GOLF: Time is money; but it's also an indicator of where Paul McGinley would aspire to be.

In yesterday's final round of the 87th US PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, the Irishman teed-off four and a half hours before the final group's scheduled start - a time span later stretched by a further 39 minutes due to a brief thunderstorm that hit the area with the final three groups yet to start - which, of course, meant that his interest had concluded before the destination of the famed Wanamaker Trophy was decided.

So it was that McGinley stood outside the recorder's hut after a 69 for 283, three-over, while 54-hole joint-leaders Phil Mickelson and Davis Love went through their putting routines on the practice green.

While destiny was calling someone else, the 38-year-old Dubliner knew his time had come and gone.

A top-30 finish beckoned, but it only served to reaffirm the conviction that if he should somehow manage to get a hot putter, then he'd be closer to the promised land.

As McGinley walked off the 18th green, his 72nd hole of the championship, his caddie, Darren Reynolds, turned to him. "You know, Paul," he said, "you only holed one 25-footer (all championship) and one 12-footer . . . other than that, you haven't holed a putt outside of four feet."

Which confirmed that it was one of those weeks with the putter, although the upside was that he suffered only one three-putt and that came at the second hole on Thursday.

"It's not like I'm hitting bad putts, I'm hitting good putts. There's a goalkeeper in there and he's playing great," said McGinley, who finished as the top-Irishman in the season's final major for a second straight season.

He was tied-sixth at Whistling Straits a year ago, but added: "I played better this week than Whistling Straits . . . I feel I've played decent all summer. It's just down to one thing. I've putted very moderately. If you get into position, you've got to score the goal.

"The best I've putted in a tournament was the BMW Championship at Wentworth and I haven't had a decent putting tournament since. It's amazing. There's nothing wrong with my stroke, it's a mental thing.

"It's very hard to play a major championship making so few birdies. Again, one of the positives I take away is how patient I remained with nothing going my way. That's something I couldn't have done four or five years ago . . . I walk away with the feeling that if I can putt, a lot is achievable."

McGinley's angst at his putting was proven by the statistics that showed he was ninth in fairways hit of all the players in the field and ranked 12th in greens-per-regulation, but only came in 60th in putting. "I've had an off-week (on the greens) this week," he said.

If McGinley's putter stayed cold, it was one of the few things to do so on a day when - again - the heat index exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The meteorologists had anticipated thunderstorms in the area, but the initial hit lasted only a short time and caused a 39 minutes suspension in play. At the time, only the final three pairings had yet to start their rounds.

The two players in the final group - Mickelson and Love - had one thing in common as they went in search of the title, both have won just one major. Love's title came in the US PGA in 1997, Mickelson's in the Masters last year.

In truth, it could be argued that no golfer in their generation had done less with more talent that these two. Before yesterday, they had combined 44 US Tour wins and more than $63 million in career earnings and between them just two majors in about 100 tries.

By the time they walked off the fourth hole, however, the pendulum had swung in Mickelson's direction as he sought to become a wire-to-wire winner of this championship and get out of the 'One Major' club. While Love suffered back-to-back bogeys on the third and fourth to fall back into a share of second place alongside Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington on four-under at that juncture, Mickelson birdied the fourth to move to seven-under, three shots clear of his pursuers.

For Bjorn, it was a chance to exorcise some final day demons that returned during the Smurfit European Open at The K Club last month when he led going into the final round but collapsed to an 86.

"There's a lot of golfers who go through their ups and downs, and you deal with it. I've been in championships long enough to know I have a golf game," said the Dane.