Sweeping down the plains: Oklahoma's weather playing its part in deciding PGA Championship

May 21—TULSA — Oklahomans know what to expect with the weather in May.

Expect the unexpected.

That was certainly the case Friday at Southern Hills in Tulsa with the PGA Championship.

The weather played a part, in more ways than one, in dictating the cut for the weekend portion of the major.

It started overnight when the crew at Southern Hills elected not to trim and roll the greens due projected wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph — which have made the greens nearly unplayable.

"The greens were a little bit of a struggle out there for me — I actually could have had a really, really good day, but with them not being able to cut the greens and roll them smooth, they were pretty bumpy, pretty chewed up out there," said former Oklahoma State golfer Talor Gooch, the only Oklahoma native in the field. "... They had to kind of protect the course. If they had cut and rolled them ... it would have been impossible."

However, those types of gusts never truly turned up.

But that's not to say it wasn't still a blustery day on the course.

There was a lot of time spent by the golfers staring up into the skies instead of relying on tossing a little grass into the air.

With the swirling winds throughout the hilly course, there were times were no wind could be felt at ground level, but the tops of trees — or the flag on an elevated green — were whipping.

"When the wind gets blowing this hard it doesn't matter where you're at," said Rickie Fowler, who once again did not talk with the media but provided answers to three questions sent out by the PGA Tour. "It changes lines, and when it is blowing this hard, you can't necessarily work it against it or try and hold shots too much.

"You kind of have to hit a solid one and let the wind take it. You've got to use the wind as your friend."

Despite the inconsistency in the weather — and the forecast — Gooch and Fowler found themselves in a comfortable position when they walked off the course around noon.

Each ex-Cowboy scratched an even-par for the second round to earn a spot in the cut to the weekend.

For Gooch, his second round kept him in the red as he stands at 1-under for the tournament — in a tie for 17th — though it is eight strokes off the leader Will Zalatoris, who was grouped with former Cowboy Viktor Hovland.

"If I could have gotten a couple of putts to drop today, it would have been a really, really good one," said Gooch, who was tied for 10th in greens in regulation during the second round but in the bottom third of the field in putting average.

Fowler remains two strokes behind Gooch, having shot a 1-over 71 on Thursday, to make the cut in a fourth-straight major played since missing the cut in the 2020 PGA Championship — which had snapped a streak of 15 consecutive majors (dating back to 2016) in which he made the weekend.

"I'm happy with where we're at," Fowler said. "Definitely could have been a bit better, but also I think I did a really good job of scrambling, getting out of trouble, and yeah, a lot of good stuff, so I'm excited about the next two days."

Steady Viktor Hovland heads into moving day looking to finally make a move on the scorecard.

He matched his opening round mark with another even-par 70 on Friday, and stands tied for 23rd heading into the weekend. Both of his birdies Friday — on the par-4 fourth and the par-3 11th — were immediately followed up by bogeys on the next hole to prevent any movement in the round.

Matthew Wolff followed up his first-round 76 with a 7-over 77 to bring an end to his major in Oklahoma.

He wasn't the only Cowboy to miss the cut, though.

After a solid first round of even-par, Alex Noren struggled in Friday's afternoon session with a six-over 76 to miss the cut by two strokes.

Follow News Press sports editor Jason Elmquist on Twitter @jelmquistSW for updates on Oklahoma State and high school athletics.