PGA Officials under fire over tee times

U.S. PGA Championship officials came under fire on Sunday for setting up late teeoffs to accommodate TV broadcasters with tournament leader Phil Mickelson even wondering about the starting times.

Mickelson and Davis Love III, co-leaders after three rounds, were scheduled to tee off for Sunday's final round at 3:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), leaving little margin for any delays given the available light at this time of year.

After lightning in the area forced a 39-minute delay in the middle of the round, there was no hope of completing the tournament when a second lightning strike followed about three hours later.

"I had certainly asked to maybe go an hour earlier to try to get it in," said Mickelson, who will hold a slim one-shot lead over Australian Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn of Denmark when play resumes on Monday at 10:05 a.m. (1405 GMT).

"I thought that last night was a bit of a struggle, the last three or four holes seeing in the light, and when we had a delay before we teed off, I knew that there was no chance of us finishing. Or at least I didn't think that there was.

"I wish we could finish today obviously, but we'll have to finish tomorrow."

Tournament organisers were grilled at a news conference over whether the schedule for the final round was set up for a late finish to accommodate the wishes of U.S. TV broadcaster CBS.

"We certainly talked with CBS and I guess mutually agreed on what is an appropriate finish time," said Kerry Haigh, managing director of tournaments for the PGA of America, which runs the championship.

Elkington, the 1995 PGA champion, was also disappointed the final round was not completed.

"It's a shame that the crowds didn't get to see the finish and CBS on TV. I know I would have liked to have been watching. I had a front seat," he said.

Haigh said the ultimate decision on scheduling rested with the PGA.

"The forecast all week long has been for scattered storms and a chance of storms and lightning. We've been very fortunate up until now with storms that could come at any time basically during the afternoon.

"If you look further to the south, they have had no activity at all, and we were within seven miles (11 km) of missing it ourselves.

"We were just unfortunate that it came too close and right on top of us."

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