Players at the AIG Women's Open this week are set for brutal conditions with gusts of up to 45mph predicted for the opening round at St Andrews.
R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers says that the course has been 'slowed' down but admits there is a risk that play could be delayed in round one, with the "big fear" that golf balls could be moved by winds on the Old Course's more exposed greens.
Slumbers suggested that greens will be rolling around the 9.6 mark on the stimpmeter and said that the course has received extra water to try and keep balls stationary amid the gale-force winds predicted.
"So the forecast is sort of settling down to being pretty windy tomorrow, particularly tomorrow. There is a small but a realistic chance of 40, 45 mile-an-hour winds tomorrow. But the met office who help us here have been forecasting this for a while now," Slumbers said in his address to media on Wednesday.
"We have slowed the golf course down quite a bit. We've raised the height of cut on the greens. We've put a bit of water on them to help them grow a little bit. We've got some pretty good ideas about where we can put the pins to actually protect it as much as we possibly can.
"Most importantly, we will set it up in a way that the players can play. The good news is the wind is forecast all four days to come from pretty much the same quadrant, so we know where we can put the pins to give them some room.
"There is a risk that we'll have delays in play tomorrow, but we'll deal with that. I think the best players in the world want a bit of a hard challenge. I just hope it doesn't blow so hard that we can't play."
While the R&A chief is worried about the possibility of winds blowing balls around on the exposed greens, he is thankful for the 2019 Rule change involving the 'stop point' of your ball once it has been marked on the green.
The new change meant that once you have marked, lifted and replaced your ball, that now acts as your 'stop' point. If the ball moves thereafter whether that be down to wind. water or any other natural force then you are entitled to put the back back on that spot - rather than playing it from the ball's new position.
"No, it's not as simple as that," Slumber said on if balls moving will be the cause of a delay to play, before continuing: "I think some of you will well remember 2015 [men's Open at St Andrews]. The wind was making the balls move on 13 at that point. The exposed greens are out at 11, 12, 13. It would be balls moving and therefore that we can't play.
"The rules of golf that we changed in 2019 are going to help an awful lot here because once the ball is marked on the green, that's its position. That's the big fear.
"2016 Troon wasn't very pretty on Friday and Saturday. Last Saturday at Troon just a few weeks ago wasn't very pretty, either. This is pretty high winds for us. I think this is at the top end. I think we'll all be pleased to get through tomorrow.
"We will do everything we can on the golf course to make it playable, and we'll keep the girls playing for as long as we possibly can. But there is the integrity of the whole championship between front and center in our minds."
Just heard from a LPGA player that they hit driver-three wood into the 12th today in a practice round. Truly incredible. The 12th is a hole almost every player in the field could drive in ‘22. Winds this week are going to be INSANE.August 21, 2024
The greens are set to be slow at under 10 on the stimpmeter, which is around 4-5ft slower than what we witnessed at Pinehurst 2 in the men's US Open in June. They could well be sped up over the weekend, though, where slightly calmer conditions are forecast.
"Numbers-wise, we're mowing the greens I think 4.75 mill, and we've put a little bit of water on the greens," Slumbers said.
"You know, the Old Course, we publish the stimp numbers every morning to the players, so we're going to be somewhere around - I think this morning they were at 9-foot-6. Yesterday they were at 9-foot-7. I doubt if you'll see them any faster than that for tomorrow, and then we'll see what the weather is going to do on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
"We can speed them up quite quickly. These are great greens. We know how to speed them up."
Something that will help the R&A get play done by Sunday will be the use of a split-tee system, which has been used due to the event taking place later than usual. The championship should have been slightly earlier in the calendar but is later in the season due to the Olympics.
It means that the organizers have less daylight to play with, so players will be going out on both the 1st and 10th tees, which is rarely seen in Opens.
St Andrews hosts the AIG Women's Open for the third time this week, after 2007 and 2013. It's set to be a very entertaining one as the world's best female golfers get the true links experience.
World No.2 Lilia Vu defends the title she won last year at Walton Heath.
