Wind causes Hoylake chaos

The final major of the season descended into farce at windswept Hoylake yesterday when players at the Ricoh Women’s British Open found themselves battling conditions former winner Karen Stupples described as “laughable”.

But good sense prevailed — in gusts that reached 60mph, the second round was suspended after 78 minutes, all recorded scores were cancelled and the championship was to resume at 6.50am this morning, weather permitting.

Stupples, England’s last winner of the title in 2004, was among 48 players to tee off. Felicity Johnson, joint leader early in the first round, dropped to next-to-last on 14 over par when she ran up a quintuple bogey nine at the first, bogeyed the second and double-bogeyed the third.