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 experience of coming over here and, if you don’t like it, you are probably not going to play that good anyway. “It’s just more about grinding it out.
Sometimes you are not going to be on the fairer side of the draw, but that’s also part of playing in these tournaments in this part of the world.” Level par when play was suspended, Ko used the welcome early return to the clubhouse to good effect before finishing with a flourish by making three birdies in her last four holes on the resumption “I’m always hungry, so it was nice to have some lunch and the beef was really good,” said a smiling 27-year-old, who finished joint-second in this event behind American Ryann O’Toole at Dumbarnie Links in 2021. “If it’s just windy, then it’s fine.
But it was windy and rainy and it’s hard when you have to hold the umbrella sideways and not up. I’m pretty sure it was built to hold up vertically (laughing). It was just difficult out there and I am glad that we did get a bit of a break.
” Playing in the same group as Ko, defending champion Celine Boutier signed for a 74 while Scottish No 1 Gemma Dryburgh had to settle for a 76. “The first few holes were really tricky,” said Ko. “I think I hit my first green on the fourth hole and I had to grind it out to make pars on 11 and 12, which was nice.
“I didn’t hit any irons on the front nine other than the two par 3s. I hit 3-wood into the green on my first hole and I think I looked at the rules official and said ‘I can’t even reach the green!’ It was a lot of hybrids and my 3 hybrid comes out of the bag between that and a 5-wood and it was very useful today.” As she was speaking, the later starters were definitely getting it easier, but there’s a good reason why Ko has been one of golf’s greatest ambassadors and also such a successful player.
“I think that’s the difficult thing about playing at the British and Scottish on these type of courses,” said the two-time major winner, who has one eye on next week’s AIG Women’s Open in what, according to her will, be her last appearance in that event at St Andrews with an early retirement almost certainly looming on the horizon. “You could potentially be on the wrong side of the draw and it’s about trying to minimalise the damage and I think patience is the most important thing here.” Kylie Henry, who was handed the honour of hitting the opening shot on the first tee, signed for a disappointing 83 after a double-bogey start put her on the back foot while Dryburgh would also have been hoping to do better than her effort as she bids to secure a Solheim Cup pick for the second year running.
“It was pretty bad out there, especially before we got called in,” said Dryburgh, who was watched by Scottish amateur star and soon-to-be Curtis Cup player Lorna McClymont. “We were on the first hole (the group’s tenth) and it was sideways rain and also pretty heavy as well. Before that, it wasn’t too heavy, but it was still raining in a sideways wind.
I’d warmed up in it as well and it felt like a long day. “During the first bit of the round, I felt I played quite well, but I then got two bad breaks on the second and third when we restarted and I didn’t really make anything on the greens. Reasonably happy with how I hit it and hopefully I can make some birdies tomorrow.
” Out in the better weather, Laura Beveridge reached the turn in one under before bogeys at the first, third, fourth and eighth left her signing for a 75, meaning all three Scots in the field will start the second round outside the projected cut for the top 65 and ties..
