British Open disaster disgraces golf's most prestigious major | New York Post - New York Post

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland â€" Golf’s oldest governing body, which oversees the game’s oldest, most venerable major championship, should know better.

This was not the USGA trying to shoehorn a U.S. Open round into the hottest window of TV time to satisfy the networks despite impending bad weather about to wreck the tournament schedule. This was not the Masters green jackets manipulating rules as they go along (see the controversial Tiger Woods drop incident in 2013).

This was the Royal & Ancient â€" the governing body that oversees the “home of golf’’ â€" inexplicably turning the game’s prestigious event into an amateur hour sideshow on Saturday morning, potentially putting a stain on the integrity of its 144th British Open.

The R&A decision to hustle the 42 players who hadn’t completed their respective second rounds on Friday onto the Old Course at 7 Saturday morning, while winds were gusting to 45 mph off the North Sea, was as preposterous as it was curious.

It cost some players, including tournament leader Dustin Johnson, at least one shot and maybe more before R&A officials suspended play just 32 minutes after it resumed. In a place where it doesn’t get dark until 10 p.m., what was the rush?

Here is how the calamity unfolded:

For the second consecutive day, play was suspended, but this time it was because of high winds. Friday’s second round was delayed 3 hours and 14 minutes because of flooded fairway from torrential rains. That pushed the completion of the second round to be completed at 7 a.m. Saturday.

Play lasted just 32 minutes before the R&A determined the course was no longer playable because the wind was blowing golf balls off the greens. During those 32 minutes of play, there were 52 holes played by the 42 players who were a total of 21-over par with only three birdies.

The hasty suspension of play, and the fact R&A officials began play in the first place in the high winds that had howled all night, understandably drew the ire of players.

The situation, after all, could end up costing the players in contention â€" such as Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Louis Oosthuizen â€" a chance at winning the Open by day’s end Monday when the tournament in scheduled to conclude.

“Why did we even start?” Johnson barked to a rules official.

“We shouldn’t have even started,’’ Spieth was heard saying to an official.

“Obviously, from our point of view, it didn’t seem like it was playable,’’ Spieth said later. “Even putting on the practice green, the ball wasn’t still.’’

“We didn’t think that we should be playing,’’ Tiger Woods said.

“Whether it should have started or not, that’s up to them to decide,’’ Johnson said. “But when they stopped play, [the conditions] were the same as when we started, so my point was why did we start if we were going to stop now?’’

Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, conceded “I wish we could’’ have wiped out the 32-minute stretch, but added, “Rules of golf do allow you to wipe out a full round, but sadly not part of a round, and it’s something that maybe the rules committee would like to look at for the future.’’

The backlash from players was rampant throughout the morning, with a number of them voicing strong opinions to tournament officials in the player dining area after play was called.

Brendon Todd called the conditions “brutal,’’ adding, “Why did we even start play again? It was a bad decision to start play in the first place. You’re standing over a putt wondering if the ball’s going to roll into your putter. That’s an unnerving thought.’’

Johnson, who began the morning with a one-shot lead at 10-under and with his ball near the front of the green in two on the par-5 14th hole, hit a poor chip that, before he had a chance to mark it on the green, was swept off the green by the wind and rolled back past his feet.

He ended up bogeying the hole, falling to 9-under and in a tie with Danny Willett, who was resting comfortably in his hotel room, having finished his second round on Friday. Spieth, meanwhile, three-putted from just off the green for par.

On No. 13, Oosthuizen failed to mark his ball quickly enough after it came to rest inches from the cup and the ball rolled six feet away, turning what should have been a tap-in into a knee-knocker.

Video of the Johnson and Oosthuizen incidents left you thinking all that was missing from St. Andrews were windmill and Dumbo elephant ears that adorn the boardwalk mini golf putt-putts.

“For a major championship of this magnitude, if there is even a chance of balls moving like that … it’s going to affect some guys’ scores,’’ Webb Simpson said. “They know now it was a wrong call.’’
By the time they figured it out, though, it was too late.