The 144th Open: Day three suspended but play set for 6pm restart

Strong winds have caused play to be suspended in the 144th Open at St Andrews and a restart is not expected before 6pm.

The delay has also led the R&A to announce that the tournament will now finish on Monday for just the second time in its history, with the third round to be played on Sunday.

A three-hour delay for heavy rain on Friday meant 42 players - including leader Dustin Johnson and calendar year Grand Slam-chaser Jordan Spieth - returned at 7am on Saturday to finish off.

But, with gusts up to 45mph, there was an obvious immediate problem, particularly on exposed parts of the course like the 11th green.

And it was evident the wind was having a major effect when Johnson returned to where he had left his ball in front of the 14th green.

He chunked his chip but, somewhat naively, he was slow to get to it and, just as he went to place his marker behind the ball, the wind blew it back off the green, resulting in a bogey to drop him back to nine under and tied with Yorkshire's Danny Willett, who finished his round on Friday.

Playing partner Spieth left his birdie putt short at the same hole and took an angry full swing with his putter before offering up a few choice words.

Television cameras then picked up this year's Masters and US Open champion saying: "We should never have started."

The group at the 11th had the most difficulty and were unable to even attempt a putt because the balls were moving so much, causing a back-up on the tee behind them, and it prompted R&A officials to confer and eventually suspend play at 7.32am.

With no change in the strength of the wind, it will be late afternoon at the earliest before they can return.

"Wind speeds have still not dropped to acceptable levels, and the intention is to resume play at 5pm. A further update will be issued at 4pm," read an R&A statement.

Lee Westwood, playing in his 21st Open, believes part of the problem is the way the greens have been prepared.

"I wouldn't say this is a particularly strong wind for a links course. You should be able to play in 40mph winds," he told Open TV. "When you do set the greens so fast this is likely to happen, especially on exposed greens.

"I don't think we are going to play before three or four o'clock."

R&A director of rules and equipment standards David Rickman explained the process they went through before taking the decision to start play.

"We went out to the area in question, particularly the 7th and 11th green, and were there from 6am monitoring wind speed and how the ball on the green was reacting," he said.

"While it was challenging and very windy we weren't seeing any particular problems.

"What has been verified by subsequent forecasting is we saw an increase in gust speeds from the high 30s (mph) into the 40s, which was the tipping point."