Chilled water and beers were passed around as portable fans buzzed in the background. But nothing compared to the collective sigh the crowds let out when a cool gust of wind floated past Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills.

“Oh, that breeze,” caddie Danny Stout’s mother said Friday. “[The heat’s] killing me. Miserable. I have a cooling towel. I have an umbrella. I have a fan.”

As the crowds walked the fairways of the BMW Championship, it was easy to overhear complaints about the humid and hot weather.

Some sought shelter under the shade of trees. Others carried multiple bottles of water. The suit-clad tee-time announcer at the first hole hid under an umbrella and tapped his face with a towel between introducing players.

“The key is shade,” one man in his late 40s joked to his friends as they walked the path to the first hole.

Stout’s mother wore a tan sun hat and a towel draped around her neck. Stout’s father wore a Masters-themed sun hat and leaned against the stands.

They spoke with Suzanne Sanford, who was committed to watching as much of Xander Schauffele as she could. Her husband, Norm, was less keen to walk all 18 holes.

“I might quit, stop watching it after I pass out,” she joked with Norm. “He can handle the heat more than I can.”

Suzanne, a Parkton resident, was dressed, like most of the women attending, in a sleeveless golf dress — hers was purple — and a Boynton Beach hat.

When Schauffele arrived, she whipped out her phone and started recording. She joked that her husband advised against telling Schauffele she loved him due to decorum rules.

Meanwhile, the event organizers set up a snowball stand behind the ninth hole, and an attendee hovered nearby, trying to convince onlookers to invest in the shaved ice.

“Snowballs have protein,” he shouted to two boys about the age of 10 and their mother, who wore a blue dress and a straw sun hat.

“I wish,” one of the little boys said, laughing, as they made their way past the stand and down the hill.

The players weren’t safe from the soaring temperatures.

Maryland’s Denny McCarthy took pity on some fans Thursday and started throwing out water from the cooler to anyone who requested it at Hole 11.

McCarthy said his gloves are an unfortunate casualty of the heat. He rotates through three or four pairs until they are thoroughly soaked. Then he pulls out another three or four.

He also changed shirts and hats going into the back half of the round. To keep his electrolytes up, he’ll go through 10 hydration packets and some chewable salt.

“It’s just something I have to deal with. I sweat maybe a little more than others. I’m used to it by now. It doesn’t make it any easier, though. It’s just hard for me to play in the severe heat, humidity,” he said. “... Yeah, it’s a battle for sure. But the more I play in rounds like these, the more I learn and figure out kind of what works best for me in those situations.”

For Englishman Harry Hall, the weather has changed his preparation. Normally, he lifts heavy weights during his Thursday and Friday morning workouts.

He said he took a different approach this week. Hall’s changes paid off. One of the early starters Friday, he shot a 3-under 67 to reach 5 under par.

He started the week 45th in the FedEx Cup standings, and only the top 30 advance to the Tour Championship next week. Hall’s first two rounds have him in contention for a place in Atlanta.

”This week I just knew it would be such a strenuous week walking around this course and, with the temperatures, I just stuck to my working out on Tuesday and doing a bit of warmup before I go out there, and then obviously drinking a lot of electrolytes. Just trying to get through it,” he said.