'Brutal' wind and rain lead to wild day in Bermuda

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – It took just a few minutes to realize it was going to be a unique day of golf at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship Thursday.

Having navigated two shots at his opening hole, the 350-yard, par-4 10th at Port Royal Golf Course, Matt Fitzpatrick nodded to his veteran caddie, Billy Foster, to remove the flagstick. “Oh, and can you tend my hat, too,” Fitzpatrick inquired.

You don’t want to stand over a putt just as your hat blows into the turquoise waters below.

“Brutal,” said Fitzpatrick after shooting even-par 71. “The hardest wind I’ve ever played in.”

How brutal? If you turned from watching Fitzpatrick and Nick Watney, who also removed his hat, and looked to your right, Ricky Barnes was pondering his tee shot at the 185-yard par-3 13th, a downhill shot that would have called for probably an 8-iron on a normal day.

“I hit 4-iron short (into a bunker),” laughed Barnes, who then had to hit pretty much a healthy wedge from about 35 yards.

Watney, who shot 70, had that same bunker shot and took a rip at it “because it was like hitting into a wall.”

Now it needs to be explained that wind is sort of a fixture on the landscape here in Bermuda. Remember, they did have the 2017 America’s Cup in the Great Sound, which you can see from many of Port Royal GC’s higher points, and they brought that event here for the same reason they don’t bring the Iditarod to Palm Springs.

It’s the staging, folks. It’s all about the stage.

Russell Knox had moments when he probably would have felt more comfortable trimming the spinnaker sheet for Emirates Team New Zealand than navigating Port Royal.

“We were on the front edge of the green (at the par-4 ninth) and I’ve never experienced wind that strong,” said Knox. “We were down on the ground holding an umbrella. My fingers were like cramping, I’m holding on so tight, and it was pouring as hard as it’s ever rained.”

Now golf doesn’t necessarily need wind, but even Knox, who signed for 1-over 72, conceded that it is fun to see if you can adjust your tool set. “It just activates your creativeness,” said the Scotsman, who reported hitting a few 150-yard 4-irons.

Instead of the stock pitching wedge that Barnes would have hit from 130 yards at the par-3 third, “I hit a chip 6 iron.”

And while Fitzpatrick didn’t get to leave the spectators awe-struck at the par-5 seventh, he flexed his muscles and “absolutely ripped a drive” and felt pretty good about it.

“It went 245 (yards),” he laughed. “People are going to laugh at this because they probably think it’s my normal tee shot, but I think my season average last year was like 295.

“Just shows you how strong it is.”

Countless were the number of shots that players lost control of. Richard Johnson’s tee shot at the 13th got up in the gale and went 40 yards left of the green, was never found, and he made a triple-bogey.

Watney would have hit his tee shot into a corporate tent right of the par-3 16th green – only the tent took a beating during Wednesday’s morning quick-hit storm and likely won’t be replaced. Watney took advantage and had a safe pitch down the hill and made par.

With 68 being the low score in the morning wave (Austin Eckroat and Greyson Siggs), players in the afternoon were expected to catch a bit of a break – from a steady 25 miles per hour with gusts of 35, it was predicted to diminish comfortably.

Not that Watney and Fitzpatrick were looking to stand around and debate the fickleness of golf. They had to be happy to be done, eh?

“Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely,” said Fitzpatrick.