HOYLAKE, England — Was it the right or wrong decision for tournament officials to — for the first time in British Open history — go to a two-tee start Saturday in anticipation of possible dangerous weather?
There were no delays, no signs of a thunder and lightning storm. In fact, the course played easier than it had all week for the third round. Still, the players unanimously felt it was a good decision.
“I think it’s the second best decision the R&A made this year … the first being bringing the Open back to Portrush,’’ Rory McIlroy said, referring to the course in his native Northern Ireland.
“Well, I think obviously it’s easy to say now that it was the wrong decision looking at the weather that we’ve had thus far,’’ Darren Clarke said. “They’ve had to do what they had to do to try and get it done [Saturday], and they’re trying to do what’s best for the tournament. So there can be no blame apportioned at all to the R&A for that.’’
Interestingly, less than 15 minutes after play ended, torrential rains poured down on the course and continued to do so for the next few hours.
How did McIlroy plan to prepare for his final round with a six-shot lead?
“I’ll have some dinner and the last couple of nights we’ve just watched a movie,’’ he said. “So I’ll probably do the same thing and try and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll probably do some light workout in the morning again in the gym and get out here and be prepared to play.’’
McIlroy said he has watched “Django Unchained’’ and “The Internship’’ and was not sure what was in store for Saturday night.
McIlroy will tee off in the final group at 9:40 a.m. (Eastern) with Rickie Fowler, with whom he is friends.
Asked what he planned on wearing, McIlroy said jokingly, “I’ll definitely won’t be wearing orange, that’s for sure,’’ referring to Fowler’s traditional Sunday outfit as a tribute to his college, Oklahoma State.
“Rickie is a good guy. He’s become a neighbor of mine,’’ McIlroy said. “We don’t live too far away from each other in [Jupiter Beach] Florida. I see him around all the time. So we’ve become pretty close. That sort of stems all the way back from the Walker Cup in ’07 from Royal County Down. I think it’ll be quite a comfortable grouping for both of us. We know each other so well.“There will be chat out there and there, and we’ll try and treat it like any other day, even though it isn’t.’’
The tweet of the week came from John Singleton (@Jsingo), the factory worker who qualified for The Open but missed the cut by two shots Friday. On Saturday morning, with the rain spitting on the players, he tweeted:
Five-time Open winner and current U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson, 64, shot 40 on his front nine and recovered to shoot 75 Saturday.
“Well, the golf course is there for the taking and I gave it away,’’ he said. “I hit it out of bounds once, I hit it in the really thick rough one time and couldn’t move it and made a double, so I gave up four shots with a couple of bad shots there.’’
Jim Furyk, who played with Watson on Friday, said, “It’s pretty impressive to see a guy at 64 go around here and make the cut. It was fun. I was pulling for him down the stretch to make the cut]. He played like a champ the last four holes. It was fun to watch.
Watson, asked if he spoke to Tiger Woods this week about the Ryder Cup, said, “I just said hello to him.’’ … The scoring average this week: 73.3, 73.8, 71.6.