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- Bad weather conditions battered the Royal Troon golf course at The Open
- Players had to navigate their way through extreme rain and wind on Saturday
- Six stars are just one shot behind leader Billy Horschel heading into the final day
No one could say they hadn’t been warned. ‘Rain expected to turn more persistent and somewhat heavier from late afternoon,’ the forecast on the Open’s website had on Saturday morning.
It’s one thing to know it’s coming, it’s another to be able to do something about it.
While most of the country basked in a heatwave, Royal Troon was overcome by what a few around the course could be heard describing as ‘beautiful Scottish July weather’.
When the rain came, it never stopped. It lashed and it stung as it swirled from blackened skies in a fierce wind that screamed into the players’ faces. Those who had the honour of going out last were left battered and bruised.
‘Not much craic,’ was Shane Lowry’s frosty assessment of the conditions after he arrived last into the clubhouse having dropped seven shots in the final 11 holes to lose the lead.
Rain was predicted on Saturday at Royal Troon but the downpour’s ferocity was heavy
The Open leader Billy Horschel made the most of the bad weather as he moved a shot clear at the top
Lowry hit driver twice on the 502-yard par-4 15th and still finished 50 yards short. He hit driver again on the par-3 17th and could only reach the bunker in front of the green.
‘You have to question why there wasn’t a couple of tees put forward today,’ complained the Irishman. ‘I think 15 and 17 – like 15 is 500 yards playing into that wind – they keep trying to make holes longer, yet the best hole on this course is about 100 yards.
Even the best player in the world found it tough. ‘The back nine was probably the hardest nine holes that I’ll ever play,’ said Scottie Scheffler, who showed remarkable skill and resolve to go around in level-par to sit eighth at two-under. ‘I shouldn’t say ever, but it’s definitely the hardest that I’ve played to this point.’
Dustin Johnson had the same view. ‘The hardest nine holes you could ever play,’ he said after his round with Brooks Koepka. ‘Into the wind and rain, it was so long I could barely reach the par fours, the same with Brooks.’
The biggest hitters in the game rendered impotent by the elements.
Scottie scheffler (pictured above) insisted the rain and wind was the ‘hardest nine holes I think you could ever play in golf’
Spectators needed to take precautions as many donned waterproof overcoats
‘It is what it is,’ added Johnson. ‘This is The Open.’
He’s right. This is the way at the Open. Get the best of the conditions, have Mother Nature on your side, and you can make hay and birdies while the sun shines.
Those who went out in the morning did just that. No wind, no rain, no problem.
The leaders that followed late in the day, as the rain lashed down and the prevailing wind whipped off the Firth of Clyde, were left to play what may well have been a different sport.
Of the final 12 groups, the only two players to finish under par were Xander Schauffele and leader Billy Horschel.
Thankfully for them all, today should be brighter. ‘Bright or sunny spells for the final day of the Championship,’ reads the forecast.
By the end of the day, we’ll have a new Champion Golfer of the Year. On ‘moving day’, there was only one winner and it was Mother Nature.
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes admitted that playing in the excessive rain was ‘impossible’
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