Hull leads the way as wind wreaks havoc at St Andrews

“I don't know how it was playable to be honest,” admitted the LPGA Tour winner after a torrid 79 that was rent asunder by the 40mph blasts.

“We were on 11, our second hole, and our balls were moving. My ball moved twice before I putted.”

Dryburgh’s assault may have been blown off course, but others revelled in the wuthering examination. It was a punishing, yet gratifying exercise that was a bit like a golfing 50 Shades of Grey.

“I looked out of my hotel window at 5am, it was a blowing a gale and I was like, ‘that’s great’,” grinned the 2018 AIG Women’s Open champion, Georgia Hall after a spirited one-under 71 which finished with the flourish of an eagle two on her closing hole. 

“I play in America a lot, and to me it's more of a wooden form of golf. This is natural, raw golf.”

China’s Ruoning Yin certainly looked at home in it. At one point, after three birdies in a row on her inward half, she was six-under and on course to assemble one of the truly great Old Course rounds. 

A couple of late bogeys left her with a four-under 68 but it was still a splendid effort in the toughest of the conditions.

That score stood alone at the top for yonks until England’s Charley Hull marched in at about 7:30pm with a 67 to pinch the lead during a flurry of late activity in the fading light of the Auld Grey Toun.

The 28-year-old, who was runner-up in the championship last season, manoeuvred herself into a tie at the top with a birdie on the 15th before coming close to holing her second shot with a dinky pitch on the last.

Her six-footer for a birdie gave her the outright lead at the end of an exhausting round that had taken over six hours and included a thumb-twiddling 30-minute wait on the 11th tee.

Hull took it all in her laid-back stride, though. “I had a bet with my caddie and I said, ‘I reckon it'll take six and a half’,” smiled Hull. “He said, ‘no way, five hours 30’. I was right.”

As for the aforementioned Yin? Well, forget, ahem, Ruoning against the wind. Yin embraced it. 

“I tried to make the wind my friend,” said the 21-year-old, who became just the second golfer from China to win a major when she landed the Women’s PGA Championship last season.

With all the fancy gadgets and gizmos that are available these days, Yin revealed that she regularly plays the Old Course on a simulator. “It’s quite different playing it in person,” she chuckled.

The highlight of Yin’s round was undoubtedly her birdie on the formidable Road Hole 17th where she hit a superbly executed 7-iron into five-feet and rolled in the putt.

“My favourite birdie of the year,” she added with a smile that was bigger than some of the Old Course greens. Yin for the Road Hole? She certainly deserved something to toast a good day’s work.

It was a good day too for the world No 1, Nelly Korda, who was in the same group as Hull and conjured a late surge to join Yin on the four-under mark as the wind finally began to ease up.

Korda, who won six titles in seven starts during an astonishing run earlier in the season, made a cracker of a birdie on the 17th when she fired a “controlled” 5-iron into seven-feet. Another gain on the last gilded the lily.

“The last three, four holes, it (the wind) died down and I was able to be a little bit more aggressive,” said the 26-year-old.

The strength of the wind may have given Jenny Shin some early heebie-jeebies, but the Korean showed her resolve with a 69 which included an eagle on the 14th and left her in a log-jam on three-under.

“The ball was wobbling on the tee and a lot of us were thinking, ‘how are we going to play?’,” she said of that opening shot.

Lilia Vu, the defending champion, was more than happy with her three-under 69 while Scottish veteran Catriona Matthew, making her final AIG Women’s Open appearance, signed for a 77. 

“There’s always hope until Friday and all the scores are in,” she said of her chances of making the cut."