United States Dustin Johnson, second from right, and caddies speak with an official as play is suspended due to strong winds during the second round of the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland, Saturday, July 18, 2015.
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The R&A was criticized for even resuming the second round.
Jordan Spieth was furious with himself for an uncharacteristically poor performance on the greens during his weather-disrupted second round of the 144th Open. With winds getting up to 45 miles per hours, balls were being blown around the greens, and according to Bubba Watson’s caddy, most players are pretty pissed at the organizers.
“We spent an hour at the far end of the course, before play started, assessing whether the course was playable”, an R&A spokesman said. I don’t think you’ve got to go put a ton of yardage on this golf course. That was the difference. But you feel the Brits will face a formidable challenge to get past Johnson and his prodigious hitting. That is unnaturally fast for links courses, and certainly not the way anyone intended for St. Andrews to play in the early years. He chose to pitch it up a steep bank instead of using the putter, stubbed and barely reached the flat level of the green some 50 feet from the flag. “Jordan was running after his ball”, he said.
He goes into round three at St Andrews just three off the lead of Dustin Johnson, the same margin he started behind at the midway point in the recent US Open before his memorable post-vertigo charge into the lead. He struggled putting in the wind Friday, which is unusual for Spieth, and was even through 13 holes with three birdies and three bogeys.
But when his final putt fell – at 9:53 p.m. – the cheers erupted all over again. He was four shots out of the lead. This time, with no rush to finish another hole before absolute darkness, they went on and on.
“We were coming up 18, I said, it’s the greatest walk in golf”, Woods explained after missing the cut in consecutive majors for the first time in his career.
The temperature was cold in the wind.
Former Masters champions Zach Johnson and Adam Scott (both -7) finished their second rounds on Friday.
“Yeah, I believe I’m still in contention”, Spieth said.
The players and caddies stopped on the Swilcan Bridge for the traditional parting wave from a retiring golf hero, and the crowd responded with still-louder cheers. Everyone is going to play in hard conditions. He said after his round that he was very happy with his game and just hoping for a chance to get two more cracks at the Old Course. “But I managed to hang in there and it was a good finish to a tough day”.
The real trouble was at the loop – holes 7-11 that are the most exposed.
“It was one thing after another”. As Lee Westwood tweeted, “This is going to be a long day”.
Monday: ESPN, 5 a.m. until conclusion (live).
“When they blew the horn to start and when they blew the horn to stop, to me the conditions hadn’t changed at all”.
However, golf’s governing body the R&A defended its decision, saying in a statement: “Gusts of wind increased in speed by 10-15% after play resumed”. The third round was to feature threesomes, and Rickman was trying to figure out how to finish by Sunday.
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And you thought that filthy weather conditions were meant to be a part of the experience over here?
