Twenty minutes after Harrington teed off, the first fairway remained wide open. In recent years, the biggest problem with practice rounds at the majors is that they take up to six hours with so many players hitting putts and chips from every conceivable angle.

“There was no one ahead of us and no one behind us,” Kevin Sutherland said after playing nine holes with Goydos. “We stood on the ninth green for five minutes telling stories and we never saw anyone in the fairway.”

Even a quick practice round was no picnic. Sutherland was in the clubhouse when someone passed by and slapped him on the shoulder, only to look down at a hand dripping wet.

“Just got out of the pool,” Sutherland told him.

For Stephen Ames, it brought back fond memories.

“I’m going to play nine holes and then find a nice mango tree,” said Ames, who grew up in Trinidad & Tobago. “That’s what we used to do on days like this. Find a nice mango tree and hit balls in the shade. We’d cut down the grass and hit balls. Very nice.”

Not so nice was Darren Clarke’s wardrobe on Wednesday, in which he surely borrowed a chapter from Colin Montgomerie on how not to dress when the temperature hits triple digits. Monty famously wore navy blue slacks and a shirt in the 1994 playoff at Oakmont. Clarke wore black pants and a black shirt.

“Weight-loss program,” he said.

The heat is getting plenty of attention, and while it’s true that players are going through bottles of water as frequently as John Daly goes through a pack of cigarettes, it is not terribly surprising.

The PGA Championship is in August. It’s supposed to be hot.

The most recent exception was Whistling Straits in northern Wisconsin a few years ago, when it was so chilly in the third round that some fans brought Green Bay Packers jackets to the tournament. But it was stifling in Atlanta in 2001 and in New Jersey two years ago.

“Baltusrol was the worst,” Sutherland said. “The cuffs of my pants were soaked because that’s where the sweat was running.”

Goydos pondered the heat during a breakfast of cantaloupe, bacon and a Danish — no need to check him for steroids — and wondered what everyone was expecting.

“If you come to Tulsa for the PGA and are shocked to find it too hot,” he said, “you might need to find a new profession.”

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos

One only has to see the motorized fans, 50 inches in diameter, around most of the greens at Southern Hills. The tournament arranged for Precision Air Systems out of Pompano Beach, Fla., to deliver 21 of these massive fans for the PGA Championship.

They deliver air that is about 10 degrees cooler and will help keep the greens alive. The fans have been running 24 hours a day since Tuesday. Workers will remove them Thursday morning before the first round, replace them after the round and repeat the process until the PGA Championship has a winner.

“I wish they’d leave them on during the tournament,” Rory Sabbatini. “And add some misting for us.”