British Open suspended due to rain

As he crossed the Swilcan Bridge on No. 18, Spieth was serenaded with “The Eyes of Texas” from fans and he could see his name on the iconic yellow scoreboard at the home of golf. The more of a challenge the elements pose, goes the thinking, the better.

After squandering a day for going low, Johnson left himself with a massive catch-up job on Monday.

The Open Championship will finish on a Monday for just the second time in its history, organisers announced on Saturday.

And shortly after Johnson suffered that misfortune on the 14th, the players were taken off… and didn’t return until six o’clock.

It was a momentous decision by golf’s ruling body, which has organised the Open Championship since 1860, but it became increasingly inevitable as the day wore on and the winds coming in off the North Sea refused to abate.

“If it adds more pressure, it just makes me feel like this is something thats a little more special, ” he said.

“Gusts of wind increased in speed by 10-15 per cent after play resumed. This could not be foreseen… and made a material difference to the playability of the golf course“. You should be able to play in 40mph winds.

The last time an amateur won any major was Johnny Goodman at the 1933 U.S. Open. The Columbia native flubbed a chip at the 14th hole that barely reached the green. An inch away from placing his coin behind the ball to mark it, a gust moved his ball and it picked up enough momentum to roll off the green and cause Spieth to jump out of the way. Mostly, he said, he’d be trying to make contact with the golf ball off the first tee, though he looked nerveless Sunday. Scotland didn’t discover wind, rain and chill this week.

Significant flooding suspended play Friday at St. Andrews, when the second round was delayed by more than three hours as the maintenance staff squeegeed the greens and pumped standing water out of the fairways.

None of them inspired as much pure joy, perhaps, as the 22-year-old Irish amateur, Paul Dunne, who just kept hitting good shots, one after another, until he wrote down a 66 that made him the 54-hole co-leader, with Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day, at 12 under par 204.

The pair safely negotiated the next before play was halted. But he hardly was the first, or last, player to see major ambitions ruined by weather.

One of Dunne’s heroes, fellow Irishman and two-time victor of The Open, Padraig Harrington, is only two shots behind the leaders. Then the winds and rains came, and Woods skied to a then-career-worst 83. “Our intention is to commence play as soon as possible after that”, said an R&A statement.

Now, he’s got a lot of catching-up to do.

Or, in many cases, not.

Reed is staying with friends and family in a place 25 miles from the Old Course, so he didn’t fancy making the trip back while the R&A deliberated when to resume play. “We play sometimes in Durban (South Africa), so we know about wind”.

Reed and Misty Finney were in better shape, schedule-wise.

“Im going to play to win, ” Spieth said. Marc Leishman flirted with a record-tying 63 until he made par on the closing hole. He laughed. “I can’t walk in 45-mph wind”.

“When we started, it was almost impossible”, said Johnson.

Johnson and Jordan Spieth, who is 5 under, have three holes remaining in their second round. After shooting a 67 in the second round, he let several opportunities slip through his grasp and shot 70 on Sunday.