40 mph winds push the open women’s field to the edge

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — You don’t have to work hard to find evidence of unforgiving conditions Thursday at the Old Course. The cannons exploded theses. Sand blew out of the bunkers. Hats flew off their heads. Even Hinako Shibuno, rightly nicknamed the Smiling Assassin, was wrinkled. Shooting 80 will do that.

The first round of AIG Women’s Open it was major championship golf at its most engaging. At least for the spectators.

“My head is like, beatingRose Zhang said after shooting an even-par 72. “I think that’s the first, honestly.”

Zhang played driver, 3-wood in the 375-yard 1, and she was far from alone. A handshake opener that was supposed to feel like playing with handcuffs.

“I don’t know how it’s very playable, to be honest,” offered Gemma Dryburgh, born on the coast in Aberdeen. It’s always the best sign of brutal conditions: when a Scotsman tells you the weather is too much. Out came the ear muffs and gloves.

But that was part of the brilliance in what Thursday offered golf fans. It was golf on the edge of a cliff. A sunny rock, too! the girls HAD to play. Tournament officials watered the course Wednesday to raise the greens, hoping to make them a little more sticky. But any other wind and tournament official would postpone the game. They almost had to.

The Old Course it may feel like an out-and-back layout, but in reality, it bends across the coast in the shape of a fish hook, slowly changing direction each hole until you reach holes 7 through 11, at the far end of the property, on back to the mouth of Eden. There are no buildings there. There are no hills that provide a buffer. Just a barren expanse of muddy sand that seems to act like a wind accelerator, blowing everything into the North Sea.

At midday, gusts on the 11th resulted in the ominous weather report the R&A sent out on Thursday morning: 40-45 mph. The wind that will knock you down. The wind had players running behind bushes for cover. Or turning the troops and extending their stance, not to hit shots, but just to watch, for fear of falling into a bunker. Those evil hawks brought to town to keep seagulls from the sky had nothing to do. Mother Nature kept the seagulls on the ground.

Thursday helped answer an important golf-watching question: How do you tell 20 mph winds from 30? From 30 mph to 40? North of 40? You feel it. And you hear it. Not in waving flags or smashing windows, but in the bleachers. When that much wind blows into the stands, it doesn’t crackle so much as hum—loudly, too, a constant in the background—the air rushing through the iron corridors.

It was there on the 11th – the part of the course known as the loop – that this round came as close as you can get to putting it away. Nicole Broch Estrup stood on the 11th green facing a 20-foot downhill. She had scored her ball at least 10 minutes before, but every time she replaced him, he refused to stand still. It would line up to the hole, pull off the ball and within 15 seconds it would flow. Once, twice, three times. Broch Estrup brought in a rules official to see it happen for the fourth time. Then another official came, without sympathy. Play on.

The front three had birdied the 12th, 12th, 12th green, 13th and headed to the 13th green. A backup was being built through the rest of the loop, where the rounds stop until calm days. Only after about 20 minutes was Broch Estrup able to extinguish. Naturally, that 20-footer rolled in for bogey.

Poor Gabbi Ruffels saw it all from the 11th box. Minutes later, she played a chip shot from the corner of the 11th green, hit it high into the wind and watched it land to the left like a limp paper airplane off the course. It had to be the first time she chipped a green into a bunker in flight. Triple bogey.

Only a true British golf junkie could wake up as Georgia Hall did, look out her bedroom window and smile.

“I looked in my hotel room and I can see the range,” Hall said, “The flags on the range — that’s a good indicator for me. It was 5 in the morning and they were blowing a storm. I was like, This is wonderful. I hope it stays that way.“

Why?

“This is natural, raw golf.”

More like raw edge golf, no club. Hall made eagle on her final hole to shoot 71 and smile. She was one of only four players to dip below par during the morning wave. Ruoning Yin shot an absurd 68, the morning round, the afternoon round and possibly the summer round. She attributed it to a simple mindset: “Just trying to make the wind my friend.” However, this friendship was hard work. It was the first time in her career that she factored the wind into her shot readings. The birdie she made from the rough on the 17th was her favorite birdie of the season. It looks like a simple 3 on the scoreboard, but it was a 3-link in the Open – a low 7-iron that rolled along the ground, to the green and rolled to within five feet.

Remember how hard it was to get 3rd last month when the men were playing at Royal Troon? Thursday at the Old Course brought this to mind. Those strong, wet winds on the west coast of Scotland exposed most of the world’s best players. Thursday also reminded us of the 2022 Open, when the men played on the Old Course in some of the best conditions St. Andrews has seen in the race. During that final round, with the tournament in the balance, dozens of flags lining the 18th hole went limp at the flagpoles. There was little abundance in that winning 64 from Cam Smith, finishing the week at 20 under. I bet the R&D team at the R&A would love to develop a weather machine.

As for the AIG Women’s Open, we had wild wind on Thursday. We have rain balls set for Friday morning. Then some wind on Saturday. And more on Sunday. Open as it should be.