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Georgia Hall glanced out of her hotel window at 5am on Thursday, witnessing the chaos ahead on what developed into a torturous day one at the AIG Women’s Open. The howling winds swirling around St Andrews delivered a harrowing experience for the best women golfers in the world at the Old Course.
Yet despite 36mph gusts, and oscillating balls on tee boxes and greens, Hall relished the challenge and, eventually, defeated the Old Course, hosting its first Women’s Open since 2013. She shot a one-under-par first round, leaving her three behind early leader Ruoning Yin, thanks to a thrilling finale, which allows her to dream of what’s possible on Sunday.
Her patience to that point had been tested to the limit: Hall could be seen backing off putts, including a menacing par save on the fourth moments after watching the favourite, Ayaka Furue, three-putt.
But as the day one finish line approached, Hall opted for a daring strategy, delivering one crushing blow from 327 yards with the driver on the ninth, her 18th of the day. The ball trickled onto the green and her delicate putt clinched a memorable eagle to leap into the red on one under, clinching the perfect start for the 2018 champion.
“I looked out my hotel room and I can see the range, the flags on the range and that’s a good indicator for me,” Hall recalled with a record $9.5m (£7.26m) on the line this week and $1.425m to the winner. “They were blowing a gale, and I was like, that’s great. Hope it stays like that.
“I hardly get to play like this. I play in America a lot, and to me it’s more of a wooden form of golf. This is natural, raw golf.”
Yet many of Hall’s fellow players were left scowling at the exposed Old Course. The R&A had agonised over the course set-up this week, resisting the temptation to implement even more fiendishly difficult greens to prevent the risk of balls failing to stop and play being suspended.
“The putting’s difficult,” Catriona Matthew explained after shooting 77. “You start aiming left hoping the wind is going to take it and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.”
A defiant Gemma Dryburgh, having settled for a seven-over round of 79, added: “I’m OK. Just a bit blown away. It was hard. My ball was blowing off the tee. It was blowing on the fairway. It was tough.”
There was an early warning sign from Furue, bidding for a second major of the year after triumphing at the Evian Championship, with a crushing treble bogey on 12, just her third hole of the day, which saw her slip back to +4.
The diminutive Japanese star battled and could be seen huddling alongside her caddy with a large black jacket draped over her shoulders between shots. Three birdies limited the damage before she walked off the course with a three-over round of 75.
But as the early starters floundered, including Lexi Thompson (+4), Miyu Yamashita (+4), Haeran Ryu (+6), China’s Yin fizzed and raced into a dominant lead. Having reached an intimidating target at -6, Yin slightly stumbled coming home, holding on for a four-under round of 68 to defy the conditions, as abandoned caps danced across the fairways.
“It’s definitely some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever played in for sure,” Hall concluded. “Just thankful it wasn’t raining because I would say it’s… I mean, you couldn’t even read the greens because you had to think about where the wind was actually going.
“Probably up there with the windiest I’ve ever played in. Yeah, it was a struggle for sure, like mentally very, it was such a battle.
“But I love those conditions, whether I play bad or not, I much prefer, like this is a true Women’s Open like this, and I believe that’s how it should be every day; and that’s part of the battle with the weather, and I just tried to make the most out of that out there.”
A star-studded afternoon wave included Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Charley Hull and Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko.
