Adverse weather caused a postponement at the 144th Open Championship for the second successive day, but it was high winds which affected the resumption of the second round.
A three-hour delay for heavy rain on Friday meant 42 players – including leader Dustin Johnson and calendar year grand slam-chaser Jordan Spieth – returned at 7am to finish off.
But, with gusts up to 45mph, there was an obvious immediate problem, particularly on exposed parts of the course like the 11th green.
And it was evident the wind was having a major effect when Johnson returned to where he had left his ball in front of the 14th green.
He chunked his chip but, somewhat naively, he was slow to get to it and, just as he went to place his marker behind the ball, the wind blew it back off the green, resulting in a bogey to drop him back to nine under and tied with Yorkshire’s Danny Willett, who finished his round on Friday.
Playing partner Spieth left his birdie putt short at the same hole and took an angry full swing with his putter before offering up a few choice words.
Television cameras then picked up this year’s Masters and US Open champion saying: “We should never have started.”
Australian Jason Day three-putted from 50 feet at the 13th to drop back to six under.
The group at the 11th had the most difficulty and were unable to even attempt a putt because the balls were moving so much, causing a back-up on the tee behind them, and it prompted R&A officials to confer and eventually suspend play at 7.32am.