Rory McIlroy wasn’t happy PGA start was delayed. Then came 2 colorful words 

Rory McIlroy’s confident strut was going. He looked ready. 

But don’t take our words for it. 

Two of his own did the job. 

After two rounds of the PGA Championship, McIlroy was at one over par, squeezing him into the weekend. But Saturday would maybe bring a run. He arrived early for his 8:25 a.m. ET tee time at Quail Hollow Club — but then they sounded the weather horn. Storms were in the Charlotte, N.C., area.  

And McIlroy reacted as maybe you would, should you have been on the verge of setting out for a round. 

Cameras picked it up. He lowered his head. He shrugged his shoulders. He smirked. He then said:

“F*** off.”

Our apologies for the colorful language. 

As a result of a pair of stoppages, tee times were adjusted. When play eventually started, at 11:43 a.m., players went off in threesomes and off both the 1st and 10th tees. Some players weren’t affected much — the leaders were to start about an hour earlier. Some, like McIlroy and playing partner Xander Schauffele, had to adjust significantly. 

They now had to start at 1:38 p.m. Put another way, they’d been at the course, and now they had to wait. 

How would players like McIlroy respond? On ESPN, analyst Curtis Strange said they wouldn’t be happy. 

“Going off early, perfect greens, soft conditions, no wind, you’re thinking I can get something going here,” said Strange, a two-time major winner. 

“Maybe not when, but I can get something going possibly for the next week or the week after that. But now you have to go home and wait five hours, and it changes everything. It changes the outlook on the entire tournament.”

Would the overall day be affected?

“It doesn’t affect at all the leaders,” Strange said on ESPN. “They’re going off about the same time, same mentality, golf course, weather’s going to all be the same. It does affect the early starters, but it’s what you have to do to get the round finished.

“They’re going to finish today, whereas if they went off one tee, just delayed it two or three hours, it would go into tomorrow, and you never know about weather then. So they’ve done what is right. It’s just very, very unfortunate for a few that we’re going off early.” 

For reference, the new times are below, and the old tee times are below that. 

New PGA Championship third-round tee times 

Tee No. 1

11:43 a.m. – Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Wyndham Clark
11:54 a.m. – Keegan Bradley, Marco Penge, Lucas Glover
12:05 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
12:16 p.m. – Cam Davis, Adam Scott, Joe Highsmith
12:27 p.m. – Tony Finau, Ben Griffin, Eric Cole
12:38 p.m. – Davis Riley, Alex Noren, Ryo Hisatsune
12:49 p.m. – Taylor Pendrith, Bryson DeChambeau, Richard Bland
1:00 p.m. – Garrick Higgo, J.J. Spaun, Aaron Rai
1:11 p.m. – Sam Stevens, Denny McCarthy, Ryan Gerard
1:22 p.m. – Alex Smalley, J.T. Poston, Robert MacIntyre
1:33 p.m. – Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ryan Fox
1:44 p.m. – Si Woo Kim, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
1:55 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick

Tee No. 10

11:48 a.m. – Rafael Campos, Matt Wallace, Tom McKibbin
11:59 a.m. – Beau Hossler, Corey Conners, Luke Donald
12:10 p.m. – Nicolai Højgaard, Harry Hall, Austin Eckroat
12:21 p.m. – Byeong Hun An, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young
12:32 p.m. – Daniel Berger, Brian Campbell, Taylor Moore
12:43 p.m. – Nico Echavarria, Harris English, Stephan Jaeger
12:54 p.m. – Rasmus Højgaard, Thorbjørn Olesen, Maverick McNealy
1:05 p.m. – Justin Lower, Tom Kim, Sergio Garcia
1:16 p.m. – Brian Harman, Elvis Smylie, Kevin Yu
1:27 p.m. – David Puig, Bud Cauley, Michael Kim
1:38 p.m. – Chris Kirk, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele
1:49 p.m. – Max Greyserman, Sam Burns, Matt Fitzpatrick

Old PGA Championship third-round tee times 

8:15 a.m. – Max Greyserman, Sam Burns
8:25 a.m. – Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele
8:35 a.m. – Michael Kim, Chris Kirk
8:45 a.m. – David Puig, Bud Cauley
8:55 a.m. – Elvis Smylie, Kevin Yu
9:05 a.m. – Sergio Garcia, Brian Harman
9:15 a.m. – Justin Lower, Tom Kim
9:25 a.m. – Thorbjørn Olesen, Maverick McNealy
9:35 a.m. – Stephan Jaeger, Rasmus Højgaard
9:45 a.m. – Nico Echavarria, Harris English
9:55 a.m. – Brian Campbell, Taylor Moore
10:15 a.m. – Cam Young, Daniel Berger
10:25 a.m. – Ben An, Collin Morikawa
10:35 a.m. – Harry Hall, Austin Eckroat
10:45 a.m. – Corey Conners, Nicolai Højgaard
10:55 a.m. – Beau Hossler, Luke Donald
11:05 a.m. – Matt Wallace, Tom McKibbin
11:15 a.m. – Wyndham Clark, Rafael Campos
11:25 a.m. – Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton
11:35 a.m. – Marco Penge, Lucas Glover
11:45 a.m. – Jon Rahm, Keegan Bradley
11:55 a.m. – Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood
12:15 p.m. – Adam Scott, Joe Highsmith
12:25 p.m. – Eric Cole, Cam Davis
12:35 p.m. – Tony Finau, Ben Griffin
12:45 p.m. – Alex Noren, Ryo Hisatsune
12:55 p.m. – Richard Bland, Davis Riley
1:05 p.m. – Taylor Pendrith, Bryson DeChambeau
1:15 p.m. – J.J. Spaun, Aaron Rai
1:25 p.m. – Ryan Gerard, Garrick Higgo
1:35 p.m. – Sam Stevens, Denny McCarthy
1:45 p.m. – J.T. Poston, Robert MacIntyre
2:05 p.m. – Ryan Fox, Alex Smalley
2:15 p.m. – Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
2:25 p.m. – Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
2:35 p.m. – Matt Fitzpatrick, Si Woo Kim
2:45 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Matthieu Pavon

“>