ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The grand pursuit of Jordan Spieth, redemption for Dustin Johnson, the mystery that has become Tiger Woods. It all came to a momentary halt Friday in the gloaming of St. Andrews when Tom Watson said goodbye to the British Open.
Watson, the most prolific winner of golf’s oldest championship in the last century, finished his 129th round with lights from the Royal & Ancient clubhouse illuminating the 18th green. The five-time champion made bogey. The score was irrelevant.
Everything else about this wet and wild second round remained unsettled.
A heavy downpour at dawn flooded the Old Course and disrupted the start by more than three hours. Johnson and Spieth teed off shortly before 6 p.m. and were headed in different directions when it was too dark to continue.
In swift, shifting weather — umbrellas on one hole, sunglasses on the next — Johnson made three birdies in four holes on the front nine and built a two-shot lead before he made his first bogey of the tournament. He three-putted on the par-3 11th in wind so severe he had to back off a 4-foot putt and wipe his eyes.
Johnson was at 10-under par.
Spieth three-putted for bogey three times in 11 holes to offset three birdies and was five shots behind Johnson, whom he beat by one shot in the U.S. Open last month to capture the second leg of the Grand Slam.
Both were just short on the par-5 14th hole in two shots when they chose to mark their golf balls and return at 7 a.m. Saturday to resume the round.
“I’m in a good spot,” Johnson said. “Definitely got very tricky this afternoon, all day. Even the front side, the wind was howling and it was blowing straight left-to-right pretty much. It played very tough all day.”
And then there was Woods, headed toward the wrong kind of history. Barring a burst of birdies when he returns Saturday morning — the kind of form he has not shown in two years — he was likely to miss the cut in the U.S. Open and the British Open for the first time in the same year. Woods was 5 over with seven holes to play.
Adam Scott was at 7-under 137, along with Zach Johnson (71), Marc Warren (69) and Robert Streb (71).
Thumbnail photo via Ian Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports Images
