Pelican Women's Championship delayed to Friday, shortened to 54 holes

Vehicles drive on flooded roads in Palm Beach, Florida as Tropical Storm Nicole nears hurricane strength on Nov. 9. [UPI/YONHAP]

The 2022 Pelican Women’s Championship has been delayed by a day and cut to 54 holes with heavy rain and strong winds forecast Thursday as Tropical Storm Nicole batters Florida.

The LPGA announced on Wednesday evening, or Thursday morning in Korea, that the first day of play at the Pelican Women’s Championship, the penultimate tournament on the 2022 Tour, would be canceled. The number of holes was also cut as the start could be further delayed on Friday morning.

Tropical Storm Nicole, which strengthened to a category one hurricane on Wednesday evening, is expected to hit the east coast of Florida early on Thursday morning. With sustained 75-mile-per-hour winds, the storm has forced the closure of schools and businesses across the state.

Forecasts in Belleair, home of the Pelican Golf Club, call for one to three inches of rain and winds of up to 50 miles per hour.

The world’s top golfers are expected to take to the golf course at Pelican Golf Club once the weather clears for their last chance to rack up some points before the season wraps at next week’s CME Group Tour Championship.

The field includes nine of the top-10 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. With new No. 1 Atthaya Thitikul sitting out the penultimate event, No. 2 Ko Jin-young will enter as the top-ranked golfer.

Ko Jin-young has been struggling with a wrist injury for the last few months, failing to make the cut in two consecutive LPGA tournaments in August then sitting out tournaments for two months.

That injury resulted in Ko Jin-young losing her top spot on the world rankings on Oct. 30, nine months after she took the top spot on Jan. 31. She first reached No.1 in April of 2019 and has now spent a combined total of 152 weeks on top, just six weeks shy of Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa’s record of 158 weeks.

After this week's Pelican Women's Championship, the field will be set for the CME Group Tour Championship, the final event on the LPGA Tour this season and the culmination of the season-long points competition, the Race to the CME Globe.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]