Matthew Southgate stepped before the microphones at Royal Troon and ran a hand through his hair, looking like a man who'd just survived a dozen nightmares. Asked to size up the conditions at the British Open Friday, a weary Southgate didn't hold back.
"I need to lie down in a dark room," he sighed. "It's brutal out there. That's one of the toughest experiences I've had on a golf course. It was crosswinds everywhere and pins on the same side where the wind was coming from. It's just so, so difficult. It was like survival golf, really."
Weather conditions at the British Open are dicey even in the best of circumstances, and Friday at Royal Troon was, as the players attested afterward, some of the worst of circumstances.