Umbrella warfare

As the highlight of the golfing calendar the Open is usually a fantastic place to visit. Although £50 may seem like a lot for a ticket you do get a full day of golf and compared to around £40 for 90 minutes of Premiership football it seems like a pretty good deal. The atmosphere on a Thursday is normally buzzing, with an ever changing leaderboard and plenty of great golf to witness.

Today however life is not so fun for the dedicated spectators at Birkdale. With strong winds and driving rain, watching golf has become survival of the fittest. Controlling an umbrella in this wind is about as difficult as hitting a low stinger into the howling wind at the sixth.

While hanging on to your own brolly is difficult enough, avoiding the spiky weapons of others is equally as tricky. When you eventually get to an unrecognisable golfer, hidden by waterproofs and another enormous umbrella, your view is restricted by a row of 20 other people struggling to stay dry.

The dedicated followers are battling on though and are witnessing a fascinating morning of golf. Let us hope that the weather improves this afternoon so that weapons will be disengaged and the devoted fans can be rewarded.