Reputations are scattered in the wind

Published on Thursday 17 July 2008 22:49

THE stormiest first round at the Open in more than a quarter of a century unfolded at Royal Birkdale yesterday as wind and rain drove two major champions, Sandy Lyle and Rich Beem, off the course, and saw a host of the world's best players shoot some of the worst scores of their careers.

Lyle's decision to walk off after ten holes because he was having a miserable day – the former champion went to the turn in 45, 11 over par – disappointed Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, the organisers of the championship. Beem, winner of the US PGA in 2002, was 12 over at the turn and left without an explanation.

They were not the only major winners in the field to suffer at the hands of a tough course made even harder by wind and rain. Phil Mickelson finished on nine over par, with Ernie Els and Vijay Singh both ten over.

Only three players broke par, by a single shot. Rocco Mediate, Graeme McDowell and Robert Allenby kept their games under control to post one-under 69s.

Old stalwarts such as Tom Watson and Tom Lehman turned in respectable scores while Greg Norman at 53 produced the most acclaimed performance of the first round when he signed for 70. "I'm excited about it, but I'm still going to be low key,"cautioned the golfer, who was accompanied by former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert, his recent bride.

Apart from the rattling of flags against sticks in 30 mph winds, perhaps the loudest noise at Birkdale was the whining of unfulfilled players. Not since the carnage at Carnoustie in 1999 have the R&A received so much flak for the way in which the course was set up.

Jerry Kelly, 41, the US PGA Tour veteran, reckoned the tough tees and pin positions, bearing in mind the ferocity of the conditions were well known in advance, amounted to the kind of catastrophic error of judgement made by the United States Golf Association when the US Open was held at Shinnecock Hills in 2005. That was the major Tiger Woods deemed "out of control" when the event had to be halted to water an unplayable green.

"The worst course set-up I've ever seen," complained Kelly after an 83. "I couldn't reach four fairways. You have to use common sense and they didn't. They put themselves in the league of the USGA at Shinnecock."

Simon Dyson, 30, winner of a brace of European Tour events, was one stroke better off on 82, but just as miffed. "You can't play," he said. "If you put a 4 handicapper on the first tee, they'd probably shoot 100. That's no exaggeration. It's nearly unplayable."

According to Graeme Storm, on 76, the tees should have been moved up. "If it had been run by the European Tour, the tees would have been pushed forward a little bit," he said.

Many among the early starters complained the holes which played into the wind, such as the sixth,11th and 16th were not reachable in two mighty blows.

Dawson didn't think there was an issue with the sixth, which he felt in the conditions had to be approached as a par 5. He added that weather forecasts were changing all the time and yesterday's conditions were more severe than expected. He conceded that a tee located 20 yards further forward on the 11th "would have been nice."

With high winds forecast for today and tomorrow, the possibility of play being suspended can't be ruled out. "If the wind is going to be colossal, we wonder if we can play at all," Dawson pondered.