THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

First topic message reminder :

Congrats to Zach Johnson

Only three groups have finished so far, an hour since Calc's threesome got to the clubhouse.
Where's Paramor when you need him?

kwinigolfer wrote:Only three groups have finished so far, an hour since Calc's threesome got to the clubhouse.
Where's Paramor when you need him?

He was last seen giving Faldo a lift back to the 14th tee yesterday to reload after he lost his ball!

navyblueshorts wrote:

MustPuttBetter wrote:Danny Willett's swing looks very wristy. Will it hold up under pressure?

Think so? I was just thinking it looked pretty solid! Certainly making the game look pretty straight forward just now.

It certainly is looking effective right now and i'd love to see him win.
I just noticed that not every swing is identical as is the case with most of them. Looks wristy to me but I might be wrong. I'll be interested to see if he loses some timing and how it holds up.
I'd pay you a fortune for his swing though that much is certain

Good round today from Padraig!!!

I'm guessing Willet's going to come back down to earth before we can declare him "Champion Golfer of the Year" and all take the rest of the year off.

Heck of day 2 though.

I didn't declare Danny "Champion Golfer of the Year"; would just be nice to see the title of my favourite Roald Dahl's children's book in the headlines.

Great point by Judy Rankin:
The biggest break for the early starters was the fact that it monsooned so heavily that they were unable to play.
Couldn't agree more.

If it's children's books and literary references on the line, I'm backing that dark horse and A.A. Milne character creation James James Morrison Morrison golfer. He's -4 as I type this!

I hope the Big Friendly Giant wins!

And super's hoping for a spectacular display from Tigger.

Not many people playing better golf than James James MM right now.

Can't believe the cut won't drift to +1; hope so, get Tommy Fleetwood in for the weekend.

Spieth is struggling hugely, can't see him folding though!

Mighty impressive from Dunne!

How bad is the weather?! I can only see the online leaderboard but it doesn't seem to be affecting scores that much...

The weather looks fantastic at the mo, and has for at least the last hour.
No doubt a bit chilly but the sun was shining brightly not long ago

Thanks MPB, a news article I read earlier said the weather after 2pm would be "apocalyptic"

DJ is on a mission

Some ominous clouds coming into view on the TV screen right now, but doesn't seem as windy as advertised.

Wonderful for the Irish amateur. He Dunne good. McDool probably thought he'd be the leader from UAB but he'll have to go some.

Luuuuuke. He might live to regret kicking off his Round 2 with a double bogey.

Raining now but definitely not apocalyptic

Matsuyama playing exactly how super predicted: -7 thru 10 holes, 8 x 3's. 57 watch.

Oh Luke! Played 1, 17 and 18 in +4, six under the rest of the way.

Looks like the +1's are toast.

+9 with 9 to go........think its safe to say it's over! He's probably going to finush lower than Faldo and Woods. Poor effort it has to be said. Oh well, that's £50 I'll never see again!!!

disappointed with BBC coverage so far. I know they have wall to wall coverage during the dead hours of daytime TV, but what about a highlights show so people with jobs can catch up in the evening?

And where was the coverage last night with play going on late? You could access scoreboard and mini screen through red button but hardly the full HD experience. The BBC seem to clear the evening schedule for Wimbledon so am surprised they've not done it for the golf.

Lots of short clips on the website but not enough action really. Can't wait til Sky take over and deliver some customer focused coverage like they do with the Ashes.

Bit of a shame that the tournament is being blown off course by a spot of wind. I understand that you can't continue when balls won't stay still on the green, but otherwise gusts of up to 40mph is not that extreme.

I wonder if they cut the greens this morning. I assume they do every day. I'm no expert but surely they could have foreseen these windy conditions and left the greens a little longer? At this time of year I bet an extra day's growth makes enough difference. Maybe 1 foot less on the stimp and they would be out there now.

ray,
Apparently they cut just "some" of the greens, left the rest unmown.
Bet Dustin Johnson wishes he'd finished #14 last night . . . . .

They always used to play Rounds 3 & 4 on the same day, surely . . . . . . . ?!

I would have thought inconsistent green speeds in a round would be frustrating for the players. Would they be told which ones were cut?

Ray the coverage moved to bbc 4 last night at 8pm. They showed it until the end, about 10.30

Grumps, Presumably.
Seems like no play until at least 3.00 p.m., more likely 4.00 p.m. The last threesome has only completed 8 holes so earliest they could kick Round 3 off would be 7.00 p.m.

Not to say they wouldn't still have big problems, but one reason they're so behind is yesterday's pace of play - it seems like the JB Holmes (why is it always him?) group, for instance, was half an hour behind the Watson group. First group on the course Friday was Calc, Siem etc. Only two groups completed play in the hour after that group. Pathetic.

As 'coverage' resumes on TV they had a nice little montage on the magic of the old course with clips and words from Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. Nice to remember these three former greats who announced their retirements this week.

Can't believe not more is being made of Paul Dunne's effort so far. 3 off the lead halfway through the Open. Absolutely brilliant!

MustPuttBetter wrote:Can't believe not more is being made of Paul Dunne's effort so far. 3 off the lead halfway through the Open. Absolutely brilliant!

agreed, great performance so far, doesn't seem fazed ay all.

No play til at least 3 o clock...

It's a bit embarrassing isn't it? That they can't play at all due to wind. It's just a bit of a letdown.

Why embarrassing?! What are they meant to do about it?
Cut the greens slower would be the only option I can think of, and that wouldn't get moaned about would it....

Round 2 to complete today.
Round 3 on Sunday.
Round 4 on Monday.

