ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- The second round resumed at 7 a.m. Saturday morning, and, well, things got a little goofy. Play was halted 32 minutes later and players like Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson were left wondering why they were even brought out on the course in the first place.
But nothing explains just how ridiculous the conditions were like what happened to Louis Oosthuizen on the 13th green. Near the top of the leader board, the South African was setting up for a short par attempt when the ball blew even closer to the hole. That should have been a good break, but while Oosthuizen discussed it with playing partner Tiger Woods, the ball blew about five feet farther away. Watch:
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Another look at Louis' "Nooooooo" reaction when he realized he should have marked his ball when he had the chance:
It's somewhat of a light moment, but there's nothing funny about a major championship potentially being decided by a bad decision. Ted Scott, Bubba Watson's caddie, explained just how upset golfers were with the R&A.
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
Watson bogeyed the only hole he completed Saturday morning and now sits one shot outside the cut line with two holes to finish -- whenever that happens. High winds are expected all morning and the R&A will keep reevaluating when it's reasonable to begin play again.
Here's Luke Donald chiming in:
Live pictures of some R and A officials checking wind speeds out on the course. Play should resume soon ð pic.twitter.com/U5Whd7ZFdo
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) July 18, 2015
Of course, it's much easier to joke about the situation when you get to sleep in after finishing your second round on Friday.
When play does resume, there will be a lot of catching up to do. The R&A announced it would stick with threesomes for the third round to help, but it doesn't appear like it will use a split-tee start like it did last year at Hoylake.
R&A said that will not happen as it did last year at Hoylake. https://t.co/dga1m9e1rv
— Steve DiMeglio (@Steve_DiMeglio) July 18, 2015
With more bad weather in the forecast for Sunday, that could be another decision that winds up backfiring.
UPDATE, 1:45 p.m. St Andrews time: The R&A has announced that play isn't expected to resume until 4 pm local time at the earliest. Because of this, the plan is to complete the second round today with the third round to be played on Sunday and the final round on Monday. This is only the second time they will have had a Monday finish at the Open, the other being in 1988 at Royal Lytham.
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