Bad weather hits The Open

Rain and high winds were threatening to send scores soaring at The Open.

Benign conditions yesterday left the Ayrshire links defenceless against 156 of the world's top golfers, 50 of whom shot below the par of 70.

But when overnight leader Miguel Angel Jimenez arrived just after dawn to warm-up for his early second-round start, he was met with heavy rain and wind gusting to 25mph. Links specialist Ben Curtis briefly defied the bad weather to birdie his first hole but Turnberry immediately reclaimed the shot when he found a bunker at the second, failing to get up and down and missing his par putt from 4ft. When the 2003 Open winner then bogeyed the third he dropped out of a tie for second place with 59-year-old former Turnberry champion Tom Watson and Japan's Kenichi Kuboya.

Among others to drop shots in front of brave galleries swathed in waterproofs and carrying umbrellas were former Open champion Ernie Els, who bogeyed the first to go level par for the tournament, and Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen, who had resumed in a tie for 21st place. Jimenez fired a six-under-par 64 to equal the lowest first round in Open history and then revealed it was inspired by countryman Seve Ballesteros, who is now recovering from four operations to remove a brain tumour.

Jimenez said: "Seve's meant a lot for the Tour, for lots of people. He's the mentor of the Tour and players like me are looking up to him. It's something that you're never going to forget.

"To see the way he fights and the way he is going forward gives you lots of motivation."