British Open weather goes from mild to wild

By Bill Dwyre

July 16, 2011 12 AM PT

From Sandwich, England — The Weather Channel is missing an opportunity. It needs to start bidding every year for the broadcast rights to the British Open.

Think of what fun it could have had Saturday, with maps and charts and tornado chasers, zipping up and down the fairways of Royal St. George’s fabled golf course and reporting back.

“Here comes another huge gust, Julie. Oh, oh. It’s over the 13th green. Oh, no. There goes Phil Mickelson. Looks like he’s heading toward Dover.”

Saturday, they held a golf tournament and a weather story broke out. When it was over for the day, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke was leading Myrtle Beach’s Dustin Johnson by a shot and, along with the other 71 players who began the third round, attempting to find a warm fireplace.

For most of the day, the wind blew with gusts up to 30 mph — wind that took heavy vertical rain and made it horizontal. People who live in normally sunny places cannot fully comprehend this. Bad weather in Southern California is fog in the Cajon pass or any day in July in Palm Springs.

In July in southeast England, you are reducing your life expectancy if you don’t have a good rain suit. Inability to make headway when walking here is not a sign of a stroke, just a blast off the English Channel.

The second-biggest story of the day, after Hurricane Sandwich, was the huge gallery that assembled. They lined the fairways and filled the bleachers surrounding the greens and tees. They had actually paid for the right to be jostled and squeezed while walking in high grass and standing for hours in soaking clothes.

Murrieta’s own Rickie Fowler, whose 68 tied Johnson for the best round of the day and who was one of only three below par 70, indicated amazement at the number of Brits who soldiered on through the torrent and turbulence.

“I probably wouldn’t have been out there,” he said. “I would have been home watching on TV.”

Players who teed off early got the worst of it.

The Royal and Ancient, which runs this annual testimonial to human endurance and windburn, sent out Australian Matthew Millar first, at 8:55 a.m. He was one of 13 players who had made the cut on the number at three-over 143, and as odd man out of the 73 still playing, he walked alone into the teeth of the storm.

“The conditions were brutal,” Millar said. “It didn’t matter whether it was into the wind, or downwind. It was really tough to keep dry. Trying to control your ball was virtually impossible.”

Millar shot 80.

Surprisingly, the day ended in sunshine, with soft clouds floating overhead. The summer days are so long in the United Kingdom that there is time for several different weather patterns to come and go. The leading players, who teed off between 2 and 3 p.m. bundled in rain suits and toting umbrellas and dozens of towels, finished in shirt sleeves.

That points to the real key in winning a British Open: Get your tee times between hurricanes.

The weather brought fascinating sights.

There was the Rory McIlroy-Fowler twosome, donning big mittens between shots. They are both 22. Then there was Tom Watson, the British Open legend, trudging through the wind and water with his hands in his pockets and shooting a two-over 72. Watson is 61. He won all five of his British Opens well before either McIlroy or Fowler were born.

There was the guy in the American flag Bermuda shorts, and the caddie for English amateur phenom Tom Lewis, who walked in sandals and bare feet. His name is listed on the official caddies’ roster as Duncan. No first (or second) name was available, possibly for a reason.

There was Watson, hitting his driver off the fairway twice, on Nos. 4 and 14. And Bo Van Pelt telling reporters about his approach shot on one of the par fives. “I hit a six-iron 120 yards,” he said. “Normally, I hit it 195.”

Shortly after 7 p.m., Clarke tapped in his final putt of the day. That was for a one-under 69 that moved him a stroke better than the four-under at which he had started the day. A huge crowd packed the bleachers and crowded around the barriers. He is a UK favorite, a burly, windblown man, who will turn 43 next month, who has lived in London for many years and who has been a longtime fixture in the European Ryder Cup effort.

The fans hooted and hollered their joy, celebrating his leading spot going into Sunday. They knew what a story it would be if he wins, how much discussion there will be about the agony he went through when his wife died of cancer in 2006 and what joy he has now found with a fiancee introduced to him by fellow Irishman Graeme McDowell.

They know that, if he wins, it will mark the third major in the last six won by a player from Northern Ireland. McDowell won the U.S. Open in 2010 and McIlroy won it last month. McDowell called the chances of both him and McIlroy doing that “like a lottery ticket.”

Clarke, who moved back to Northern Ireland recently, said that he has tried to lift the Claret Jug 19 times and failed 19 times.

“I’ve got another nice chance Sunday,” he said.

The weather report for the final round is: “Heavy showers possible and strong gusty winds.”

Compared to Saturday, that will be like a sunny day in San Diego.

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