[PHOTO: David Cannon]
Sun. Shinny, bright, radiant sun. There was lots and lots of it on Thursday at Royal Liverpool for the opening round of the Open Championship. Too much, perhaps, for those golf enthusiasts who like to see the game’s top players struggle with rain and wind and other bits of foul weather when they’re competing in the game’s oldest championship.
We’ll tell you who liked the conditions, however: the players themselves. The overall scoring average on day one at Hoylake was a tidy 73.250 on the par-71 layout, with 31 golfers posting under-par scores. That’s fewer than the 54 in the opening round at St Andrews a year ago, but a pretty healthy number for the Open overall.
As they say in England, though, if don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. Or in this case a day or so. According to the official forecast from the R&A, the next three rounds at Royal Liverpool don’t include a lot of that sun stuff.
If nothing else on day two, we can expect stronger winds during Friday in England, which could make hitting the tiny green on the par-3 17th hole trickier as well as bring more into play the internal out-of-bounds that lurks on the third and 18th holes.
And then there’s the weekend forecast:
Here’s where the rain appears to be kicking in, turning “more persistent and briefly heavier for a time during the afternoon”. That make you golf sickos a little more happy?
And Sunday’s forecast begins with the always concerning “low confidence in detail” before suggesting that “rain may become prolonged” and the winds gusting up to 30mph.
Long story short: it’s unlikely we’ll be getting another full day of clear skies for the rest of this major.
