Picture the sweet, pastoral scene. It is high summer at the Open and the links are glistening. The dune grasses sway in the humid air. Some golf fans, sweating amid the human stampede, are gorging on ice-creams. It is a hot, classic British July day.

“A raspberry ripple, sir?”

“Yes, please.”

This was not Royal Birkdale yesterday. Nor will it be Royal Birkdale today. But it may be at the weekend, or so the cruel rumour goes. Until then it is time to zip up the waterproofs and try to stave off the summer chill. Most golfers here were dressed as if they were going climbing in the Cairngorms.

Expert View

It was hard to describe Lyle's behaviour as anything other than bad manners. It was ill-advised and disrespectful to the organisers

John Hopkins

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Times Archive, 1983: Tom Watson's five-pointed star

Watson won the Open at Birkdale with characteristic courage, emulating Peter Thomson's five titles

• Trevino, the champion who just loves to play golf

• Thomson's fifth victory his greatest

• Palmer's power too much for Open golf field

Birkdale braced for the worst

Gale-force winds and rain threaten to leave the Open in tatters as players criticise "unplayable" course

• Hardy few hold heads up high at Birkdale

• Players cut up rough over Birkdale tees

• Greg Norman in his element after 'fairest' test

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• Justin Rose's Open diary

• Today's tee times

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What was it that Tom Watson famously said at the 1994 Open at Turnberry about the secret of taming the elements? “In this tournament you have to learn to make the wind your friend,” the American, who claimed the last of his five Open victories at Birkdale in 1983, said. At the time, his words sounded mystical, as if he were touching a theological truth. Yesterday, as Lee Westwood, the Englishman, and K.J. Choi, of South Korea, were being battered by the wind, there was no time to think about anything except standing upright on the tee.

Westwood was four over par after three holes, watched his ball blown off the 6th green as he lined up a putt and was out in 40, six over par, before salvaging a round of 75. “That's about as hard as I can remember it for an Open,” he said. “You couldn't have it much worse than this or else the balls would start moving on the greens and we'd all be here til next Tuesday.”

Just to spice things up a little, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has decided that some holes should be almost impossible to play. Take Birkdale's 6th hole, a 499-yard par-four into the wind. Yesterday, player upon player pounded along, wildly lashing at their second shots, like lumberjacks attacking trees, in the vain hope of reaching the green. The hole claimed victim after victim, such as Phil Mickelson, the world No2 from the United States, who had a triple-bogey seven.

When Watson spoke of the wind, he was referring to breeze, not the sort of spiteful gusts that zipped around Birkdale yesterday. On the 11th, for instance, playing into the wind, Choi struck a three-iron a mere 145 yards, while Ben Curtis hit a five-iron all of 125 yards. In the new age of powerful hitting, these were pitiful.

Curtis, remember him? The 2003 Open champion could not have provoked less excitement if he had wandered in off the street. Curtis is not a name that has gone down in Open folklore and, having received his muted applause at the 1st, the American hit his drive out of bounds before recording a triple-bogey seven, to be followed by a double-bogey six at the 2nd on his way to a 78.

Westwood, however, suffered the greatest absurdity, lining up that putt on the 6th before his ball was blown back down the hill. There was some sort of moral justice when he chipped in. “I was looking at a 20-foot putt but had to pitch in from 30 yards,” Westwood said. “I'd say the course today was just about playable, but it can't get any worse.”