Demanding and dreary Birkdale day leaves all feeling weary

SOUTHPORT, England -- Simon Dyson stood corrected.

He was tallying up the number of times it took him to extricate his ball from the calf-high hay near the 10th green at Royal Birkdale on a rain-slapped Thursday morning.

Is this golf weather? A bundled-up Henrik Stenson seeks some shelter. (Getty Images)

"Four," he said.

Uh, guess again, a witness said.

"Oh, sorry, five," he said.

It was easy to cut him some slack -- especially since nothing else about his day was particularly forgiving.

With the rain slanting sideways at 30 mph, it was tough to track the carnage in the morning stages of the 137th Open Championship, at least not without a calculator or a math degree from MIT.

Welcome to Birk-gale.

Dyson, a solid European Tour veteran ranked 109th in the world, was in the first group off the tee on Thursday at 6:30 a.m. He knew he was in for a long day when he looked out the window.

"It was foul from the first shot on the range till the last shot at the end," Dyson said after finishing with a 12-over 82. "The weather forecast said showers. It's my longest shower ever."

Everybody, physically and arithmetically, got a good soaking. Playing right behind him was Pat Perez, a San Diegan who said he went through three golf gloves, four towels and was still soaked to the bone. Perez also shot 82 and admitted that he basically quit two-thirds of the way through his day.

"It got to the point where I didn't care," said Perez, brutally honest as always. "It doesn't happen often. I fought and I fought and fought.

"It isn't fun. I don't think it's golf at all. My hands are so cold, everything is soaked, I couldn't hold the club. This stuff, I'm sure some people enjoy it, but I don't."