There were a few bets on it. Rain stopped play on the opening morning of the Ryder Cup – Wales October biting at its worst with horrendous rain and wind.
The players were brought off at 9.45am, bringing the first suspension of play since the 1997 match in Valderrama. An announcement is due at 12.00pm but play may not get back underway until 2.00pm.
The volume of rain was the biggest issue. Puddles formed on the fairways and despite the preferred-lie rule being in play, several players had nowhere to move their balls. Bunkers were also a major problem – Lee Westwood’s tee shot on the third became engulfed in the rain-soaked sand.
“It got to such a stage where even with all the resources we have here it was just too much,” said Chief Referee John Paramor. “We were fighting an uphill battle. We were hoping for a break in the weather, it was there for a few minutes, but unfortunately those lovely breaks filled in and it’s turned out to be pretty strong rain again.”
Play was given every chance though and the scoreboard is in favour of the Europeans who walked off up in three and down in one match.
Despite the conditions it was a roaring atmosphere around the first tee. The shoehorse gallery wailed in the Europeans but it was an indifferent start: few found the first fairway. And to miss the fairway was a serious hindrance to locating the green.
It took until the last group – who took over an hour to play just two holes – for the first birdie on the opening hole and that came from an approach that missed the green. Jeff Overton holed a putt from off the back to send the Americans one up.
A Bubba Watson birdie on the par-five second saw the pair go two up but the Europeans took the upper hand in the other matches.
Lee Westwood birdied the second and Phil Mickelson bogeyed the par-four fourth to create a double swing in favour of Westwood and Martin Kaymer.
It was their tee shots on the sixth hole that brought the final action of the morning. Having watched the shots sail into the mist – and Kaymer’s into the lake – Paramor ruled that conditions had become unplayable.
The all-Northern Irish pair of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell made four pars on their four holes possible but the Americans Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar bogeyed the first and fourth and birdied the par-three third to leave Europe one-up.
A scoreboard replicated in the third match, in which Tiger Woods is playing. He made a birdie four at the par-five second but his partner bogeyed the first as both Americans missed the fairway off the tee. All square after two, Ian Poulter sank a putt on the par-three third to leave Europe one up at the suspension of play.
