Fatiha Betscher at St. Andrews
The 22nd edition of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship looks headed for a Monday finish but that’s only if the persistent rain that has drenched the east coast of Scotland eases.
Steady rain was fell from early Friday night and continued into the morning, but, at the time of writing on Saturday afternoon, there remained no let up in sight.
All three host courses were affected by flooding, including St. Andrews’ Old Course, that was sporting a number of mini pools particularly around the Swilken Burn.
There had been suggestions yesterday (Friday) while at Kingsbarns Links, one of three host venues for the $US 5m championship, that play may not go ahead due to the forecast of prolonged rain today (Saturday). However, despite efforts in approaching the DP World Tour for comment, there was no confirmation or otherwise of this arrangement.
As it turned out, the Tour advised via Twitter around 8am local time that the 9am start to play had been delayed by one hour due to adverse weather. There was a second tweet shortly thereafter to indicate ‘there remains no play across all three courses at this time. A further update will be given at 11am’.
Around 11am, the Tour advised play had been suspended for the day and that round three would begin at 9am local time Sunday morning,
There was no indication of a Monday finish – as there was for the very hosting of the event in 2001 when strong winds on the Saturday ruled out play. Scotland’s Paul Lawrie went on to hole a 40-foot birdie putt from the 18th hole ‘Valley of Sin’ at the Old Course to defeat South African Ernie Els.
It was a noteworthy win for Lawrie as he became the first male golfer to win a tournament using the new Odyssey 2 golf ball across any of the world’s major tours.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the weather forecast is not looking good early on with an 80% of rain at Kingsbarns till 9am but then decreasing gradually to a 57% chance at noon, a 40% chance at 3pm but not ceasing to 11pm.
There have been plenty of twitter activity today regarding the state of the water-logged host courses here in Scotland, but arguably the best was the one posted by Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre with the undefeated Ryder Cup rookie looking very much ‘at home.’
Still don’t know what all the fuss is about 🤷♂️🏴☔️@DPWorldTour @dunhilllinks https://t.co/CJl9xFWV1p pic.twitter.com/oDODaVV4qX
— Robert MacIntyre (@robert1lefty) October 7, 2023
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