Haar leaves Genesis Scottish Open playing catch up on last day in East Lothian

Play was initially halted at 10.45am on Saturday morning due to visibility issues before resuming at 1.10pm. That meant there was no chance of the penultimate circuit being completed on schedule and, by the end of the day, it was even further behind than the organisers would have hoped.

The weather, quite frankly, didn’t know what it wanted to do for the remainder of the day. At times, it looked as though it was brightening up and the temperature was rising. That haar, though, just never cleared completely. It started to roll in again around 7pm and play was suspended for the day at 7.55pm.

At that point, the final group had only played eight holes. Play will restart at 7am on Sunday, with the last circuit, which will now be played as three-balls, not starting before 10.15am.

In short, it’s turned into a bit of a guddle, but that’s golf for you when Mother Nature is involved. The good thing is that the forecast should allow the tournament to get finished close to when it was scheduled to do so.

As a result of the disruption, the leaderboard is skewed. Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick and American Michael Thorbjornsen are out in front on 11 under but have five and ten holes respectively to play.

Six players, including defending champion Chris Gotterup, 2022 winner Min Woo Lee and US Open title holder Wyndham Clark, sit on ten under, but only one has completed 54 holes. Johnny Keefer, an unknown name in Scotland but sitting inside the top 100 in the world, carded a 64 to post the clubhouse target.

Bob MacIntyre, the 2024 winner, will resume on nine under after reaching the turn in two under, with the shock on Saturday being that Rory McIlroy looked out of sorts. The 2023 champion shared the lead on nine under at the halfway stage. He’s now five off the pace, having dropped shots at the third, fifth and seventh. It would have been even more damaging if he hadn’t holed a 15-footer to save par at the eighth - his final hole of the day.

Maybe the overnight suspension will do McIlroy a favour. If he can get it back to level par by the finish of the third round, then he could still be in with a chance of landing this title again. At the same time, he won’t be wanting to head to Royal Birkdale for The 154th Open next week on the back of a disappointing weekend here.

JJ Spaun, last year’s US Open winner, was among the players who were out on the course in the morning when the haar thickened on the holes at the far end of the Tom Doak-designed course. “It was tough,” he admitted. “The first four holes are no cupcakes. It played very long, very wet. It was just hard to see even. To get through the first four holes even par was a win for me, I thought.”

Players were held in position out on the course for a while before a call was made to bring them in. “Yeah, I think the first tee shot was borderline,” replied Spaun to being asked if he felt it had been borderline. “You could barely see that bunker down the left (at the first hole) about 300 yards. It's just hard to picture the hole when you can't even see 300 yards out. But the first four holes it was okay. But then once we got to five, there was no chance.”

Earlier in the week, it had been the Costa del East Lothian as the players prepared in sun-kissed conditions and then did likewise in the opening two circuits. In contrast, this was one of those Scottish summer days that sometimes felt like it was almost winter and even hats for that time of the year had been dug out. Not everyone was complaining, though,

“I loved it. It was nice,” declared a smiling Clark. “It's hot back in the States. So overcast and minimal wind, sweater weather is always good to play golf in.”

Keefer is aiming to do a Gotterup, who was the world No 158 when he landed this title last year and, having backed that up with four more wins on the PGA Tour since then, has returned here this week sitting in the top ten in the world rankings.

“Yeah, I showed up,” said the 25-year-old of signing for seven birdies in signing for a 64. “The theme of links golf is being creative and being flexible, and understanding that things that are usually going to happen sometimes don't.

“Whether that's a good shot or whether that's just the weather, I think I had the mindset this week that anything can change, and I knew that it was going to be a little colder so I could kind of prep a little bit. Yeah, just kind of going with the flow.”

If he can continue to do so, Keefer will not only be in with a chance of landing a spectacular breakthrough win the PGA Tour but also securing one of three spots up for grabs in The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale next week. Though a bogey at the last was untimely, Calum Hill could also still be a contender in that sideshow.

Of the other players who finished their rounds, Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen birdied four of the last seven holes to card a 65 and sit on nine under, one shot ahead of American Mac Meissner following his eye-catching 64 and Englishman Matthew Armitage, who stormed to the turn in 30 before having the wind taken out of his sails by a double-bogey 7 at the 12th.

A group sitting on seven under includes FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood and three-time Dunhill Links champion Tyrrell Hatton after they both signed for 67s. Having been a model of consistency so far with 34s in each of the six nines, South African Casey Jarvis will head into the closing circuit on six under along with 2018 Open champion Francesco Molinari.

This wasn’t one of those days to remember, but there’s still time for this to go down as another cracking edition of the Genesis Scottish Open.