Strong wind and rain affected the final practice day for the 2010 Open Championship on the Old Course today. The eagerly awaited Champions Challenge celebrating the 150th anniversary of the championship had to be cancelled due to the weather.
The event had been due to feature 25 of the living Open Champions and Peter Thomson who was to act as a non-playing captain. However the difficult weather conditions showed no sign of abating in the afternoon and the R&A was forced to cancel the event. Each of the past champions including the likes of Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Roberto de Vicenzo, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Tom Watson were to have been presented with certificates granting them the Freedom of St Andrews Links. The presentation was also cancelled but the players received their certificates in private.
Many of the players and spectators braved the stormy conditions to hone their games before the championship gets underway tomorrow morning. Among those was Watson who expressed his admiration for the "unique" challenge presented by the Old Course and in particular the challenging double greens that are such a recognisable feature at the Home of Golf.
"I have said that many times before," commented Watson. "The lag putting here is crucial because you are going to have a lot of long putts on these greens. You can't play to the pin positions, you have to play to the sides of them. So then a good shot is 30 feet to the side and that's a perfect distance. An average shot is going to be 50-60 feet away and a bad shot is going to be 80-100 feet away so you had better be pretty good."
For images from today's final practice day please click here.