The Open champion Cameron Smith is digging in there.

He gets back to even par for his round with a long-range birdie on the 16th - and there aren't many boasting that today.

Two holes to go before he can dry off in the clubhouse.

Par, par, well played chaps. Both Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry show their putters are in full working order early doors.

A slight groan as Rory McIlroy spirals his approach towards the first a tad right into the longer grass.

Is that a better result than Shane Lowry, who zips his ball into the front right bunker?

Maybe but Lowry splashes on and sees his ball run six to eight feet past the pin. World number three McIlroy is now up and doesn't quite follow through there to leave a testy five footer.

Image source, Getty Images

In case you are wondering why you see endless TV shots of caddies holding umbrellas over balls instead of their player there's a perfectly valid reason for it.

Modern rain clothing does a pretty decent job of keeping players dry but balls on the other hand can deviate a lot when they are soaking wet.

The grooves of an iron basically can't grab a wet ball as well as a dry one so you get shots that are more difficult to control and have way less spin.

So on tee shots and putts, when a player has a chance to pick up his ball and place it either on a tee or the green, caddies focus on keeping it dry.

Players also often reach for a towel whenever possible to dry the face of the club they are about to use to again create the driest contact possible - although clearly that ain't easy in these conditions.

Image source, Getty Images

Not a single birdie on the card for six-time major winner and two-time US PGA champion Phil Mickelson today in these atrocious conditions.

He pars the 18th to sign for a five-over-par 75 to slip back to 10 over for the tournament.

Lefty will be playing for pride on Sunday and nothing more.

Not looking like the rain is going to ease up for another three hours or so.

Huge advantage to the leading groups?

Image source, Getty Images

Belgium's Thomas Pieters, showed it was possible to flourish early doors with birdies on four of the first five holes.

He actually got to six shots off the lead but has since handed back shots at the seventh, after only managing to knock his second shot from the wet rough around two yards, the ninth, 13th and 16th holes.

Rory McIlroy has been fighting his driver the last few days but he'll take that as he clatters his tee shot away on the first and sees it kick on down the left of the fairway.

Shane Lowry is up next and he bashes him on what initially appears a similar line...hold on that's going well left with the shouts of 'fore' a tell-tale sign that wasn't what was wanted there.

Just guessing here but we're very much thinking that there must be one or two teeing off later thinking that 'if the world's best player is having a tough time, I'd best be ready for a challenging assignment'.

World number one Jon Rahm is not having a great time of it in the Oak Hill rain.

The reigning Masters champion opened up with back-to-back bogeys and collected three more on the front nine with just a solitary birdie scribbled onto his card.

He then bogeyed the 10th, cracked a bit of a smile after a great putt to birdie the 13th and then claimed another birdie on the 14th but he is seven over for the championship.

A quick reminder of how things stand:

-5 Scheffler, Conners, Hovland

-3 DeChambeau, Suh

-2 Tarren, Koepka

-1 Pendrith, Rose

E Jaeger, Block, Straka, Mitchell, MW Lee, Svensson, McIlroy, Lowry, Bradley, NeSmith

Selected others

+1 Cantlay, Morikawa

+2 Fleetwood

+4 Hatton

+7 Rahm

Lots is already taking place out on a saturated East course at Oak Hill but if you're wondering who is getting their umbrellas at the ready, here are some of the remaining tee-times in Saturday's third round:

18:40 R McIlroy (NI), S Lowry (Ire)

18:50 MW Lee (Aus), A Svensson (Can)

19:00 S Straka (Aut), K Mitchell (US)

19:10 J Rose (Eng), M Block (US)

19:20 C Tarren (Eng), T Pendrith (Can)

19:30 B DeChambeau (US), B Koepka (US)

19:40 V Hovland (Nor), J Suh (US)

19:50 S Scheffler (US), C Conners (Can)

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Welcome to our coverage of the third round of the US PGA Championship from the East Course of Oak Hill.

Or 'Soak Hill' as one of my colleagues has called it today.