Players seethe at British Open officials as high winds halt play
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The wind, as ever, ruled the day in Scotland.
Just 32 minutes after restarting Round 2 Saturday morning – which had already been delayed three hours on Friday because of rain – officials at the British Open halted play, citing unplayable conditions. They were right: players saw balls roll across greens untouched and shots fly in unpredictable patterns. Leader Dustin Johnson dropped a stroke almost immediately to fall back into a tie with Danny Willett, who’d already completed his round.
The wind cost Dustin Johnson a stroke when he was too slow to mark his ball on the 14th hole; the wind picked up the ball and rolled it away, eventually resulting in a bogey on a par-5. Louis Oosthuizen saw his 18-inch putt transform into a much longer one when the wind got hold of his ball. And Tiger Woods lost control of his yardage book, an appropriate metaphor for how his game has gone the last couple years.
Out at the 11th hole, Brooks Koepka saw his ball oscillating and refused play:
Koepka stalled for enough time that the R&A, the tournament’s governing body, had no choice but to suspend play. The high winds continued for the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon, forcing the R&A to declare an eventual Monday finish.
Players seethed as they left the course. “Should never have started,” Spieth said, while Johnson wondered aloud why they even started play in the first place. Bubba Watson’s caddy Ted Scott described the scene once players returned to the clubhouse:
In response to growing concerns and criticisms, the R&A issued a swift statement: “We spent an hour at the far end of the course, before play started, assessing whether the course was playable. Balls were not moving on the greens and while the conditions were extremely difficult, we considered the golf course to be playable. Gusts of wind increased in speed by 10-15% after play resumed. This could not be foreseen at the time that play was restarted and made a material difference to the playability of the golf course.”
Here’s a clip of the wind from behind the R&A Clubhouse and the first tee/18th green:
The winds were strong enough that a task as simple as pouring water in a cup was difficult:
Current forecasts call for the wind to continue through the morning and not abate until early afternoon. Play is expected to resume around 5 p.m. local time, Noon ET. With some players from the second round still on the ninth hole, this could take awhile.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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