SECOND YEAR IN A ROW RICOH WBO TO PLAY TWO ROUNDS ON SUNDAY
NO SATURDAY PLAY AFTER HIGH WINDS FORCE 12.30 SUSPENSION AT OLD COURSE, ST ANDREWS
Tournament Director Susan Simpson answering questions in the Media Centre at the Old Course, St Andrews.
Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.
FROM THE LADIES GOLF UNION WEBSITE
www.lgu.org
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Winds gusting as high as 40mph blew the Ricoh Women's British Open off course - the Old Course - at St Andrews today. A 12.30 play suspension lasted the rest of the third day.
A total of nine players had completed their third rounds before the increasing wind strength started to move balls about on the more exposed greens. At that point Tournament Director Susan Simpson and her committee suspended play and pulled everybody in off the course.
Seven pairs never started their third rounds, including, of course, the leaders.Na Yeon Choi (South Korea) and Miki Saiki (Japan)
The scoreboard was littered with outward halves of 40 and more strokes - a major change from the first two days when the Old Course, softened by heavy rain and unprotected by any wind, was plundered for birdies galore and the odd eagle or two.
Susan Simpson, interviewed in the Media Centre after the decision was made just after 6pm that the wind was showing no signs of abating and therefore there would be no resumption of play before 6.15am Sunday, was asked if any consideration had been given to discounting the third-round scores already completed.
"We had five groups complete the round and while we took that into account and it was part of the discussions, it quite quickly ruled out. Every situation is different and it warrants discussion. There's no hard and fast answer to some of the questions raised. If it was, it would be really quiate a simple job for us. We had a committee meeting and we decided to supend play and retain those scores."
It is anticipated that the fourth and final round will start around 8am and the pairings made for the third round will apply again in the fourth. There is simply not enough time left to manoeuvre and have a re-draw.
The weather forecast for Sunday is not good but Saturday's weather forecast did not predict the high winds that blew from south to southwesterly. After play was suspended, Susan Simpson revealed there had been a gust of 50mph and some damage was caused to infracture out on the course.
"The weather forecast fore Sunday morning is a wind strength of around 20mph gusts," said Mrs Simpson. " Hopefully it will not get any higher than that. If we starting touching 30 again - which was what happend approaching noon today - then we might have another problem, but let's hope not.
"This is a Major championship and every endeavour will be made to play 72 holes. If we need to go to Monday to do that, then we go to Monday."
Last year's Ricoh Women's British Open also had two rounds played on the Sunday after a day's play was lost because of bad weather at Hoylake.
Mrs Simpson was asked if, with the benefit of hindsight, the course preparation, pin placings and cutting on the greens would have been different in view of the fact that the high winds had the balls oscillating on the greens.
"The greens were already slower (than they had been earlier in the tournament). A lot of our preparations had taken into account the conditiosn that were foreczst for today. The 11th green was not cut. So the greens were actually quite sitcky this morning and running about 9.4 on the Stimp, as oppose to 10, which it had been in the days before. S we had taken that into account."
The bi-lingual Mrs Simpson - she once addressed the French competitors in their own language when a British girls championship had to be abandoned - said she had talked to all the competitors in the players' lounge about the situation and the reasons why the suspension of play decision was made and not lifted as the day progressed.
It was reviewed every hour from 12.30 onwards with LGU officials out on the course monitoring the wind speeds.
"I had many discussions with players during the suspension. Some are delighted and some are not delighted. That's the way it works."
Of course, as the saying goes, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good .. The hospitality tents in the tented village did good business and shopkeepers in St Andrews must have been delighted by the number of would-be golf spectators who spent the afternoon shopping in the town.
NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
By BETHAN CUTLER, LET Media Manager
Bethan Cutler
Tournament Director Susan Simpson answering questions in the Media Centre at the Old Course, St Andrews.
Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.
FROM THE LADIES GOLF UNION WEBSITE
www.lgu.org
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Winds gusting as high as 40mph blew the Ricoh Women's British Open off course - the Old Course - at St Andrews today. A 12.30 play suspension lasted the rest of the third day.
A total of nine players had completed their third rounds before the increasing wind strength started to move balls about on the more exposed greens. At that point Tournament Director Susan Simpson and her committee suspended play and pulled everybody in off the course.
Seven pairs never started their third rounds, including, of course, the leaders.Na Yeon Choi (South Korea) and Miki Saiki (Japan)
The scoreboard was littered with outward halves of 40 and more strokes - a major change from the first two days when the Old Course, softened by heavy rain and unprotected by any wind, was plundered for birdies galore and the odd eagle or two.
