The third round of the RICOH Women’s British Open was suspended at 12.33pm on Saturday due to high winds.
A wind gust of 40 mph resulted in five players almost simultaneously calling for rulings due to balls moving on the green. A decision was made to halt play shortly thereafter. While officials had hoped to resume play at some point later in the day, the conditions had not drastically improved and the decision was made at 6pm. to suspend play until Sunday morning.
Play is scheduled to resume at 6:15 a.m. local time on Sunday with seven groups still to tee off in the third round, scheduled to finish by 11.30am.
There will be no re-draw and round four is scheduled to start at approx 8am with the last group off at approximately 1.40pm, in order to meet the original last putt time of 5.50pm on Sunday.
Gusts of 50 miles per hour were recorded on The Old Course at St Andrews on Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s forecast is for partly sunny skies with temperatures of 22C and breezy conditions as winds will blow 15-20 miles per hour with gusts to 25 miles per hour at times.
At a press conference, LGU Head of Operations, Susan Simpson, said: “It’s still going to be windy tomorrow. Not hopefully as windy as it’s been today, but there’s no let‑up in it. So tomorrow morning, it’s still going to be very breezy and equally difficult conditions.
“This is a major championship and every endeavor will be made to finish 72 holes. So if we need to go to Monday, then we’ll go to Monday.”
Photo: Tristan Jones