Winds delay Open start

More strong winds forced a delay to the start of the final round at The 3 Irish Open in Baltray today.

Instead of play resuming at 7.30am the draw was re-arranged so the players teed off on the first and 10th holes from 9.40am.

That meant no change to the start time for leaders Robert Rock and Offaly amateur Shane Lowry.

They were due to resume at 11.30am on 16 under, two clear of Swede Johan Edfors.

Huge crowds were expected to descend on Baltray this morning for the Open's final day.

Bad weather and a prolonged suspension of play yesterday meant there were fewer spectators than had been expected.

But those that remained to watch in the afternoon witnessed Lowry continue his sensational progress.

The 22-year-old is in a two-way tie at the top of the leaderboard on 16 under par.

His achievements so far have been filling newspapers' sports pages around the world, but Lowry said he hasn't been distracted by all the attention he's attracting.

There are new parking arrangements in place for spectators attending the event today.

Drivers heading north on the M1 are advised to take Junction 11 for Monasterboice, while those heading south should take Junction 10 for Drogheda North.

From there, all traffic will be diverted to supervised car parking, where a free park-and-ride system has been put in place operating to and from Baltray.