Play was suspended Saturday at the British Open for the second successive morning as winds in excess of 40mph made it impossible for balls to settle on the greens at St. Andrews. The R&A has announced that round three will be played on Sunday and round four on Monday.
Competitors still to complete their second rounds had returned for a 7am BST start on Saturday morning, with Friday’s play having been delayed by over three hours due to heavy rain. But after 30 minutes, play was suspended again. They’ll attempt to finish on Saturday evening after the bad weather clears up.
On-course microphones picked up Jordan Spieth saying: “We should never even have started.” The 21-year-old American is chasing the third leg of the Grand Slam. Spieth remained at five under par, four shots behind playing partner Dustin Johnson, who shares the lead with Danny Willett.
Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods and Louis Oosthuizen struggle in gale force winds
Spieth was not the only major player who was critical Saturday morning of the R&A’s response to the inclement weather.
Britain’s Lee Westwood and David Hearn were both extremely critical of the way the situation had been handled:
Bit of a strange decision here @TheOpen . They seemed to stop play out on 11 and allowed the rest of us to carry on playing.
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
The announcement at 9 on a decision was that there is no decision other that there will be another decision at 10. And repeat every hour!
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
Surprise surprise. The announcement at 10 on a decision is that there will be another announcement at 11. Repeat until 4 o'clock.
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
The 11 o'clock announcement seems to have been blown away!
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
Feel sorry for the spectators who've turned up today and not seen much golf. On the plus side those that are here tomorrow will see a lot.
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) July 18, 2015
More than disappointed in the R&A. Some groups hit only 1 shot while others played on. It needs to be a fair contest and wasn't this morning
— David Hearn (@HearnDavid) July 18, 2015
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.”
Bubba Watson’s caddy Ted Scott also picked up on the criticism:
Every R & A official in player dining is getting yelled at. Lots of players pissed in here. #GaleForceWinds #StAndrews I love this place!!
— ted scott (@jtedscott) July 18, 2015
Current forecasts call for the winds to finally die down by early afternoon. Play is expected to resume around 5 p.m. local time, Noon ET. Johnson, Spieth, Oosthuizen and several other high profile players still need to finish their second round.
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