In Rory McIlroy's agreeable but hardly tinselled hometown of Holywood in Northern Ireland they were waiting for Russia to fly in a parcel of weather that could paralyse the British Isles. Meteorologists, or some would say soothsayers, have been queuing to predict the onset of a torment that will have its way this week in trashing the UK. It is apparently the worst sort of icy age to have destined on those parts for 13 years, a time when Tiger Woods was an amateur and McIlroy, the teenage bairn who has promoted himself particularly well here over the past few days, was in primary school. Britain tends not to cope satisfactorily with snowfall, but Dubai and its Desert Classic, is not luxuriating in the ongoing drift that it has caught. McIlroy and those other marvellous men in their nifty polo shirts, continued to fence with the fog as the second day came to a conclusion in a wholly unsatisfactory state. The cut was not set, rounds were chucked in the dark and the tournament was left as incomplete as those gory skyscrapers that envelope the Emirates Golf Club. McIlroy began his second round at the back of 5pm. At the slothful speed in which groups of professional golfers get themselves around such courses these days, he never escaped from his first nine holes. The darkness descended with its usual despairing glances. This 19th hole segment got itself to the first hole in some fine sunshine to witness the penultimate group of Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and Robert Karlsson wallop their first drives of the second round. The witching hour of 6pm was in view. Whatever this did for the golfers, it gave one time to ponder and reflect on the chaos adverse weather can dump on such gatherings. Around six hours of play have been lost in the fog, probably more than that allotment when one considers the rejigging that must occur to return a sense of decorum to a tournament. It is part of the regular deformities that etch themselves on the face of golf.
Weather has devastated nations, and altered the course of history. Golf courses remain par for the course, as simple to attack as some of the pins around here. Russian winters destroyed the ambitions of Napoleon and Hitler. A severe bout of weather can reduce men to rubble. Lee Trevino won six majors, and was also struck by lightning at the Western Open near Chicago in 1975. A time when "Super Mex" became supercharged. "I thought they would be putting me in the ground on Monday morning." He remains more in fear of his wife. Abu Dhabi is a place where the rain disintegrates in midair during its unforgiving, boiling summer, but its golf tournament has been bamboozled by heavy rain and hail. Woods will never forget his visit to Muirfield for the British Open in 2002. He is nursing an injured knee, but looked as if his hands were fighting frostbite during a typical Scottish July. Nobody will ever hear someone say to Tiger, "Well out" after a bunker shot, but this was a moment when it was easy to give sympathy to a multimillionaire player who lives a charmed life. He will never forget the third day at Muirfield, even if he surpasses Jack Nicklaus as the game's worthiest figure. In the wind and rain, Woods could not even straighten out a brolly. He was condemned to run up a card-buckling 81. It disrupted his thought process and ruined his tournament, but it is a familiar plot of havoc. The fog can depart Dubai but golf is a game in which players are constantly weathering storms. Whether on the course, or in their minds. dkane@thenational.ae