Susan Simpson, interviewed in the Media Centre after the decision was made just after 6pm that the wind was showing no signs of abating and therefore there would be no resumption of play before 6.15am Sunday, was asked if any consideration had been given to discounting the third-round scores already completed.
"We had five groups complete the round and while we took that into account and it was part of the discussions, it quite quickly ruled out. Every situation is different and it warrants discussion. There's no hard and fast answer to some of the questions raised. If it was, it would be really quiate a simple job for us. We had a committee meeting and we decided to supend play and retain those scores."
It is anticipated that the fourth and final round will start around 8am and the pairings made for the third round will apply again in the fourth. There is simply not enough time left to manoeuvre and have a re-draw.
The weather forecast for Sunday is not good but Saturday's weather forecast did not predict the high winds that blew from south to southwesterly. After play was suspended, Susan Simpson revealed there had been a gust of 50mph and some damage was caused to infracture out on the course.
"The weather forecast fore Sunday morning is a wind strength of around 20mph gusts," said Mrs Simpson. " Hopefully it will not get any higher than that. If we starting touching 30 again - which was what happend approaching noon today - then we might have another problem, but let's hope not.
"This is a Major championship and every endeavour will be made to play 72 holes. If we need to go to Monday to do that, then we go to Monday."
Last year's Ricoh Women's British Open also had two rounds played on the Sunday after a day's play was lost because of bad weather at Hoylake.
Mrs Simpson was asked if, with the benefit of hindsight, the course preparation, pin placings and cutting on the greens would have been different in view of the fact that the high winds had the balls oscillating on the greens.
"The greens were already slower (than they had been earlier in the tournament). A lot of our preparations had taken into account the conditiosn that were foreczst for today. The 11th green was not cut. So the greens were actually quite sitcky this morning and running about 9.4 on the Stimp, as oppose to 10, which it had been in the days before. S we had taken that into account."
The bi-lingual Mrs Simpson - she once addressed the French competitors in their own language when a British girls championship had to be abandoned - said she had talked to all the competitors in the players' lounge about the situation and the reasons why the suspension of play decision was made and not lifted as the day progressed.
It was reviewed every hour from 12.30 onwards with LGU officials out on the course monitoring the wind speeds.
"I had many discussions with players during the suspension. Some are delighted and some are not delighted. That's the way it works."
Of course, as the saying goes, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good .. The hospitality tents in the tented village did good business and shopkeepers in St Andrews must have been delighted by the number of would-be golf spectators who spent the afternoon shopping in the town.
NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
By BETHAN CUTLER, LET Media Manager
Play will resume at 6:15 a.m. on Sunday morning
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 endeavour will be made to finish
72 holes. So if we need to go to Monday, then we'll go to Monday.”
Media Manager
BBC TV coverage of the final day's play in the Ricoh Women's British Open will commence at 10.30 tomorrow (Sunday) until the end of the third round at 11.30 – 12.00. The plan is for the fourth round world feed to remain as originally scheduled between 14.00 and 18.00.
TO VIEW WHERE THE PLAYERS WILL RESUME THEIR THIRD
ROUNDS
CLICK HERE
THIRD ROUND COMPLETED SATURDAY AM
Par 216 (3x72)
220 Lydia Ko (NZ) (amateur) 69 76 75, Cristie Kerr (US) 71 74 75.
221 Minea Blomqvist (Finland) 71 74 76, Shanshan Feng (China) 69 76 76
223 Gwladys Nocera (France) 74 71 78
224 Moriya utanugarn (Thailand) 72 73 79
225 Mika Miyazato (Japan) 74 71 80
226 Moira Dunn (US) 71 74 81
231 Rikako Morita (Japan) 70 75 86
BBC TV coverage of the final day's play in the Ricoh Women's British Open will commence at 10.30 tomorrow (Sunday) until the end of the third round at 11.30 – 12.00. The plan is for the fourth round world feed to remain as originally scheduled between 14.00 and 18.00.
TO VIEW WHERE THE PLAYERS WILL RESUME THEIR THIRD
ROUNDS
CLICK HERE
THIRD ROUND COMPLETED SATURDAY AM
Par 216 (3x72)
220 Lydia Ko (NZ) (amateur) 69 76 75, Cristie Kerr (US) 71 74 75.
221 Minea Blomqvist (Finland) 71 74 76, Shanshan Feng (China) 69 76 76
223 Gwladys Nocera (France) 74 71 78
224 Moriya utanugarn (Thailand) 72 73 79
225 Mika Miyazato (Japan) 74 71 80
226 Moira Dunn (US) 71 74 81
231 Rikako Morita (Japan) 70 75 86
Labels: Pro Ladies
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