Well, we had been warned. This was one of those brutally appalling days that would have had the hardy souls who had turned up to watch the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open forming a drookit queue to demand a refund on their free admission.

As the quite fearsome torrents came hurtling down during a thoroughly miserable morning, there was so much water swilling and sploshing around The Renaissance, you half expected to peer out on to the sodden links and see Poseidon and Neptune working out a yardage into the seventh.

Throw in violent gusts of wind and the grisly elements had the potential to wreck more cards than an explosion at a Clintons store.

Amid the general doom and gloom, the grande dame of women’s golf, Laura Davies, weathered the storm with a vintage display of guile and grit as she harnessed the elements with a three-under 68 to comfortably make the cut on a two-under aggregate. She even illuminated affairs with a hole in one on the short fifth.

Glasgow Times:

It was quite the show. A week ago, in the Women’s British Open, the celebrated, decorated 55-year-old missed the cut and finished last after rounds of 82 and 75. This spirited resurgence was something of a redemption for the four time major winner who continues to be sustained by an unwavering love for competition and refuses to surrender to the increasing years.

That resolve has been tested this year, mind you. In 11 LPGA Tour events prior to this week, Davies hadn’t made a single cut.

“It’s been a horrible year,” said the bold Davies, who played without a waterproof jacket on yesterday and looked like she had just been birled round a non-colourfast wash cycle when she emerged for a post-round chin-wag.

“I know it sounds pathetic at this stage of my career but I’m really pleased to have made the cut. The reason I’m here is because I still think I’m a decent golfer.

“People say ‘oh you’re a rubbish golfer now, you should give up and commentate’. Last week, finishing stone last, that’s the first time that’s ever happened. After that you doubt yourself a bit but I know I can still hit the shots and today I proved that.

“This was probably the second best round I’ve ever shot. I had a 66 in Canada years ago in similar cond-itions but this was as close as I could get to it. It was horrific out there.”

Not long after Davies had marched in, a suspension of some two-and-a-half hours kicked in. That left all and sundry huddling for shelter, twiddling their thumbs and enjoying a delightful, morale-boosting buffet in the clubhouse before the sun came out, the wind died down and the earth started spinning again. The luck of the draw eh?

The later starters certainly prospered with Korea’s Mi Jung Hur, a double winner on the LPGA Tour, showing what could be achieved with a sizzling nine-under 62 which propelled her on to 14-under and into a two-shot lead over Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn, the sister of defending champion Ariya.

As Jung Hur went on the offensive, Carly Booth benefited from being in her playing partner’s slipstream and moved up to the fringes of the top-10 with a 67 for a five-under total.

“She killed it,” said the 2012 champion of the Korean’s effort. “When you see that, it kind of makes you want to play good golf too.” She did.