(Belleair Beach) The Pelican Women’s Golf Championship will be cut short to 54 holes due to the heavy rains that will accompany the tropical storm Nicole and as a result it will not start until Friday at the earliest, the LPGA Tour said.
Posted at 12:07 p.m.
The cancellation of Round 1 has led to at least one unexpected development: Hye-Jin Choi has opted out, which means Atthaya Thitikul is guaranteed to earn the LPGA Tour’s Most Rookie Award this season.
The Pelican Championship is the penultimate tournament of the season. The top 60 golfers overall will advance to next week’s tournament, the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, which will offer a total prize pool of US$7 million.
Choi should have won the Pelican Championship in order to hope to be crowned rookie of the LPGA. Thitikul has scored two wins this season, and the 19-year-old Thai climbed to No. 1 in the world.
Thitikul is the second LPGA player to earn the Most Outstanding Rookie award and go No. 1 in the world in a single year. Sung Hyun Park accomplished the feat in 2017.
Maude-Aimée Leblanc, from Sherbrooke, along with her compatriots Brooke Henderson, NAFTA Sharp and Maddie Szeryk will participate in the Pelican Championship this weekend.