It's just all a bit frustrating, more so for the golfers themselves I'm sure. It's the pitfalls of playing a major in that place of the world; its never ended on a Monday before mind....however given the more varying extremes of weather seen in most places in the world these days talk of whether St Andrews remains a viable Open option during July may indeed take place.

It can't be helped of course but Monday finish does little for viewing figures whether it be on BBC or SKY that much is a certain.

Like I said, this is the first time it's happened at St Andrews, so taking it away from there is extreme...but I definitely think it perhaps needs to be brought forward a little earlier in July maybe even end of June....British summer is after all starting much earlier these days and thus autumn wind and rain coming earlier too!

MustPuttBetter wrote:Ray the coverage moved to bbc 4 last night at 8pm. They showed it until the end, about 10.30

Indeed they did and excellent it was too. Too easy to pan the BBC at the alter of the great Sky god though.

owen10ozzy wrote:It's just all a bit frustrating, more so for the golfers themselves I'm sure. It's the pitfalls of playing a major in that place of the world; its never ended on a Monday before mind....however given the more varying extremes of weather seen in most places in the world these days talk of whether St Andrews remains a viable Open option during July may indeed take place.

It can't be helped of course but Monday finish does little for viewing figures whether it be on BBC or SKY that much is a certain.

Like I said, this is the first time it's happened at St Andrews, so taking it away from there is extreme...but I definitely think it perhaps needs to be brought forward a little earlier in July maybe even end of June....British summer is after all starting much earlier these days and thus  autumn wind and rain coming earlier too!

As far as the weather goes, that's British weather I'm afraid - no guarantees anytime. If they're going to cut greens for speeds sufficient for a Major, this is always possible. They'll have to suck it up - not like they're not being well paid for it of course.
Frankly I'm amazed at the griping, from all quarters, when the problem is down to something as uncontrollable as the weather .

Start pushed back to 5.00 p.m..

Rhys Davies playing nicely, chirping in the Canaries.

navyblueshorts wrote:

owen10ozzy wrote:It's just all a bit frustrating, more so for the golfers themselves I'm sure. It's the pitfalls of playing a major in that place of the world; its never ended on a Monday before mind....however given the more varying extremes of weather seen in most places in the world these days talk of whether St Andrews remains a viable Open option during July may indeed take place.

It can't be helped of course but Monday finish does little for viewing figures whether it be on BBC or SKY that much is a certain.

Like I said, this is the first time it's happened at St Andrews, so taking it away from there is extreme...but I definitely think it perhaps needs to be brought forward a little earlier in July maybe even end of June....British summer is after all starting much earlier these days and thus  autumn wind and rain coming earlier too!

As far as the weather goes, that's British weather I'm afraid - no guarantees anytime. If they're going to cut greens for speeds sufficient for a Major, this is always possible. They'll have to suck it up - not like they're not being well paid for it of course.
Frankly I'm amazed at the griping, from all quarters, when the problem is down to something as uncontrollable as the weather .

I couldn't agree more.  It's windy and unfortunately they can't play, could happen anytime at any venue in any tournament; nobody's fault so get over it!

OK, 5.30 p.m. then!
Lots to play for in the evening hours.

From Twitter

"Can't believe I wasn't on shot of the day for the 1st round @TheOpen @BBCSport left handed up against a lip on 4th hole "

Who cares? concentrate on what went wrong to put up against a lip, then maybe 77 would be 67.

Super

Would your medal comps have continued in those conditions?

Fantastic to see David Duval make the cut!!

So it seems like Sunday and Monday should see scoring similar to Thursday morning

Agree sirb - and glad he doesn't have to walk around tomorrow by himself!

After all the various kerfuffles, it looks as if everything turned out about right.
Looks like it could be wet Sunday morning, so a big chance for an early starter to shoot up the leaderboard - conditions look fairly benign all day, 254 clearly still reachable.

A wee quiz question for you all:

Luke Donald
Phil Mickelson
Todd Hamilton
Tom Watson

What connects these 4?

Dunno.
Todd Hamilton won the Honda as did Luke Donald who won the Dunlop Phoenix just like Tom Watson who won a Skins Game just as Phil Mickelson did, and Phil won an Open in Scotland and so did Todd Hamilton.

kwinigolfer wrote: 254 clearly still reachable.

Personally,i don't see a 34 under par winner!

ralphjohn69 wrote:A wee quiz question for you all:

Luke Donald
Phil Mickelson
Todd Hamilton
Tom Watson

What connects these 4?

They've all won Golf championships in Scotland..........

I think he was being sarcastic John!

navyblueshorts wrote:

MustPuttBetter wrote:Ray the coverage moved to bbc 4 last night at 8pm. They showed it until the end, about 10.30

Indeed they did and excellent it was too. Too easy to pan the BBC at the alter of the great Sky god though.

Navyblue and Rose tinted spectacles. Not a good colour combo

The last 20 minutes were awful - all they did was focus on Tom Watson finishing in the dark.

Yes he deserved a send off but I was astounded they spent 20 minutes on him - and then the coverage finished and they didn't even show the leaderboard

No actually not astounded; just what I'd expect from the BBC

kwinigolfer wrote:Dunno.
Todd Hamilton won the Honda as did Luke Donald who won the Dunlop Phoenix just like Tom Watson who won a Skins Game just as Phil Mickelson did, and Phil won an Open in Scotland and so did Todd Hamilton.

More recent (and simple!) than that kwini; specifically 2nd round of this year's Open.........

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree sirb - and glad he doesn't have to walk around tomorrow by himself!

Hopefully he plays a two good rounds!