The Open 2015: Play suspended after torrential rain floods St Andrews course

After greenkeepers cleared the waterlogged course so play could restart at 10am, Willett carded birdies on the second, fifth and ninth to reach the turn in 33, before another birdie on the 10th gave him a three-shot lead as Zach Johnson dropped shots on the 11th and 12th.

Leader Dustin Johnson, history-maker Jordan Spieth and a desperate Tiger Woods were among those anxiously looking up at the skies to have an idea of whether they would be able to complete their second round by day’s end.

A three-plus hour weather delay hits the Open Championship as water overwhelms the Old Course at St. Andrews.

The Royal and Ancient face a race against time to get the 144th Open finished on Sunday evening after play was delayed this morning because of heavy rain and with 47mph gusts forecast for Saturday.

“[We’ve] only done it once at Hoylake”. “The prospect of changing it during competition and doing a two-tee start is not something we are going to do”.

“I think the amount of wind that there was today, you can play it. But when it starts to get worse, it can be a little bit of a lottery”. He said: “It is a relief we didn’t have to go out in that”.

“They tried to squeegee the green but water was rising quicker than they could get it away”, Van Zyl said”. About 90% of us were club pros then and we played when we could but there were a few guys who played more or less everything: Christy O’Connor, Peter Alliss, Bernard Hunt, Peter Mills, Dai Rees – the backbone of the Ryder Cup team. The Masters and U.S. Open champion played Thursday morning in the easier scoring conditions. There was standing water all around the 1st tee and 18th hole and the bunkers were full of water.

“I’m delighted with that”, said Warren, who carded a closing 64 to finish fourth in the Scottish Open at Gullane on Sunday.

Another three-putt bogey on the 17th cut Willett’s lead to a single shot, but the world number 39 took advantage of the downwind 18th to drive to the edge of the green and pitch to eight feet for a closing birdie. “It was a long morning. We just don’t know when the rain is going to start, when it’s going to stop, if it’s going to come back”, said the American, who had been scheduled to tee off at 2.34pm but that is now likely to be closer to 6pm. When we did tee off it was certainly much drier and it was just the wind we had to battle.

In 1960 I played two rounds of qualifying for the Open, one on the Old Course and the other on the New Course on the Monday and Tuesday.