How Fast Are The Greens At St Andrews For The AIG Women's Open?
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has explained why the greens have been slowed down at St Andrews for the AIG Women's Open
![AIG Women's Open trophy at St Andrews](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YBibrq2foFRhzkUaeFLTjX-415-80.jpg)
With the wind whipping across the Old Course at St Andrews, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers says precautions have been taken to ensure the greens remain playable at the AIG Women's Open.
The world's best female golfers are tackling the home of golf this week, and are getting the full St Andrews experience due to the blustery conditions.
Consistent wind will be a problem all week, but with strong gusts of up to 45mph also cropping up, there was the prospect of golf balls being moved on the putting surfaces - which could cause a stoppage in play.
But R&A officials have been keen to avoid that, so took the decision before the opening round teed off to leave a bit of length on the greens to avoid the wind blowing golf balls.
And the plans seemed to have worked according to former champion Georgia Hall after completing her first round.
"I was a bit worried a few times but I think the R&A are very clever with letting the greens be a bit slower so the balls weren’t rolling,2 said Hall "I think if they cut them to a certain length, we would have to stop. So credit to the R&A for that."
After the greens were rolling at just 9'7 on the stimpmeter on Wednesday, Slumbers explained their plans for the tournament due to the weather.
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"We have slowed the golf course down quite a bit," Slumbers said ahead of the first round.
"We've raised the height of cut on the greens. We've put a bit of water on them to help them grow a little bit. We've got some pretty good ideas about where we can put the pins to actually protect it as much as we possibly can.
"Most importantly, we will set it up in a way that the players can play. The good news is the wind is forecast all four days to come from pretty much the same quadrant, so we know where we can put the pins to give them some room.
"I think the best players in the world want a bit of a hard challenge. I just hope it doesn't blow so hard that we can't play. I think some of you will well remember 2015. The wind was making the balls move on 13 at that point. The exposed greens are out at 11, 12, 13. It would be balls moving and therefore that we can't play.
"The rules of golf that we changed in 2019 are going to help an awful lot here because once the ball is marked on the green, that's its position. That's the big fear."
Slumbers did add, though, that they would keep an eye on the weather and if the wind subsided they would think about speeding the greens up again.
“We can speed them up quite quickly," he added. "These are great greens. We know how to speed them up.”
There's also the rare sight of split tees in operation at St Andrews, which Slumbers explained was due to the later date of the AIG Women's Open this year.
"So the reason we went to split tees was driven by the fact that this championship is two weeks later than we would ideally have had it," said Slumbers.
"Everyone has just come back from the Olympics, so we have less daylight, so we start later and we finish earlier than we would have done, and the two tees is the lowest rink way of getting round in the light that we're going to have through Sunday.
"So it was a daylight issue, and I'm pleased we're doing it given what we're going to face."
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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