Lydia Ko’s caddie, a Scot named Paul Cormack, summed it up best. “He said that if we just had snow, we’d have all four seasons,” declared Ko, the new Olympic champion, of the myriad of conditions faced by the early starters on the opening day of the $2 million ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. The start on the Ayrshire coast was delayed for an hour by rain while a strong westerly wind was blowing, too.
Following a torrential downpour just after 11am, the action was then halted for more than two hours. The sun eventually appeared after play resumed but, on a course that was already soft, pools of water here and there were a sign of how heavy that rain had been. “I’ve played in my fair bit of bad weather over here,” reflected Ko after signing for a three-under-par 69 to sit just two shots off the lead, held by Minjee Lee after the Australian birdied the par-5 18th late in the day to edge ahead of both American Megan Khang and Korean A Lim Kim.
“I was actually trying to go through some of the worst British Opens I’ve ever played,” added Ko. “Hoylake was really horrible in 2012 and even when we were at Troon, just down the road here a few years ago, it was really bad as that’s where I had to play with my hat backwards. “Last year, we had beautiful weather at the British Open at Walton Heath, so we can potentially expect that.
But, at the same time, we can potentially expect the weather we had this morning. That’s just part of the e.