Women's Open Field Survives The Worst Of It...We Hope
Charley Hull opens with a 67 in the AIG Women's Open to lead by one. Several notables are well-positioned after a day of wind, cold and slow pace.
The high winds came. It never warmed up. The round took forever. And some of world’s best women still somehow conquered the Old Course.
While the conditions proved too much for most of the 2024 AIG Women’s Open field, shrewd course management by the R&A and St Andrews greenkeeping teams somehow kept the Old playable enough for 17 players to break par. Relentless winds made it tricky just to tee up a ball and were worse than some gusts that prompted play stoppages in previous Opens when the Stimpmeter readings hit double digits.
Miraculously, the massive Old Course greens still appeared fast enough to deliver a major championship edge. Sensible hole locations chosen around the grim forecast allowed several stalwarts to get by in the early gales before most of the leaders capitalized late Thursday as the wind subsided.
Six-hour rounds plagued the afternoon wave thanks to morning struggles, drivable fours, a reachable five, criss-crossing holes and everything that goes with playing in are-you-kidding-me-this-is-what-they-call-August-weather?
This complete package of difficulty and nightmarish pace of play made Charley Hull’s incoming four birdies and opening 67 all the more miraculous. Paired with the equally speedy Nelly Korda (68), the duo combined with defending champion Lillia Vu (69) to somehow manage the absurd pace by delivering genuine magic coming home and setting up hopes for a grand Sunday finish.
Social media misers tried to pin the tedious pace on women being women. The chauvinists have apparently forgotten how late in the day night men’s groups played during round one of the 2022 Open despite aggressive efforts to prevent bottlenecks that come with modern hitting distances. The men only finished that opener thanks to light cloud cover, a later sunset and the R&A’s determination to make players finish whether they liked it or not.
But hey, you want to hit the ball a long way so your equipment manufacturer sugar daddies keep sending free stuff, these are the prices you pay.
For what is just the third Women’s Open over the Old Course in 49 playings, the R&A sent out threesomes off of both tees instead of twosomes off the first. Greens were single-cut at 4.75 mm. But the double greens at 6/12, 7/11 and 8/10 were not mown Thursday morning in anticipation of high winds. The average speed after mowing came in at 9 feet 4 inches, with a very decent firmness reading of 107 gravities.
However, tees were pushed forward at the 9th, 12th, 14th and 16th and will be up again Friday to bring the course yardage down almost 200 yards to 6507 yards. Whether the drivability of the 9th and 12th, and reachability of the 14th played a role is not clear. But even with all of the accommodations and the late brilliance in less wind, Ruoning Yin somehow posted a four-under 68 as the wind speeds peaked.
Put Hull atop the list of her admirers.
“Before my round I was in there watching it on the TV when I saw the scores, and I thought, how is [Yin] 4-under par?” she said. “That was an unbelievable score.”
Hull told her coach during a range warm up session that she figured the round was about to be called because she couldn’t imagine how “the balls are staying on the greens.” But the clever management practices and wind’s eventual slight reprieve allowed play to march on.
“To go out there, shoot 5-under, play pretty solid, it was a lot of fun,” said Hull.
One stroke behind at 68 is Korda, who played several brilliant approaches coming in and birdied the final two holes to join China’s Yin at four-under par.
“Any single time I get to climb the leaderboard, even if -- you can't win a tournament on day one but you can definitely lose it,” said Korda. “So I've put myself into good position and hopefully I can keep trending in the right direction.”
Speaking of good position: Korda’s epic approach into the Road hole produced a gobsmakingly perfect swing, appropriate club twirl and goosebump-inducing result if you’ve ever tried to play this shot:
Yin, who won last year’s KPMG Women’s LPGA at Baltusrol, reached 6-under through 14 holes only to bogey the 15th and Road hole coming home. She made a whopping seven birdies while hitting 15 greens and three-putting twice.
“I was trying to make the wind my friend,” Yin said. “I honestly don’t have that much experience for links golf. I had to calculate the wind when I putted, which was the first time.”
More impressively, she prepped for the Old Course playing on a simulator.
“I play this course in a Tiger Woods’ video game a lot, but it’s quite different playing it in person. I enjoyed it.”
Also posting impressive 69’s: American Andrea Lee, Korea’s Jenny Shin and Mi Hyang Lee, Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit and Japan’s Mao Saigo.
“You have to be really disciplined,” said Vu, last year’s winner at Walton Heath making her Old Course debut. “Front nine, winds off the left, kind of between hurting and helping, and then back nine, you kind of have to rewire your brain, like okay, winds off the right, it's okay to hit out to the right and then have it come back. It's just definitely a mental battle.”
Past Champions Georgia Hall and Jiyai Shin led a group of seven players at 1-under-par 71 that also included Lydia Ko. A total of 17 players broke par while 11 posted 80 or higher.
American Rose Zhang posted a 72 in the worst of the wind.
“I had five putts over 25 yards,” she said. “I had to lag putt, half swing a bunch of putts and even half swing wasn’t enough when you are into the wind, and you have a 27-yard putt that to have to make up and down.”
Jenny Shin suggested things did crawl right up to the line of silliness.
“The ball was wobbling on the tee and a lot of us were thinking, how are we going to play?” she said after posting an impressive 69. “But we just knew from number seven until the 13th hole, it was going to be a battle regardless of whether it's raining or not. I've never really played in this kind of wind before because it just felt relentless.”
Even a pre-tournament favorite who opened with 76 was able to find beauty in the relentlessness. In the second group off the tenth tee, Lauren Coughlin managed two birdies against six bogeys.
“It was very tough out there,” the Scottish Open winner said. “It was a cool experience. The wind was pretty wild out there especially in that corner of 7, 11, 8, 9. It was pretty brutal out there.”
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