely aware of where each group is located and whether they are ready to go before the siren is sounded. The players on hole 8 were all in position but the marker that Ryan Palmer had placed on the putting green had disappeared overnight. In this situation the player must estimate where his marker was and replace his marker or ball on the spot prior to play recommencing. We sorted this out pretty quickly and I gave the all clear for my groups.

Once play started again, the groups on course made good time in completing round 2. It was extremely exciting to see that Jason Day and Matt Jones were going to be playing together in the final group but there was also some very exciting groups just before them.

Kerry Haigh and his team did an awesome job in achieving a 25 minute turn around between round 2 and round 3. This included finding a marker for the single player, Morgan Hoffmann who was leading the field out at 9.15am.

Having had relatively few rulings in the previous two days I was surprised by the number of times I was called on to assist with situations today. Although hole 8 was predominantly playing downwind and almost every player hit the fairway, there were a surprising number of rulings up by the green mainly due to the fact that the pin was tucked way over on the right side.

However, my day of dealing with rules scenarios paled in significance to the round that Jason Day was putting together at Whistling Straits. 

Jas was a couple of shots back when he went through 8 but then the fireworks started both in terms of his scoring but also in terms of the situations that Matt Jones found himself in.

How good was it for golf viewership when Matt decided to play from the deck of a grandstand left of hole 9? The place went wild as did the commentary. When Jason then went on a birdie blitz before slamming into a double bogey wall on 15 things could not have got more exciting. To follow up the bad break on 16 with a birdie on 17 just continued to build the anticipation for tomorrow’s showdown.

Who is in the final pairing? None other than Jordan Spieth who had completed his own demolition of the inward nine to climb into second place.

Today was remarkable in many ways. The weather was sensational. The crowds massive. The golf sublime and now we have JD two shots clear at the top of the leaderboard.

I am back on hole 5 tomorrow which I really don’t mind as I will have the chance to follow play on TV in the clubhouse once everyone has cleared my area. Perhaps I should just follow Jason on the back nine and give my vocal and moral support.

It is bedtime now but I really can’t wait to get out there tomorrow and see how this final major of the year is going to unfold. Let’s hope that it will be a "Day" to remember.

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