The debut of the LPGA Tour's fifth major will have to wait.
The first round of the Evian Championship was postponed on Thursday in France due, ironically, to a deluge of rain that left parts of the host course underwater. The scores of 15 players who began a portion of their first round were washed away by the rain and will not count.
LPGA Tour officials now plan to start the tournament on Friday with 18 holes, add another 18 on Saturday and complete the championship with 36 holes on Sunday.
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[tab title="LPGA Weather Delays"]Weather has not been kind to the LPGA Tour and its majors in 2013. Rain forced a 36-hole finale of the Wegmans LPGA Championship, while high winds forced most players at the Ricoh Women's British Open to close with 36 holes at the Old Course.[/tab]
[tab title="Inbee Park"] Inbee Park is looking for a fourth major championship in five tries this season. Park won the first three majors of the year but was never much of a factor in the Ricoh Women's British Open. [/tab]
[tab title="'Murica!"] Stacy Lewis won the Ricoh Women's British Open, so if an American player wins the inaugural Evian Championship, it'll be the first time since 2010 that Yankees won at least two majors in a single season, only the second time since 2006. In both '07 and '10, Cristie Kerr won one of the two. [/tab]
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“We are watching the forecast for Sunday,” said Heather-Daly Donofrio, the LPGA’s senior vice president of tour operations. “We do have some options. We’re hoping to play 36 holes on Sunday, but Monday could also be an option.”
The LPGA Tour will not get much reprieve from the rain in the next few days. More water is expected to fall (and not be bottled, by the way), likely forcing officials to deviate from the new plan to get this tournament to completion. Translation: A Monday finish is likely, perhaps even with 36 holes of golf on the docket.
Meanwhile, the host course will continue to suffer from the roller-coaster of weather that it has faced since the Evian water family dropped $8 million into redesigning the course specifically for this championship. The redesign work was done during a tough French winter, leading into an awkward summer, and now the tournament has to deal with this.
This is kind of par for the course for the LPGA and majors in 2013, however. Rain forced a 36-hole finish at the Wegmans LPGA Championship, while high winds at the Old Course left most players to a 36-hole finish in the Ricoh Women's British Open.
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