Crowd aim met despite weather chaos at Castle Stuart
OVER 16,000 golf fans were at Castle Stuart to witness world number one Luke Donald win the Barclays Scottish Open.
The highest attendance figure of the event meant organisers met their target of attracting more than 50,000 people to the links course, near Inverness.
It was surpassed on the final day despite there being a recorded attendance of zero for Saturday's washout - where no competitive action took place.
Tournament director Peter Adams told The Invernes Courier before today's play: "If we get over the course of the Pro-Am and four tournament days somewhere around 50,000 people then we should be absolutely delighted as it's the first time we've come to Castle Stuart - that would be a great result for us."
Staff worked tirelessly from Friday evening to this morning to ensure the event was not a complete washout.
Play was suspended mid-afternoon on Friday due to the threat of lightning and did not resume until 7am today.
A hundred millimetres of rain fell on the course during Saturday, causing landslides and the course to be deemed unplayable despite ongoing attempts to get some golf played.
But the task of dealing with twice the average rainfall for the entire month of July coming within 24 hours proved too much.
Hardwork throughout ensured play could finally re-start and fans were not left disappointed.
Attendance figures -
Pro-Am (Weds): 8,055
Round one (Thurs): 11,835
Round two (Fri): 15,323
No play (Sat): zero
Round two/three: 16,127
* Luke Donald crowned king of Castle
