The third round of the RICOH Women’s British Open was suspended at 12.33pm on Saturday due to high winds.

A wind gust of 40 mph resulted in five players almost simultaneously calling for rulings due to balls moving on the green. A decision was made to halt play shortly thereafter. While officials had hoped to resume play at some point later in the day, the conditions had not drastically improved and the decision was made at 6pm. to suspend play until Sunday morning.

Play is scheduled to resume at 6:15 a.m. local time on Sunday with seven groups still to tee off in the third round, scheduled to finish by 11.30am.

Of the three Australians left in the field, all had commenced their third rounds.
Sarah Kemp had played 16 holes and was six-over for her round and six-over for the tournament and currently in 60th position. Lindsey Wright was out shortly after Kemp and was five-over for the day, five-over for the championship and tied for 55th position. While Katherine Hull-Kirk had only played four holes when played was suspended. The Queenslander was two-over for the day and at even-par overall and in a share of 29th position.

In the race for the leading amateur title, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko currently holds a three shot lead. Ko has completed her third round and posted a very respectable 75 in the tough conditions to be at four-over-par. England’s Emily Taylor is seven-over thru 14 holes for her third round and is seven-over for the championship. France’s Celine Boutier is eight-over thru 16 to be eight-over total.

There will be no re-draw and round four is scheduled to start at approx 8am with the last group off at approximately 1.40pm, in order to meet the original last putt time of 5.50pm on Sunday.

Gusts of 50 miles per hour were recorded on The Old Course at St Andrews on Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s forecast is for partly sunny skies with temperatures of 22C and breezy conditions as winds will blow 15-20 miles per hour with gusts to 25 miles per hour at times.

At a press conference, LGU Head of Operations, Susan Simpson, said: “It`s still going to be windy tomorrow. Not hopefully as windy as it`s been today, but there`s no let up in it. So tomorrow morning, it`s still going to be very breezy and equally difficult conditions.

“This is a major championship and every endeavour will be made to finish 72 holes. So if we need to go to Monday, then we`ll go to Monday.”