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.
British Open schedule: R&A announces rare Monday finish for 2015 championship
The wind and rain are common at the Open Championship, but it got too extreme this year at the Old Course and an early announcement has been made that it won’t finish on time Sunday.
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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.
According to the R&A announcement, there will be no attempt made to play 36 holes on Sunday. Rather, the third round will be conducted on Sunday and with the final round going off on Monday.
American Webb Simpson said the decision to go for a Monday finish was “bad news.” It keeps the PGA Tour players over there at least an extra day. If it were a regular PGA Tour event, they would obviously try to play 36 holes on Sunday off split tees and not re-pair (according to lowest score after 54 holes) the players after the third round.
The weather on Sunday is supposed to provide playable conditions and the possibility of an on-time finish with a few alterations made. But this is the Open Championship played on a links course and the R&A is averse to sending players off No.1 and No. 10 tees and they wiped out any chance of that with this announcement.
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