ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – The positive: Star formation Nelly Korda, Charley Hull and Lilia Vu all shot in the 60s and combined for just four bogeys, with Hull taking the first-round lead at the AIG Women’s Open with a 5-under 67.
The bad news: Their lap took over six hours – 6 hours and 8 minutes to be exact.
Some other afternoon groups got closer to six and a half.
“It took ages,” said Hull, who is a stroke ahead of Korda and Ruoning Yin. “I had a bet with my caddie. I said, ‘I think it’s six and a half hours’; he said, ‘No, five hours, 30.’
“I was right.”
It was certainly a grind on Thursday at St. Andrews, as high winds — topped with gusts in the high 30s — and the intersecting route of the Old Course loop slowed the start of the year’s final major to a snail’s pace. The morning wave turned into slightly tougher conditions, with most appearing to finish in under six hours, though it still pushed back the split-tee, afternoon-tee times; Hull’s group was 12 minutes behind on the first.
Korda, one of the fastest players on the LPGA, was asked if such a pace was acceptable in one of the sport’s biggest championships. (To be fair to the women, the men took about six hours to complete three balls on this course two years ago, though they played far longer than the 6,498 yards cited Thursday.)
“That’s clearly not true,” Korda replied, “but given the conditions of the wind and the fact that it’s kind of blowing between two holes, it’s a given.”
Korda added that the first nine holes showed “quite a flow”.
“But when we got to the 11th tee,” she continued, “we just went all out.”
Inside the relentlessly windy start to the AIG Women’s Open in St. Andrews
There were only a few rounds under par on Thursday morning as the wind dominated the Old Course at St Andrews.
Korda’s trio waited about half an hour to tee off at No. 11, where four groups were gathered during the afternoon wave. The three chatted and tried to stay warm. Hull said she went to the toilet.
All three, clearly in top form, scored par.
A few holes later, the wind died down and the trio played the final five holes in a bogey-free 6 under. Korda birdied the 17th and 18th holes, while Hull, wearing an all-black outfit and aviator shades to keep her eyes dry in the wind, finished her 70-yard approach shot almost perfectly on the par-4 finisher.
“I thought I had the ball in the hole for a moment,” Hull said.
Hull watched some of the television coverage before her round and thought Yin’s morning score of 68 was an “unbelievable score.”
“I would do that now because it was windy on the driving range and I told my coach they could do it anytime because I don’t know how the balls are going to stay on the greens,” Hull said. “To go out there, shoot 5 under and play pretty solid, it was a lot of fun.”
Nice, but long.
Or as Korda said: “Real long.”
