GULLANE, Scotland — Good news for the 156 players who will play the 142nd British Open this week at Muirfield: The weather is supposed to resemble something a lot more like Torrey Pines in winter than Scotland in summer.
Chamber of Commerce weather conditions are predicted for the southeast coastline of Scotland — temperatures hovering around 70 degrees with sunshine and little chance of rain are predicted all week.
Now a word of warning to those who might not otherwise be in the know: Trust no weather forecaster in the UK and pack your waterproofs.
Those players in this week’s field who played in the 2002 Open, the last time it was played at Muirfield, know better. They remember. How could they not?
After a serene Scottish Saturday morning on July 20, 2002, horrific weather (which somehow slipped below the radar of the forecasters) arrived in anger off the North Sea in the afternoon and turned the third round into a historic calamity.
Most memorably, the sideways rain in sustained 35-mph winds and wind-chill temperatures in the 40s sabotaged Tiger Woods’ attempt at winning the third consecutive leg of the Grand Slam that year.
Woods, who had won seven of the previous 11 majors and looked as unbeatable as he ever has, entered the third round at 4-under par and tied for ninth, just two shots out of the five-way tie for the lead that included eventual-champion Ernie Els.
By day’s end, Woods was tied for 67th, 11 shots behind Els. He shot 81 in that third round, the highest score of his professional career.
Woods rallied from a front-nine 42 to break 40 on the back and afterward humbly said: “I tried all the way around. I tried on each and every shot, and that’s the best I could have shot. And unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.”
The average score of the final 14 players on the course was 76.7. Woods was one of 10 players to shoot in the 80s that day.
“Mother Nature beat Tiger in the end,” Nick Faldo famously said that day. “He was out in the worst of it, and not even Tiger can beat that.”
Padraig Harrington, an Irishman who’s used to playing in terrible conditions, called it “the worst weather I’ve ever played golf in.’’
What made it all the more maddening to the players who were most adversely affected was the fact that no weather like that was in the forecast.
“The forecast was just for maybe some showers, no big deal, whatever,’’ Woods recalled. “But no one had forecast for the wind-chill to be in the 30sIt just got so cold that nothing was working, and no one was prepared for that.’’
It was no accident the player who handled the third-round conditions the best was Els, who would go on to win the next day, prevailing in a four-man playoff. Els shot 72 on that bloody Saturday afternoon and, in essence, won the Claret Jug that day.
Ian Poulter, who shot 78, called Els’ 72 “a hell of a score,’’ adding, “I was just trying to survive. I remember it like it was yesterday: Tiger was playing with [Mark] O’Meara right behind me, and I was in great position. I was right there with the best names at the time and got blown off the golf course along with 70 percent of the guys who teed off. It was shocking.”
What it was is British Open golf, where players’ tee times often end up determining their fate for the week.
Englishman Justin Rose, the reigning U.S. Open champion, was the beneficiary of a good tee time that day. He began the day tied for 50th, shot 68 in benign morning conditions and was tied for third by the time he went to bed that night.
“Worst day ever? What are you talking about?’’ Rose recalled with a smile. “It was the best day everI’d made the cut on the number and I remember sitting at home [after the round] with some family around me, having a cup of tea and biscuits, as we do, and I was watching myself climb up the leaderboard. It was good fun!”