In the air, on the ground, wind wreaks havoc at Royal Birkdale

SOUTHPORT, England -- Edge of the sea, the edge of unplayable, not to mention the edge of our seats.

Three pretty good reasons why the third major championship of 2008 has been as riveting as any British Open in years, even without a certain somebody in the field.

Anthony Kim is among the many players to encounter problems on the 10th hole. (AP)

It used to be that the U.S. Open provided the biggest white-knuckle ride in professional golf. But that was before the officials in the States began gulping beta blockers or whatever meds they use to take the edge off their historically bad mood.

Saturday at the 137th Open, as tournament officials tried to wrestle with the uncontrollable, Royal Birkdale and a teeth-chattering breeze blew nearly everybody away.

At times, it bordered on farcical, even though the host Royal & Ancient made several key adjustments in the setup to address the weather forecast. However, gusts up to 48 mph coming off the hypothermia-inducing Irish Sea made even the simplest acts a major-championship misadventure.

You know, like, putting.

"I thought it was probably one of the toughest conditions to putt in I've ever experienced, it really was," defending Open champion Padraig Harrington said. "There was no sense of preparation over any putt. By the time you got over it, you still hadn't got any clarity in the line.

"You still hadn't got any clarity in how hard you were going to hit it because you weren't sure what the wind was going to do to it."

Claret Jug clarity was missing across the board and chaos ruled the day. Well, that and Greg Norman, who called it one of the three toughest rounds he had ever played, given the circumstances and weather conditions.

The entire field seconded the motion. Delays in play were so plentiful, the 10th hole became a parking lot -- unless you were driving a golf ball, at which point it was a NASCAR speedway.

Though R&A officials didn't double-cut or roll the greens overnight as a concession to the predicted winds, and even moved the flags into more accessible areas, the greens were as slick as the mousse in Phil Mickelson's hair.

Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson stood, equally parts angry and amused, eyeing his ball in a pot bunker alongside the 10th fairway. Every time he got close to it, it moved, the wind was whistling through the sand so fiercely.

Wisely, rather than risk a penalty having the ball move at address, he backed off and waited. And waited. Finally, he said an official waived the rule and told him that if the ball moved after he addressed it, he would not be penalized.