Day 3, Part 1 Golf: Women's British Open

particularly challenging day here at the home of golf. After such benign

conditions on the opening day, The Old Course has bitten back with some

venom. We have high winds swirling across the old grey town, and play

on the third day has been postponed until at least 4pm. 30 to 40 mph

gusts sweeping in from the West Coast, and we understand that there

are deals force conditions. For the second year in a row, this great

Championship is at a temporary standstill. I am afraid that we are

playing a waiting game here. It is a great shame, of course, for such a

wonderful Championship. They did get underway at 7:50am this morning, and

the hooter sounded at around 12:30pm. That was some 50 minutes

before the leading pairings were due to tee off. We just got the word for

4pm, that there will be no play. You have heard by the wind conditions

but what is in front of us? Andrew Cotter is with a man who was in the

know about such matters. I am with some beasties that do not mind the

weather. We're here by the first green and we have Mike McClellan,

the man in the know. The on-site meteorologist, you

predicted this. Congratulations. Importantly, what will this do later

on? Will the wind subsite? We have had an average wind of 26 mph, and

we are at the peak at the moment. Between 3:30pm and 4pm, slowly, and

I mean slowly, it will creep down. Hopefully we will get below the

threshold and get back out to play. You are looking for a five miles per

hour drop in wind? I suppose it will be like until 9:30pm. I think maybe

we could play until 9pm. The official sunset is after nine

o'clock but with some cloud cover, it makes it difficult. Hopefully we

will get out there. Tomorrow? It will not be much better. Breezy but

playable. There is golf taking place at St Andrews, that is the

Championship. He is the leader and we will bring you up-to-date with

his round as he progresses. But we hope to have some golf played in the

main event later on. That is a low centre of gravity, which helps in

this weather. That is the Himalayas putting green. This is a future

champion if he can keep his balance. Good on you. Nowhere is this fine

golf course more exposed than at the far end of the links out by the

river estuary. Ken is out there now. It is hardly a garden are beaten

right now. -- eight Garden of Eden. It is

horrendous. Look at the flight here, almost bending double. To give

you a idea of how breezy it is, this area levelled out -- was levelled

out to be more playable. If you put a ball down here and put my hand

there. If a lift my hand up, you can see it moving and off she goes. I

feel like Paul Daniels. So, it really is breezy. The courses

unplayable these conditions. There is no way even get the ball to stop.

There are some markers from whoever is playing. They will be in the

clubhouse now. If you put your ball down, it would definitely blow away.

Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, impossible to play golf. Fingers

crossed the wind will die down, but if you were playing here, you'd

should 100. Part is nowhere near 72 right now. Let assure you the look

of the leaderboard before this play was suspended.

They out there from 780 -- 7:50am. This is how it is at the halfway

stage. We had a Korean at the top of the field at halfway but not the one

who started the week. It was 19 and try, the U.S. Open champion, with

Park, she was one of only two Mac women under Park -- underpar this

morning. She was moving to 3-under for the Championship. That still

seven shots behind the leader. Trying to become the first

professional golfer, male or female, to win four Major titles in the same

year. In truth, the real pars around this course this morning, nowhere

near 72 as I said. The best completed round before the hooter

went off was that 75 from Lydia Ko. What a remarkable golfer. She's only

16. And this is her 22nd professional tournament. She and

Cristie Kerr, a double Major Cristie Kerr, a double Major

winner, that is the best of the lot. It is not president it -- not

unprecedented here in Saint Andrews. You may remember three

years ago we had a 40 minute suspension on the second day. And,

unfortunately, we had a whole day's play lost to high winds last year at

Royal Liverpool. 36 holes to be completed on Sunday. So what is the

likely shape of this particular Championship? Let's find out. Andrew

is just behind me somewhere, on the bridge itself.

Have here Susan Simpson, who is the most worried woman in St Andrews.

But she always has a smile. She is the director of golf operations.

What are the plans and what is the best case and worst-case scenario?

According to the meteorologist, hopefully the wind will die down.

Around about 4:30pm. At the moment, we have made an announcement to the

players that we will not play now until 4pm. The next announcement

will be at 3:30pm and we will give them an update on the situation. But

we cannot start playing golf until 4pm. You going to have to zip around

to get through until -- before the light goes. Hopefully if we get a

nice night, we will get a lot of play in. Fortunately, we have made

the cut. We do not have 144 players to work with. If we start early,

hopefully we can play four rounds. But you want to get the third round

finished, obviously. We would all sleep well tonight. We will have to

wait and see. I am providing a wind break year for Susan. I would love

to play the 18th Redknapp. But, again, we live in hope. We expect

some play before five o'clock. It is a great shape -- shame. Such a big

day for women's golf, spoiled by weather conditions. I don't know

what the women have done to deserve it. When I was playing all those

years ago, is used to have a little mantra, we unite to drum up an

appetite for the condition during interface. If you went out with

dread in the pit of your stomach, you would not do well. You had to

have acceptability, acceptance of what happened to your shots out

there, and most importantly, adaptability. If you think you're

going to go out and play your normal game in this, you have another think

coming. Which makes the 75 shot by Lydia Ko and Cristie Kerr extremely

laudable today. The best round is Anna Nordqvist of Sweden. 1-under.

It was interesting to hear the weatherman say it would be a gradual

decline. Very tough conditions in those last three holes, but knowing

that conditions are improving. That is an extraordinary round in the

making and hope she can finish it off. briefly, in terms of the

leader, we have a difficult situation now at the top of this

Championship. Is it a matter of trying to protect that lead that now

June Choi has? We saw how quickly things changed yesterday. It can

change in an instant. There is nothing to protect yet. We will look

forward to getting some play a round about four o'clock but we will keep

you posted on that. In the meantime, from us all here, well, we're