Wind, rain, then a break in weather at Open

Tag : wind break

SOUTHPORT, England — The day started with howling wind andsoaking rain. By afternoon, the showers had stopped and the breezetailed off.
Rocco Mediate was among those taking advantage of the break in theweather.
Mr. Everyman proved his performance at the last major championshipwas no fluke, becoming the first player at the British Open tobreak par Thursday. His 1-under 69 was quickly matched by GraemeMcDowell and Robert Allenby, all of them late starters seizing ontheir meteorological good fortune.
Mediate chipped in for birdie at No. 17, then knocked in a20-footer for another birdie at the final hole. Clearly, he'sgotten over his playoff loss to Tiger Woods at last month's U.S.Open.
"I love it here," said Mediate, playing the British for the firsttime since 2002. "It's great to be back."
McDowell and Allenby also headed to the Royal Birkdale clubhousewith birdie-birdie finishes, joining Mediate atop the leaderboard.
This was a day that could be divided into two very distinct groups:Those who had to tee off in the morning, and those who checked inlater.
Out of the first 26 threesomes — exactly half the 156-playerfield — there were 19 scores in the 80s and two other playersquit before they could get there, too. There wasn't one red numberin any group. The average score was 77, the numbers jacked up bysteady, sometimes heavy rain and winds gusting up to 35 mph.
Among the horror stories: Phil Mickelson lost a ball in the tanglyrough; Vijay Singh signed for an 80, and so did Ernie Els, theworst score ever on his sterling Open record; Sandy Lyle and RichBeem simply gave up.
Certainly, Kenny Perry must have been chuckling to himself aftertaking all that grief for deciding to skip the oldest of the majorsbecause he didn't think it suited his game.
"It got to the point where you just don't care," moaned Pat Perez,who went off in the second group of the day and shot 82. "Now Iknow why Kenny stayed home."
Compare that with the afternoon. The next 10 groups to finishproduced all three of the co-leaders, as well as Greg Norman andAdam Scott, each at 70. No one in the latter half of the brackethad yet to shoot worse than 79.
The 45-year-old Mediate revitalized his sagging career at TorreyPines, where he lost a 19-hole playoff to Woods but became the heroof average Joes everywhere with his "what in the heck am I doinghere" demeanor.
After his dramatic win, Woods headed back to surgery for furtherrepairs on his ailing left knee, knocking him out for the rest ofthe year. Mediate carried on, picking up right where he left off atthe last major.
And this time, at least, he won't have to worry about fending offWoods, all warm and comfy back home in the States.
Before the weather improved, it was virtually impossible to copewith holes such as the gargantuan sixth, a 499-yard layout thatplayed into the teeth of the wind. Boo Weekley was forced to playdriver on two straight shots — and he still didn't reach thegreen.
"If this is the summer," said Weekley, a native of the FloridaPanhandle, "I couldn't live here."
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and 2003 Masters winnerMike Weir put up the best scores among the early starters, bothshooting 1-over 71s.
"Par is irrelevant on a day like this," said Craig Parry, who hitthe first shot of the tournament and struggled to a 77. "You canonly laugh and take it on the chin. The golf course is going towin."
Goosen overcame a double-bogey at No. 6 and somehow managed to putup four birdies in brutal conditions that made golf's oldestchampionship a stern test even without Woods looming over thefield.
"One of the best" was how the South African summed up his round."It was a battle out there."
Weir also had a double-bogey on his card. But he countered it withthe first eagle of the tournament at the 17th, where he knocked a5-iron from 235 yards to 12 feet and sank the putt.
"Starting the day, I definitely would have taken 1-over par," theCanadian said. "The wind was as strong as I've ever seen."
Despite a sore wrist, defending champion Padraig Harrington got offto a solid start with a 74. The Irishman would have been evencloser to the lead if not for a bogey-bogey finish, but was pleasedwith his round given that he seriously considered withdrawing justa day earlier.
"I think the bad day helped," Harrington said. "You had no time tothink about anything else but your next shot."
The guy he beat a year ago, Sergio Garcia, shot a 2-over 36 on thefront side.
Beem called it quits after reaching the midway point with a score10 strokes higher. His first seven holes went like this: bogey,quadruple-bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, double-bogey.
"If I had continued, I don't think I would have broken 90," Beemsaid.
Lyle, who won the Open at Royal St. George's in 1985, reached asimilar conclusion. The 50-year-old pulled out after playing thefirst 10 holes in an 11-over 49.
"I felt I could do myself more harm than good," he said. "It couldtake three weeks to recover from this."
They were hardly the only ones struggling. Mickelson, whose gameisn't well-suited for links golf, couldn't find his ball afterhitting into the rough at No. 6. He had to take a penalty and woundup with a triple bogey, on his way to a 79 that goes down as theworst start of his Open career.
Els, considered one of the favorites with Garcia, fell apart downthe stretch with three straight 6s and eclipsed the 78 he shot inthe opening round at Royal St. George's in 2003.
Singh took the opposite tack, playing the first 11 holes at 10over, with only two pars.
"You got rain blowing sideways. It was cold. It was windy," Singhsaid. "I didn't play that badly."
Others persevered. English favorite Justin Rose, who memorablyfinished fourth as a 17-year-old amateur in the last Open played atRoyal Birkdale in 1998, struggled through the front nine but pulledhimself together for a 74. David Duval, whose career fell apartafter his 2001 Open win at Lytham, put himself in contention with asurprising 73.
"It's just a matter of digging in and scrapping it out," Rose said.