High winds force Women’s British Open to suspend play for the day

Inbee Park’s now longshot hopes to win a record fourth consecutive Grand Slam event in the same year is on hold after high winds forced play to be suspended for the day at the Ricoh Women’s British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Park was preparing to putt on the fourth green during the third round on Saturday when 40 mph gusts at the Old Course moved her ball. The third round was suspended a short time later.

Officials waited nearly six hours before deciding to resume the third round at 6:15 a.m. local time Sunday. Officials hope to finish the tournament by Sunday evening.

Tournament organizers relreased a brief statement saying, “The Ricoh Women’s British Open third round was suspended at 12.31 due to high winds. It is scheduled to resume at 06:15 tomorrow (Sunday 4th August) morning.”

“It’s still going to be windy tomorrow. Not, hopefully, as windy as it’s been today, but there’s no letup in it,” said Susan Simpson, head of operations for the Ladies Golf Union. “It’s still going to be very breezy and equally difficult conditions.”

How difficult?

Nine players who completed the third round had an average score of 78.2. Cristie Kerr and Lydia Ko each had a 75, the best of those who finished. Rikako Morita shot 86. The cumulative nine-hole scores for the 20 players who at least made the turn was 54-over par.

Park is seven shots behind leader Na Yeon Choi, who is among more than a dozen contenders who had yet to tee off Saturday. Choi was the second-round leader at 10 under, followed by Japan’s Miki Saiki at nine under and Morgan Pressel at eight under.

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