Dry conditions on course lead to slow play at British Open

By CHRIS LEHOURITES
AP Sports Writer

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — The dry conditions at the British Open turned a beautiful day for golf into a long slog for many of the players. The moderate temperature and average wind during the first round on the east coast of Scotland combined to make the dry fairways lightning fast. That in turn made play ploddingly slow. Rory McIlroy says “there’s a lot of crisscrossing and waiting on other greens and waiting on greens to clear because the drivable par 4s.” The Old Course has many shared greens and even some shared fairways. The seventh hole doglegs right across the middle of the 11th. Both pins are on the same green.