Fans head for the exits after play was suspended Sunday at the PGA Championship. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- The PGA of America just ruined a great golf tournament -- the 87th PGA Championship at Baltusrol.

It's ruined because the tournament isn't going to finish until Monday morning. Two passing storms delayed play Sunday afternoon, causing the event to go to a Monday finish with the leaders still putting on the 14th green.

How is this the PGA's fault? Simple. Had the PGA sent the leaders off at a normal time -- say, 2 o'clock instead of a late 3 o'clock tee time -- the tournament would've finished Sunday night and been a huge success. Instead, the outcome now will be an anticlimax and be viewed by only a fraction of the number of fans who were on hand Sunday.

That's a real shame because a great finish was shaping up. Phil Mickelson, Davis Love, Steve Elkington, Thomas Bjorn and even Tiger Woods were jockeying for position on the finishing holes Sunday night. A 39-minute storm delay before the leaders even teed off all but assured the final round probably wouldn't finish Sunday night. Then storms returned later, chasing Mickelson off the 14th green just as he was about to putt out, and play was called for the day, scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Monday.

No matter what happens Monday morning, the air of excitement won't be the same at Baltusrol. Most of the 40,000 or 50,000 vocal fans who put up with sizzling temperatures won't be back. The atmosphere will be subdued and the champion will be cheated out of a small part of the experience that he deserved.

There was no reason for it, and no excuse. It was obvious at the end of Saturday's third round that a 3 p.m. start was tenuous, at best. The high heat and humidity caused a thick haze to spread over the area early Saturday night, and the last few groups complained about the level of visibility as they finished. Even without any delays Sunday, the PGA probably wouldn't have had enough light to finish the tournament if it had gone to a three-hole playoff.

Because Sunday's weather forecast was for more of the same, and also a much stronger chance of thunderstorms and showers, it would've been prudent -- if not downright obvious, the way most observers see it -- to move Sunday's tee times up by an hour to 2 o'clock. Had event officials done so, the 39-minute delay wouldn't have been disastrous, and as it turns out, the tournament would've been done before the heavy stuff came in shortly before 7 p.m.

But the PGA didn't do that. It didn't even discuss the matter with CBS, its televising network. The tee times were set in stone a year in advance and that was that. Mickelson said he asked PGA officials to move the tee times up an hour Sunday afternoon because of the daylight situation, but Kerry Haigh, the manager director of tournaments for the PGA, said he didn't know anything about that.