PGA Championship underway after frost delays start of play at Oak Hill

ROCHESTER, New York :The PGA Championship got underway at Oak Hill after frost delayed the start of the first round by nearly two hours on Thursday and left many players bundled up in sweaters.

Shaun Micheel, who won the tournament 20 years ago at Oak Hill, went out in the first group from the par-four opening hole alongside fellow American Braden Shattuck and New Zealand's Steven Alker.

Masters champion Jon Rahm will get his bid for the third leg of the career Grand Slam of golf's four majors got underway at 10:23 a.m. ET (1423 GMT) off the 10th tee alongside U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Australian Cameron Smith.

Brooks Koepka, who along with fellow LIV Golf member Phil Mickelson finished joint runner-up at the Masters, was playing three groups ahead in the company of world number two Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland.

Mickelson returns to the PGA Championship this year for the first time since 2021 when, aged 50, he defied the odds to become the oldest major winner in history.

The six-times major winner skipped his title defence last year at Southern Hills as he extended his self-imposed hiatus from the sport after incendiary comments he made about the Saudi-funded rival league which became LIV Golf.

Mickelson is scheduled to tee off in the 3:48 p.m. (1948 GMT) group from the 10th tee with fellow Americans Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler.

With early-morning temperatures at 28 Fahrenheit (-2 Celsius), Oak Hill was left coated in a layer of white, looking more like Christmas, with workers and staff bundled up in winter hats, jackets and gloves.

As Oak Hill is located in upstate New York on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, weather conditions had already been a concern around the year's second major which was