Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson climbed within two shots of overnight leader Lorena Ochoa at the LPGA Tour Championship on Friday as rain wreaked havoc on the second round.
Rain drenched the Houstonian Golf and Country Club before dawn and the start of the second round was pushed back six hours.
A couple of hours after play began, light rain began to fall and darkness stopped play before Ochoa, who led the first round with a 66, even made it to the first tee.
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng was also stuck in the clubhouse on her overnight score of three-under. Her compatriot Amy Hung was tied 85th on four-over and playing the 15th when play was halted. Hung looks like she will miss the cut when the second round is completed, while fellow Taiwanese Candie Kung withdrew after a terrible first round on Thursday.
Gustafson, who carded a first-round 70, was four-under for the tournament through 11 holes on Friday when play was halted.
The weekend forecast is mostly favorable and officials were hoping to finish the season-ending event on today.
Ochoa, winner of the Player of the Year award the past three years, is battling South Korean Jiyai Shin for the honor this year.
Shin, already the Rookie of the Year, came into the tournament leading Ochoa in the Player of the Year race by a slim margin. Shin carded a 70 on Thursday and, like Ochoa, didn’t get a chance to start her second round on Friday. No one finished the second round.
Sweden’s Helen Alfredsson, Juli Inkster and Wendy Ward were all three-under on the course.
The players were allowed to lift, clean and place because of the wet conditions.
“The greens were really wet out there,” Inkster said. “I thought they left us out there too long, but that’s just my opinion. I played good, but I usually do in wet conditions.”
Doug Brecht, the LPGA Tour vice president of rules and competition, said it was fortunate the second round started at all.
“We’re pretty lucky right now in that a big storm was heading our way and we didn’t think we were going to get to play as long as we’re playing,” Brecht said. “Like most storms that have headed here, it broke up before it got to us and was not nearly as strong or severe.”
Brecht admitted tournament officials would need “a little bit of luck” to finish 72 holes by this evening.
More rain was expected overnight and into yesterday morning, and if a high number of players make the cut — the top 70 and those tied will move on — that will push back the tee times for the last groups.
“We’ve got a couple of other issues, we’ll see how they pan out,” Brecht said.
Because of the tournament’s importance, the LPGA wants to avoid reducing the tournament to 54 holes.
In addition to the Player of the Year battle, Ochoa and Shin are virtually even in the battle for the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average.
Other players are looking for good performances to crack the top 80 on the money list and avoid qualifying school.
“There are a ton of things riding on this tournament,” Brecht said. “We are committed to playing 72 holes.”
Shin said she used the spare time to practice, when the weather allowed.
“There isn’t much you can do, but practice and get ready,” she said. “I haven’t really had much practice with waiting out rain delays.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but