As we all know, on Sunday night the South of England was hit with what had been billed as “the worst storm since 1987” and with bad weather in mind as well as memories of doing battle with the elements on the golf course, we wondered about the worst weather to have hit the golf course during professional tournaments where the players simply had to soldier on through the mire.
After a little digging two events jumped off the page, the 1973 John Player Classic at Turnberry and the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield.
Let’s start with Turnberry…
As with any grand story, the line between what people remember and the actual facts concerning the 1973 event is a blurred one. Of the winds that rolled in form the Irish Sea that year, Peter Alliss wrote in his book, The Who’s Who of Golf, “The wind was a steady 70 mph, gusting up to 120mph. The tented village was blown to pieces.”
While 70 mph winds on the shores of Scotland are fathomable, 120mph gusts are the stuff of Category 3 Hurricanes (as defined by the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS)) and, needless to say, Alliss might have been embellishing a little on this occasion!
That didn’t stop other players who were in the field that year from labelling the weather that hit Turnberry that year as the worst they had ever had to play in.
On day one the players who had early tee times enjoyed fine weather with Johnny Miller and Neil Coles co-leading the event after rounds of 66. However when the afternoon came, so did the rough stuff. Winds rolling in from the Irish Sea stiffened in the afternoon and scores went through the roof. But that was nothing compared with day two.
How bad did it get during the second round? “The worst I’ve ever played in,” said first round co-leader Neil Coles who was backed up by Arnold “The King” Palmer who added, “This is it, this is the number one bad day, the worst weather I’ve ever played in anywhere, anytime.”
The usually picture perfect Ailsa Course at Turnberry is subject to some abuse from the weather every now and again and in 1973’s John Player Classic, things really got ugly!
“I’ve seen it worse once before, but we didn’t play that day,” said Tony Jacklin of the weather on day 2. It wasn’t sour grapes for the Englishman either as he had shot a miraculous 74 which he labelled as “possibly the best round I’ve ever played.”
Round 2 was eventually brought to a halt due to the incessant rain and when play was resumed the following morning, the winds were blowing even harder and the air was still icy cold.
“On the worst day of my life I haven’t been this cold,” said Chi Chi Rodriguez who reportedly went out for his 3rd round complete with woolen gloves on both hands and a white wool bonnet that buttoned under his chin.
Things didn’t get any better throughout the rest of the tournament either with the Associated Press reporting winds of 45mph and brutally cold conditions yet again in the final round. While 100mph winds and golfers being blown off their feet makes for entertaining reading, it seems that mere 45mph winds with gusts exceeding that, all in icy cold conditions is as bad as it has gotten without play being suspended.
More recently, at the 2002 Open Championship played at Muirfield, modern day pros got a good lashing from Mother Nature during their third rounds but how did this bad weather stack up against Turnberry in 1973?
The morning’s play at Muirfield that year wasn’t much different to any other day at The Open Championship. Sure the weather wasn’t what you’d call “good” but what was to come, seemingly out of nowhere caught all of the players on the course unawares.
“It’s the only time in my life I could say that I wasn’t prepared on the golf course,” said Padraig Harrington. “I had to send in for my rainwear. I didn’t have hand warmers or any of that. It was a lovely day and then it was the worst weather I’ve played any competitive golf in.” Harrington shot a 76 which, when compared to some of the other scores that day, turned out to be a very respectable round indeed.
Tiger Woods, who at the time was trying to complete the third leg of a calendar Grand Slam, shot an 81, the worst round of his professional career. “I tried on every shot. I didn’t bag it,” said Woods. When arguably the best player to ever play the game and one who has already bagged the first two majors of the year, tries his damndest and still shoots 10 over par, you know the weather was brutal!
Worse was to come from Colin Montgomerie. Monty had fired a dazzling 64 on day 2 but when he putted out on the final green on the Saturday he was a full 20 shots worse than he had been the day previous to the bad weather rolling in.
This year we watched the Open Championship at a sun kissed Muirfield but on the Saturday in 2002, the players competing for the Claret Jug weren’t so lucky!
One player who did make headway on day three was Ernie Els who’s 72 put him in position to win the Claret Jug the very next day. Els’ caddie had previously described the weather that pounced on Muirfield as a “wall of s**t coming at us”.
“Under really tough conditions, that was as good as I could have done,” said the Big Easy. “I thought it might miss us, but it just kept coming. It was ridiculous. The ball would not go anywhere, and you get water on the clubface and the ball can squirt anywhere. I was playing with Shigeki and we were hitting drivers on par 3s. It was horrific stuff.”
Horrific stuff indeed. But how do these accounts of bad weather over on these shores compare with some of the conditions the PGA Tour has faced?
As all golf fans will know, the 2013 season has been blighted by bad weather, with no less than 7 tournaments having play suspended, numerous Monday finishes and one event, the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii even being cut short to 54 holes due to incessant high winds.
Although there aren’t many stories of players being forced to play through really awful weather Stateside, when Mother Nature “pulls out the big stick and unleashes one” in the USA, the golf course is the last place any human would want to be!
Check out the video below for some of the worst weather on the PGA Tour…
