British Open 2015: Leaderboard, live coverage, results and more from Saturday’s round

The Open Championship is the oldest major in golf and this year it returns to its most renowned venue, the Old Course at St. Andrews. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is the first defending champion not to play The Open since Ben Hogan in 1954. McIlroy was the favorite before he ripped up his ankle and his loss is significant, but the headliner is still here.

Jordan Spieth is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to show up at the British Open holding the first two majors of the season. He’s the best player in the world and the favorite to win. Between the Spieth Slam, Tiger’s return to a place where he’s won twice, and the venue, this should be an amazing Open. Some background notes on the 144th edition as well as updated results and highlights as the week progresses.

Dustin Johnson started his last weekend round at a major in the final group of the draw and he’s right back in that spot again at the Open Championship. Less than a month after that three-putt on the 18th green at Chambers Bay ended the U.S. Open, Johnson sits one shot clear of the field after a delayed 36 holes at St. Andrews.

Johnson is the most talented player in the field this week so it’s no surprise to see him back on top and heading into the final two rounds as the favorite. It’s more surprising that Johnson does not yet have a major win, or two, given the weekend positions he’s already held at 31 years old. Johnson has anchored the tee sheet over and over at the majors in his career. Each time, some unfortunate mistake or break has prevented him from getting that career-changing title. He heads out at 3 p.m. local (10 a.m. ET) off No. 1 tee at the Old Course on Sunday.

It took an extra day thanks to two weather delays, one for rain Friday morning and a 10-plus hour one for wind Saturday, but the second round of the 2015 British Open is finally complete and the field has been cut. The cut line settled at even-par with 80 players continuing on to the third round. Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Keegan Bradley and Brandt Snedeker are not among those players.

For the first time in his career, Woods missed the cut at back-to-back major championships. He fared better at St. Andrews than he did at Chambers Bay for the U.S. Open, but still spent the entire tournament well off the lead. An opening 76 doomed his chances and he needed a miracle run Saturday stick around. That didn’t happen and now Woods is making the wrong kind of career history.

Tiger Woods’ fate at the 2015 British Open appeared to be sealed Thursday when he shot a 4-over 76 during the morning wave despite many players dipping well into the 60s during that time. Woods was going to need a low second round to have a shot to make the cut, and while it took two days to complete, Woods wasn’t able to muster up a serious run at the cut line.

His second round was split between Friday and Saturday thanks to a weather delay and suspension in play. In the end, he followed his opening round 76 with a 75 in the second round to finish at 7-over. The cut projects at even par, so Woods finished well off the pace. Following a missed cut at the U.S. Open, Woods has now missed the cut in back-to-back major championships, the first time that has ever happened in his career. Woods has now missed three cuts this season, the first time he’s done that as a professional, according to Justin Ray of the Golf Channel.

Strong wind at St. Andrews has made it nearly impossible to putt at No. 11. Daniel Brooks came up with a simple solution; avoid putting altogether and make a hole-in-one.

Brooks won’t make the cut barring a string of birdies coming in, but an ace at St. Andrews is one hell of a memory.

Tiger Woods won’t be around for the Claret Jug-hoisting ceremony Sunday at St. Andrews, but his ex-caddie Steve Williams may well be celebrating his fourth British Open victory in a return gig as Adam Scott’s bagman.

Scott, who won the 2013 Masters and achieved other successes with Williams by his side, coaxed the former looper out of retirement in June for just such occasions as this week’s Open Championship. It did not take long for the duo to pick up where they left off, with Scott finishing tied for fourth at last month’s U.S. Open and playing himself into contention for the Claret Jug after a flawless second round at St. Andrews.

The Open Championship has not had a Monday finish since 1988 when Seve Ballesteros won at Royal Lytham. That streak will end this year at St. Andrews. The R&A, the governing body over in Europe and operators of the British Open, has already announced that the final round will not take place until Monday.

The tentative schedule, following that controversial and disastrous restart on Saturday morning, is to complete the second round on Saturday evening. That will not start any earlier than 4 p.m. local (11 a.m. ET), when the winds are forecasted to relent just slightly enough to make the course playable. The cut will then hopefully be made Saturday night.

Riveting stuff, right? Well, these are extreme conditions for championship golf, and ESPN’s Dottie Pepper spent much of the morning showing just how unplayable it has become at St. Andrews.

This demonstration occurred out on the 11th green, which is the most exposed putting surface down in the “the loop” at St. Andrews. The wind was steady and around 45 mph when she was out there. With the greens running quick and pins that were set up in high spots to avoid collecting water almost 36 hours ago at the start of the second round on Friday, the balls have no chance on the green.

The Open Championship remains in a wind delay at St. Andrews and five hours removed from the decision to pull the players off the course, the controversy over starting at all remains the highlight of Saturday. The players were put in place at 7 a..m. in winds that gusted around 45 mph with the flags whipping.

With the greens running faster than normal and the pins in high spots to avoid the water that was collecting at the start of the second round on Friday morning, playing championship golf became a problem right from the restart. Down in the most exposed part of the course, specifically at holes 8 and 11, the balls would not stay still in their spot on the green. They oscillated in other spots on greens all over the course and Brendon Todd described the nerve-wracking process of standing over the ball and thinking it was going to blow back into your putter blade.

“Why did we even start!?” Dustin Johnson, who lost his one-shot lead in the brief 30-minute resumption of the British Open on Saturday, yelled to a rules official.

Players went out on the course and were back in place for a 7 a.m. local restart at St. Andrews, but the conditions were ridiculous from the outset. Balls were being blown around on the green. Players kept backing off their ball at address as it oscillated in the winds. Johnson had his ball blown off the green and way down a hill before he could mark it. He made a bogey at that spot, the par-5 14th. Johnson, the longest hitter in the game, almost never makes a bogey on a par-5 but he needed four strokes from just off the green where he restarted.

The British Open has restarted at St. Andrews but we may not get very far. Players are repeatedly stepping off their ball up on the green, especially at the end of the course where it’s most exposed to the wind. It’s gusting at the Old Course and the players out in this 7 a.m. restart are just trying to hang on in what looks to be the toughest conditions of the week so far.

Dustin Johnson started his day at the 14th green needing a quick up-and-down for a birdie on one of the course’s only two par-5s. Instead, he walked off with a bogey thanks in part to a careless mistake. Just off the green, he decided to chip his ball instead of run it up there with a putter -- probably not the wisest move for his first swing of the day in that wind. The ball would come up way short, settling just on top of a ridge in front of the green. He took his sweet time marking it and that wasn’t going to work in this wind -- an awful mental mistake to make.

The weather forecast for Saturday at the 144th British Open will feature more inclement weather. While we may not see as much rain as we did on Friday, we will continue to deal with strong gusty winds. Winds will be strong out of the west between 20 to 30 mph and with gusts of 40 to 45 mph. There is a chance of rain but that will be hit or miss through the morning and into the early afternoon.

SATURDAY - THIRD ROUND WEATHER FORECAST

Mostly cloudy, and windy with a chance of a passing shower or two. Winds will be out of the west between 20 to 30 mph and gusts over 40 mph. High 62