Unpredictability reigns at the British Open as weather-related chaos causes leaderboard logjam

Globe and Mail

5 days ago

On the third day of last year's Open Championship, Corey Conners hit the course feeling great. Nice weather. Wearing short sleeves. Tied for seventh.
'Walk to the first tee and it just started raining sideways for most of the round,' Conners said. He shot an 80.
Lesson learned. On Thursday, the Canadian came to Royal Portrush prepared for the worst. He finished three-over.
'I found it …' – searching for the right word – '… tricky out there.'
A lot of golfers like that word.
You could try poring over the weather reports, but this close to the North Atlantic, they read like a William Carlos Williams poem. Highly precise, but also mystical.
The forecast for the Open called for 'early brightness' and 'mostly cloudy.' Later, 'sunny spells, but also some showers.' In the afternoon it was 'mainly dry,' but with 'heavy or thundery showers.'
All those things were right. You're freezing, you're boiling, you're sodden and then you're dried out. When it rains, it's still. As soon as it isn't raining, you're looking for a tree to lash yourself to.
After his round, Darren Clarke, who hails from these parts, referred to it as 'iffy weather,' which is the Irish way of saying 'hurricane alert.'
It didn't seem to be determinative in terms of performance. Canada's Taylor Pendrith went out early in a group with Denmark's Jacob Skov Olesen and Australia's Jason Day.
They got the loveliest part of the day on their front nine, and were intermittently pelted on the back half. Pendrith and Day struggled (four-over and two-over, respectively). Olesen was the early leader at four-under.
'I'd love to be a weatherman here,' Day said afterward. 'You just get it wrong all the time.'
In sports, we often speak of the conditions under which the game is played as separating the good from the bad, or at least the prepared from the not-so-much. There is a moral aspect to this judgment – can you take the cold, or are you a wimp?
Most people would call inclement conditions something that tends to increase interest, and yet we are moving away from them as fast as possible. More and more, we seek perfection in our sporting environments. No new stadium or arena can be built anywhere without assurances of its performance-enhancing characteristics. No event should be held anywhere if it might get hot, or not hot enough.
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Links golf in general, and Royal Portrush in particular, suggest how deadening that approach can be.
The weather changes every hour. Even if that doesn't bother you, it is on your mind. Does one have to prepare for the idea of weather as much as the actuality of it?
'I don't think necess … I guess maybe a little,' Conners said. He explained how the threat of wind – a 'heavier' sort – completely changes his approach.
Back in the good ol' days, the boards in every hockey arena had their own bounces. If three well-known NHLers complained about erratic puck movement off the boards anywhere in the league now, they'd replace them with boards designed by NASA.
The NHL and other leagues want to design a system in which the thing that is supposed to happen happens. Not always, of course. An upset is okay occasionally. But if it began to happen with regularity, people would doubt the system. It would mean the experts are wrong and no one knows anything.
The goal is a sport which has removed chaos. That's good for gamblers, and bad for viewers. Only one of those groups matters any more.
The first day of this year's Open wasn't madness, but it was able to surprise you.
Fifty-five-year-old Phil Mickelson started the day having missed the cut in every major this year. This is what happens when your pay arrives in a dump truck whether you win or not.
On day one, Mickelson looked like the old version of himself. Maybe not the Aughties one, but certainly the 2010s one. He got in early, shot one-under and practically skipped off the course.
'I really enjoy playing in these conditions,' he said, possibly even seriously.
A couple of days ago, Scottie Scheffler told the media, unprompted, that winning leaves him feeling hollow and not 'fulfilled.' So of course he finished his day one off the lead.
From now on, I expect more great athletes to come into scrums after three-home-run afternoons to talk about being and nothingness.
'What sort of a pitch was that on the 3-and-1 count, Aaron?'
'I don't care. What I do know is that when you look into the abyss …'
Sergio Garcia, now 45, dressed in bright red, looking like a leaned-out Santa Claus, briefly threatened the lead as well. It's almost as if experience can occasionally be useful.
In the late afternoon, the sky cleared. It got heavy and the wind picked up, but the scores didn't change much. By the end, 19 golfers were within two shots of the lead.
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Rory McIlroy was just outside that group at one-under. Famously, no top pro knows this course better than he does.
He put his tee shot on the first hole into the short rough. Then he turned around and started hugging people. Given the situation, a great result.
If you had to pick the most unexpected thing that could happen here is McIlroy blowing it for the second time in two chances.
'I'm surprised four-under is leading,' the Irishman said afterward.
Let's hope for more of those.