Spectators at the 150th Open can expect a bright and mostly dry weekend as sunny skies are forecast in St Andrews. The Open Championship is taking place from Thursday July 14 to Sunday July 17.
With 156 golfers descending on the historic Old Course, a record crowd of 290,000 spectators will join them. For now it appears that the weather may just play along, with only light rain forecast by the Met Office.
A 50% chance of light rain is forecast for St Andrews from around 5 o'clock today, Thursday. On Friday there’s a 30% chance of scattered showers early in the morning, which are forecast to dry up before 11am.
The professionals will likely be glad to hear that the high temperatures of the past week’s heatwave across the UK has cooled for the moment. Temperatures are expected to stay between 18C to 19C for the most part, with a cloudy day on Sunday bringing up to 23C heat in the late afternoon.
Overall the weekend is predicted to be relatively still with consistent winds not exceeding 14mph, and gusts of 21mph. Thursday will be the calmest day.
Royal & Ancient Golf Club chief executive Martin Slumbers told the Golf Channel : “Mother Nature at the moment is not destined to give us any rain and probably not going to give us as much wind as we like. But we’ve got other ways of being able to set up the golf course.”
Thursday July 14
The day will see a cloudy start, with temperatures at around 15C. Come midday temperatures will rise to a maximum of 17C, with a 50% chance of light rain forecast by the Met Office for around an hour at 5pm. Wind speeds are not expected to exceed 14mph, with gusts of up to 21mph.
Friday July 15
It will be a drizzly start to the day with scattered showers expected from 6am. There’s a 50% to 60% chance of rain between 6am and 8am. From 9am to 11am there’s a 30% chance of rain forecast for St Andrews. It is expected to be dry for the remainder of the day.
Temperatures will not exceed a moderate 18C, with lows of 13C in the early morning. Wind will reach a top speed of 10mph before 10am, it will then tail off to lows of 6mph, the Met Office predicts.
Saturday July 16
Saturday will see top temperatures of 19C and lows of 14C, with cloud and sunny intervals expected. It is not likely to rain and wind speeds will not exceed 11mph, with wind gusts of 21mph, the Met Office forecasts.
Sunday July 17
Sunday could see the weekend’s highest temperature of 23C. Despite the warmer temperatures cloudy skies are expected all day, with wind speeds not exceeding 11mph and wind gusts of up to 21mph.
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