#360View: R&A ridiculed for poor decision-making at rainy Open

Joy Chakravarty 23:17 18/07/2015
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  • The R&A allowed play to start despite wind speeds of 35-40mph.

    St Andrews — What happened at the start of the second round of the 144th Open Championship was a crying shame for the oldest and most prestigious golf tournament in the world.

    The day’s play was suspended on Friday and was scheduled the next day at 7am. The wind was shrieking throughout the night, and a timely start looked almost impossible.

    And yet, the professionals were never going to take any chances against the R&A during an Open Championship. If it were any other tournament in the world, they would have had one look out of the window and known that the start was definitely going to be delayed.

    The fact that they all turned up at the golf course expecting R&A to stick to the 7am start, just shows the kind of respect they have for the organisation.

    But it took just 32 minutes of insanity out on the links for that respect to turn into ridicule and anger.

    It was one mistake after another by the R&A. First, they allowed play to start at 7am despite wind gusting up to speeds of approximately 35-40mph. It made shot-making difficult in general, but more importantly, balls started to move on the greens.

    – Open: High winds cause suspension of play
    – The Open: Sport360’s interactive guide to St Andrews course
    – R&A: Players hit out at decision to start play on day three
    – #360LIVE: The Open – Leaderboards, live updates and video

    Nowhere was this more evident than on the 11th green. It’s located at the outermost part of the golf course, and has a raised green with severe slopes. Once the wind starts whipping up from the North Sea, it’s the status of the 11th green that determines the playability of the golf course.

    Which is exactly what happened yesterday. Brooks Koepka was on the green and he refused to make his putt because the ball kept moving, which kind of forced R&A’s hands in reconsidering the situation. And while they stopped play on the 11th, they let the other groups to continue playing on the other holes.

    Up ahead on the 14th, Dustin Johnson lost sole possession of the lead when his ball started rolling before he could mark it and ended up almost 10 yards away from the green. Louis Oosthuizen’s ball first rolled from three feet away from the cup to one feet, and then took another stroll and ended up six feet on the other side of the hole.

    To let the players get on to the golf course was one huge mistake because the R&A should be very aware of the wind speed that starts affecting balls. They had all the data before them and should have known from previous experiences as to what happens at what speed.

    There is also a growing criticism of trying to make the greens fast, especially on links courses. Wind is the a links course’s sharpest teeth, and players should be able to play through 40mph conditions. But that’s not possible if the ball is oscillating on the greens. While the greens on most links courses play to seven or eight on the stimpmeter, the Open paid the price of keeping it at 11 and more.

    There is absolutely no doubt that one of the biggest charms of The Open is the role played by the weather. The R&A are great angel guardians of the tournament, but there times when even they have to keep their ego in check and surrender to Mother Nature. Yesterday was one such occasion, and they did not.

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