ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – There’s an old saying around these parts that it’s not windy until the seagulls start flying backward.
Poor birds.
The fans were turned on full blast Thursday at the Home of Golf with cool winds pumping at nearly 30 mph and gusts at least 10 mph north of that for much of the morning. As competitors blew in from the early wave, red-cheeked and frazzled after spending over five-and-a-half hours in the blustery conditions (all stopwatches apparently were carried out to sea), seemingly all were in agreement.
“Probably the windiest I’ve ever played in,” said England’s Georgia Hall, who accounted for one of just four under-par morning rounds to begin this AIG Women’s Open.
Added Jenny Shin, whose 3-under 69 was bested only by Ruoning Yin’s 68: “The ball was wobbling on the tee and a lot of us were thinking, How are we going to play? It was absolutely relentless.”
Balls were fidgeting on the exposed greens around St. Andrews’ Loop (aka the Old Course’s crisscrossing middle stretch, Nos. 7-12). Especially at the par-3 11th, which sits just yards away from the River Eden and unlike the adjacent seventh green, isn’t protected at least somewhat by a grandstand.
“My ball moved twice before I putted,” said Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh. “Don’t know how it was playable, to be honest.”
Players were bashing 3-woods into the green at the 362-yard first hole.
“I went driver, 3-wood,” said Rose Zhang, proud of her unorthodox par and level 72, but still beat up. “My head is pounding,” she added.
There were hats blowing off heads left and right. Florida State junior Lottie Woad, of England, stepped up to her tee shot three different times on the 12th hole before finally ripping her lid off and handing it to her caddie. She birdied the hole, one of three circles for the reigning Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, who also posted 72.
Sweden’s Linn Grant looked like a boxer, thanks to her new high-top adidas shoes. But she took more than a few uppercuts en route to 77, most punishing at the par-4 18th, where she sent her tee ball basically into the Rusacks’ One Under Bar.
“I just screamed and closed my eyes,” Grant said.
If you managed to keep them open, you saw some stuff.
Catriona Matthew, the legendary Scot who has played in every Women’s Open since it became a major, said her putting stroke turned into a figure-eight. England’s Bronte Law poofed a drive on the par-5 fifth that looked more like a 9-iron before battling back to sink a 30-footer for par. One player, who probably wishes to be left unnamed, was knocked off her stance so badly on the 12th tee box that she topped her drive about 50 yards into the fescue.
“Some of our shots, if it had any sidespin on it, it would go like straight 30 yards right and look like a legitimate shank,” said Shin, who caught a 5-iron a little cutty at No. 11 and had 27 yards left to the hole. She pitched to 12 feet, then hammered a par putt into the wind that came up 4 feet short.
Rolling in that bogey putt was weirdly a shot of adrenaline, Shin says. It’s hard to argue on a hole that yielded no birdies in the morning.
This is Shin’s second Women’s Open at the Old Course. She was 20 years old when she tied for 17th in 2013, a championship that was marked by a Saturday wiped out by high winds.
“I remember thinking, How the hell is Stacy Lewis 8 under par?” said Shin, who admits the weather completely shook her from the moment. “I wasn’t present,” she added. “I wanted to be anywhere but here.”
Now, she doesn’t want to be any place else. Same goes for Hall, who said she grinned when she peered out her window at the Old Course Hotel at 5 a.m. and saw the range flags ripping out their seams. Her eagle at the par-4 ninth, where she drove the green to 20 feet at the 323-yard hole, was one of two morning eagles along with Jennifer Kupcho’s pitch-in at another downwind par-4, the 13th.
“I was very glad we didn’t stop play,” Hall said. “I love those conditions, whether I play bad or not. … This is a true Women’s Open like this, and I believe that’s how it should be every day.”
Yin would agree. She had only previously played the Old Course from the comfort of her own couch – “I use Tiger,” she said with a smile – yet she still looked like she was dissecting the venerable, 6,498-yard layout with a video-game controller. She called her birdie at the par-4 17th her “favorite birdie of the year,” as she flighted a 7-iron into the Road Hole’s green, her ball landed just short and trundling up to about 5 feet. She got to 6 under with four holes to play before giving away a couple shots late.
“I just try to enjoy it and have fun,” Yin said. “Just try and make the wind my friend.”
Yin led at lunch, but then was overtaken by Charley Hull, who birdied the last to fire 67, and equaled by Nelly Korda. Hull, Korda and Lilia Vu, all in the same group, combined for just four bogeys as conditions calmed slightly by Thursday evening, albeit at the end of a six-plus-hour round. They’d get early tee times Friday morning, when sustained winds are supposed to die down into the high teens.
The seagulls will be making progress again.