First round leader Dustin Johnson and the Grand Slam seeking Jordan Spieth will be somewhere on the Old Course’s fearsome back nine when darkness forces the end of the play on the rain-delayed second round of the 144th Open Championship.
The revised time for Johnson and Spieth, playing with Japan Hideki Matsuyama, is 5.48pm after the three and a half hour delay for heavy rain over St Andrews this morning. Play was suspended at 6.48 am as the rainfall outpaced efforts to remove standing water, just 18 minutes after the start of play, with the first group of the day standing over their putts on the first green.
The most affected area was around the Swilcan Burn on the first and 18th fairways, with a large standing area of water close to the 17th green, the 18th tee, and filling the Valley of Sin in front of the 18th green.
Other parts of the Old Course were also affected but cleared more quickly, an army of greens staff using pumps and squeedgies operating across the course.
The banner grouping are therefore out nearly three hours later than planned and they should be around the 12th or 13th – just entering the hardest part of the course as it played on Thursday – when they run out of light, requiring to complete their rounds tomorrow morning.
Paul Lawrie, well placed as one of a group of six players in second place of six-under, is due out at 5.59 pm while Tiger Woods, with Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day, is off 11 minutes later – ensuring that whatever he scores, the former World No 1 and now 241st player in the world WILL be playing on Saturday, if only for a few holes.
It will be tough and go whether Tom Watson, if he fails to get back to the cut line, will make his farewell appearance on the 18th tonight or tomorrow morning. The five-time champion is out at 5.15 pm and with rounds stretching beyond five hours yesterday, it would seem unlikely.
Another contender after the first round unlikely to get finished his second round is Charl Schwartzel (-6, off at 5.15pm).
However a number should be able to get round if the clearer weather promised for later today persists and there is no problem with balls moving in the high winds expected. R&A chief executive Peter Dawson believes that alterations made to the 11th green will ensure that there is no suspension for wind as there was in 2010.
The intention at present is not to have a two-tee start to the third round once the second round is completed tomorrow morning, but to play late tomorrow to make up the lost time, ensuring Sunday is free for a full final round as scheduled.
Further delays, however, must make it ever more likely that Monday play will be required at an Open for only the second time and the first since Lytham in 1988.