What a nutty day of rain, followed by high winds, followed by an hour and five minute play suspension and more wind. The wind gauges came out (see right image), though the real issue was on the greens where balls weren't remaining in place.
Miles Evans reporting for Reuters, quoting the R&A's David Rickman:
"We certainly had problems at 12, 13, 10, seven, the odd ball oscillating happens, but when we have a series of incidents I'm afraid that's the time (to halt play)," the Royal and Ancient's director of rules David Rickman told the BBC. "All we can do is monitor the wind so we're trying to establish when there's a drop and when that happens we'll seek to resume play when we can. Sadly the forecast is for it to stay windy until early evening."
After the delay I headed to the epicenter of trouble, the wondrous 7th and 11th greens and saw some epic shots, from a few 150 foot putts down on the seventh up to the eleventh green (all three putts). And then there was Ross McGowan trying the same distance with a four iron. He ended up taking four shots from there (I guess it's technically a four putt.)
I can't emphasize enough just how brutal the wind was out on the point, far more stiff a breeze than what we experienced up by the clubhouse. (For a fun account of some of the shots we saw, check out Dan Mirocha's rundown of the action at 7/11.)
Still, it was a shock that play was suspended when it was but not later on when some gusts had to be over 35 mph and players on eleven were struggling to keep their ball in place. Of course in the U.S. we'd just throw some water on them and continue play. But I think you also have to admire the R&A for not resorting to that as tough as it is to suspend play. No one feels good about altering the playing field artificially with water.
That said, the question that will be asked: what was the difference before and after the suspension? I'm not sure there was one.