Rain threatens British Open final round

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland, July 22 (Reuters) Heavy rain today which flooded greens and bunkers at Carnoustie, raised the possibility of a suspension to the final round of the 136th British Open.

The Royal and Ancient (R&A) organisers of the major said they were ''monitoring the situation and staying in direct consultation with the metreological office'', at midday (1100 GMT) as rain continued to fall.

Play cannot continue if areas around the flags are totally surrounded by water, or if bunkers are completely filled, because of the problem of finding a spot to play the ball under the rules of golf.

The R&A press officer Stewart McDougall told Reuters: ''If the areas where the pin positions are have been completely flooded we could have a problem.

''That will have been taken into consideration, though, when the pin positions were decided, in view of the likelihood of bad weather. The pins have been set higher to try to combat the weather.'' Carnoustie's weather forecast predicted for early afternoon was ''cloudy, mostly dry but with a 40 percent chance of light rain showers at first''.

In 1988, the British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes went into an extra day (on the Monday) after Saturday's play was wiped out by deluges. Seve Ballesteros went on to win.

The rain was forecast to have improved by the time leader Sergio Garcia was scheduled to tee off at 1420 (1320 GMT) local time.

Reuters BJR RS1731