Horror Open

13 April 2012

High winds and lashing rain today wreaked havoc in the first round of the 137th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

As the horrific conditions sent scores soaring, two former major champions, Sandy Lyle and Rich Beem, quit in mid-round and tour winner Simon Dyson let rip at the R&A for making the course almost impossible to play.

Lyle, the Open winner at Royal St George's in 1985, claimed the weather had turned him into "a compete headcase". The 50-year-old Scot walked in after 10 holes when his score stood at 11 over par.

Beem, the 37-year-old American who took the US PGA Championship in 2002, also retreated to the clubhouse at the turn when he was 12 over.

While Australia's Adam Scott and Swede Peter Hanson exploited easier conditions in the afternoon to top the leaderboard on one under par, the devastating effect of the morning storm left Dyson fuming.

The 30-year-old Englishman, one of the longer hitters in professional golf, insisted officials should have anticipated the horrendous weather and compensated for it by moving tees forward and closer to the fairways.

Dyson said: "It was ridiculous. I hit some of my best drives and three woods and yet I was still not on the green. If it was a European Tour event they would have put the tees forward. It is such a shame because you have such a build-up to a massive tournament like this and the weather is the worst it has been all year.

"That was the most unenjoyable round of golf I have ever played. It was just a battle the whole way.

"If you put a four handicapper on the first tee, they'd probably shoot 100. That's not an exaggeration. It is that tough.

"I can understand why Sandy Lyle walked off. I felt like doing it after 10 myself. You just have to keep on plugging away because I think there will be some very high scores today. The guys who have managed to stay around level par have done brilliantly because it is a serious battle."

Mark Roe, the former Tour tournament winner who now acts as Westwood's short game coach, added: "This is going to be about survival. Any total around par will be a magnificent score." For a shattered Lyle, the struggle for survival was over. He said: "I was just a complete headcase out there. This was my 33rd Open and I've never seen a first day like it. It was horrendous early on. It was a difficult, difficult golf course and I thought it best to call it a day.

"I've played in heavier rain than this, but the course is so demanding and the rough is obviously so very wet that if you get out of position a few times it just becomes so very hard.

"I was starting to lose my golf swing really quick, and wearing glasses in this weather is not good. They were steaming up and I couldn't see the ball very well and I couldn't pick out the lines on the greens.

"Withdrawing wasn't a decision I took lightly. But this course is just an endless minefield of bogeys.

"I've been looking forward to this for weeks, getting ready for it and keeping fit. My game was coming along quite nicely. I thought I could get round in 73 or 74 and keep myself in it. But it didn't happen that way.

"I'll watch the rest of the tournament on television."

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