High winds wreak havoc on day three

• High winds force lengthy suspension on Saturday
• Play resumed for all of 32 minutes before it was halted
• Spieth: “We shouldn’t have been out there in first place”

The resumption of play at the Open lasted little more than half an hour on Saturday morning as high winds battered the Old Course and resulted in another suspension.

With 42 players still waiting to complete their second rounds after a three-hour delay for rain on Friday morning, play resumed at 7am but was halted at 7.32am with gales forcing balls to move around the greens.

The suspension prompted anger and frustration among players and caddies alike, with Jordan Spieth, in pursuit of his third major win of the year, picked up on TV saying: “We shouldn’t have been out there in the first place.”

Bubba Watson’s caddie Ted Scott also had his say and tweeted:

In response to the suspension of play and subsequent criticism, the R&A released a statement, which read: “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 by 10-15% after play resumed this morning. This could not be foreseen at the time that play was restarted and made a material difference to the playability of the golf course.”

CONTINUES BELOW…

But those 32 minutes of play could prove vital in the grand scheme of things as one-shot overnight leader Dustin Johnson dropped back to nine-under-par after a bogey on the par-5 14th, when his ball blew off the back of the green.

The final straw came when 2010 champion Louis Oosthuizen marked his ball on the 13th green, replaced it, only to the see it blow away. Thankfully, the South African saw the funny side at the time and tweeted afterwards:

Players then criticised the communication methods from the R&A as they posted weather updates every hour, despite no change in conditions.

Lee Westwood tweeted:

While Ian Poulter said:

Originally hoping to get back underway at 3pm, the R&A have since announced that it will be 5pm at the soonest before the players head out onto the Old Course again, with the third round pushed back to Sunday and the final round on Monday.

It will the first time there has been a Monday finish since Seve Ballesteros lifted the last of his three Claret Jugs in 1988 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

The Open :: Should play have started?

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