A Scottish native was “blown away” by how the primary spherical of the AIG Ladies’s Open Championship was playable as wild winds precipitated afternoon teams to take as much as six and a half hours to finish their rounds at St Andrews.
Born and raised in Aberdeen on Scotland’s north-east coast, Gemma Dryburgh is well-versed in enjoying golf in excessive climate situations however the 31-year-old was left dumbfounded by officers not stopping play as gusts of greater than 60 kilometres per hour swept by means of the Previous Course on Thursday.
“Only a bit blown away,” Dryburgh, who shot seven-over to be tied for a hundred and thirtieth, stated post-round.
“It was exhausting. My ball was blowing off the tee. It was blowing on the green. It was powerful.
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“We had been on 11, our second gap, our balls had been shifting. My ball moved twice earlier than I putted. Don’t know the way it was playable to be trustworthy. Particularly these holes like 7 and 11 proper on the market.
“It’s simply actually tiring. It’s exhausting to be trustworthy. Prepared for a nap. May be lighter tomorrow.”
The R&A – who run the match – opted in opposition to custom for the primary ladies’s main on the Residence of Golf since 2013 as they carried out a two-tee begin with teams commencing their rounds from the primary and tenth tees.
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When the boys’s equal – The Open Championship – has been performed on the Previous Course they’ve caught to the format of all teams teeing off the primary gap however this led to roughly six hour rounds for many teams when Australian Cameron Smith gained the Claret Jug two years in the past.
Beginning on the tenth tee was additionally designed to fight diminishing daylight with the match performed later within the yr than regular as a result of Olympic Video games – golf tournaments performed earlier within the Scottish summer time have frequently had gamers on the right track till 10pm native time.
However the tactic was no higher.
Gamers persistently backed away when standing over their shot as a result of the wind picked up, whereas the shared greens and overlapping nature of most of the Previous Course’s holes led to at occasions 4 teams being banked up on the identical tee.
The complaints from gamers additionally got here on the high finish of the leaderboard with first spherical chief Charley Hull of England saying her five-under par spherical of 67 “took ages”.
“I had a guess with my caddie. I stated, I reckon it’ll take six and a half. He stated, no approach. He stated, 5 hours 30,” Hull recalled.
“I used to be proper.”
Hull performed in the identical group as world primary Nelly Korda and world quantity two Lilia Vu and after being delayed 12 minutes off the primary tee, the star-studded trio additionally endured a half an hour wait on the eleventh tee.
They ultimately completed their spherical in six hours and eight minutes with Korda and Vu signing their playing cards one shot and two photographs behind Hull respectively.
Korda – who’s famend for being one of many quickest gamers on the LPGA Tour – expressed her frustrations after her first aggressive spherical at St Andrews.
“Oh, my gosh, like actually lengthy, particularly once we had been ready on the eleventh tee field,” Korda stated.
“I imply, that was, I feel, a 30-minute wait, after which waited once more on 11. There was a variety of ready on that again 9. The entrance 9 was form of flowing a great bit.
“Clearly within the powerful situations you’ve folks stepping off and the stream to the spherical is a bit slower, however you’re form of anticipating that. However then as soon as we hit the eleventh tee field, it was simply full-on breaks.”