Strong winds have spoilt Inbee Park’s historic Home of Golf drive to win four straight majors in the same year.

The winds forced a suspension at 12.31pm local time leaving still 19 players to tee up on the famed Old Course at St. Andrews.

Gusts of 50 miles per hour were recorded on The Old Course at St Andrews.  Sunday’s forecast is for partly sunny skies with temperatures of 22C and breezy conditions as winds will blow 15-20 miles per hour with gusts to 25 miles per hour at times.

At a press conference, LGU Head of Operations, Susan Simpson, said: “It’s still going to be windy tomorrow.  Not hopefully as windy as it’s been today, but there’s no let‑up in it.  So tomorrow morning, it’s still going to be very breezy and equally difficult conditions.

“This is a major championship and every endeavor will be made to finish 72 holes. So if we need to go to Monday, then we’ll go to Monday.”

Play is scheduled to resume at 6:15 a.m. local time on Sunday with seven groups still to tee off in the third round, scheduled to finish by 11.30am.

There will be no re-draw and round four is scheduled to start at approx 8am with the last group off at approximately 1.40pm, in order to meet the original last putt time of 5.50pm on Sunday.

Park was among 50 players who managed to start her round and she had played just four holes, including grabbing a birdie at the third hole, when play was halted.

It took her to three under par but still seven shots from the lead.

The only action on day three of the 2013 Ricoh Women’s British Open was the Mersey Beatles entertaining fans at the Home of Golf. (Photo – Stuart Adams/www.golftourimages.com)

Players did not return to the course and with officials calling a halt to any further play on day three and announcing the third round will recommence at 6.15am local time Sunday and with the fourth round hopefully to be played later the same day.

Heading field is South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi who carded a fine five under par 67 to grab a one shot halfway lead.

The 25 year-old from Seoul goes into her third round on ten under par 134 and with a one shot lead over Japan’s Miki Saiki who took advantage of the calmer morning condition on Friday by posting a 66 for a 36-hole aggregate of 135.

Joint first round  leader, American Morgan Pressel, added a two under par 70 to her opening 66 to finish the first two rounds on 8-under par 146, while South Korea’s Jee Young Lee and Norway’s Suzann Pettersen both carded five under par 67s to share 4^th place with Nicole Castrale one shot further back on 137.

Choi – who is known on Tour as NYC or the Big Apple – missed the cut at last year’s Ricoh Women’s British Open at Hoylake but showed she is more than capable of handling treacherous links conditions with a battling round in which she carded six birdies and dropped just one shot on the 353-yard par-4 7^th.

The 2012 US Women’s Open champion began her round with birdies on the 370-yard par-4 3^rd and the 561-yard par-5 5^th where she holed from 40-feet across the green. She went on to post further birdies on 369-yard par-4 6^th and the 254-yard par-3 8^th to go out in three under par 33 and then against the wind coming home recorded 7 pars and a brace of birdies on the 314-yard 12^th and the 414-yard par-4 15^th where she sank a 35-foot putt from the fringe.

“I’m very satisfied with the last two rounds,” said Choi. “Yesterday was good and today was even better because the course was playing at least 3 or 4 shots harder.

“I’d say the par out there was 74 or 75,” she added. “I don’t think I could have shot lower than 67. I missed a couple of birdie putts today but I also made some long ones. My focus was very good and my caddie helped a lot.”