Never mind form guide, check the weather

GOLF:GIVEN this was the 140th edition of the tournament, there were a few British Opens in the past that, well, we just don't know what the weather was like. But crikey, for those squalls that blew across on the final day you can only say that for once we could feel some sympathy for the professionals, even with their hand warmers.

The prescient in this week’s group of would-be Chubby Chandlers probably looked at the links, the country and the possible weather. One of the lasting images of the weekend at Royal St George’s was, aside from the plump 608 points Darren Clarke contributed to his team, that heroic figure of Rickie Fowler, all tucked up and waiting for his ball to stop oscillating while he hovered over a putt on the back nine.

Determined not to ground his club, the orange jump-suited Californian addressed the ball at least half a dozen times before he was able to tap in. We doff our oversized caps to the 22-year-old’s handling of the tempest.

Had our managers gone for selecting from the list of in-form players, few would have had Fowler (although he finished a fine 14th in his debut at St Andrews in 2010) in the team, or, for that matter, Darren Clarke. They might not have had Phil Mickelson or Tommy Bjorn, as the BBC commentary was fond of calling him.

Rory McIlroy, Robert Karlsson, Charl Schwartzel, Jamie Donaldson, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson were the top 10 performing players over the last 30 days. Alas none but Johnson were in the final group mix of possible winners on the final day.

Weather was, and always is, the in-built unknown for links golf but despite the weekend’s ripping gales, spare a thought for those who lined up in 1988 at Royal Lytham, when the rain came down so hard on the final day they couldn’t play because the course was flooded, the first time since 1960 that they had lost a day.

The moral? Well for this week’s Canadian Open and Scandinavian Masters take as close a look at the weather as much as the form guide.