Wind suspends play at Women's British Open

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HOYLAKE, England, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- High winds led organizers to cancel Friday's scheduled play at the Women's British Open, leaving Haeji Kang and Ryu So-yeon tied for the lead.

Kang and Ryu each shot 2-under-par 70 Thursday in the tournament's first round. They are one stroke ahead of a group of nine players while 17 others completed the first round at even par.

The second round began Friday but winds as high as 60 mph forced suspension of play. Winds were so stiff that balls were moving on the fairway and blown off tees. One player saw a 10-inch putt moved into a 6-foot attempt by the wind.

Players who began Friday will have those results scrubbed and begin the second round over Saturday morning.

"The competitors began their round in extremely adverse weather conditions and conditions subsequently worsened despite our belief that they would remain stable," tournament Director Susan Simpson said in a statement. "It would have been unfair to those competitors not to declare play null and void and cancel all scores for the round in question."

Organizers haven't set a schedule for the rest of the tournament with cutting the event to 54 holes, playing 36 holes on Sunday or moving the final round to Monday all possibilities.