Lightning and heavy rain in the area suspended play at 12:45 PM on Thursday night as Lydia Ko approached a 15- foot birdie at her last hole of the day to potentially take the solo lead at the Coates Golf Championship presented by R+L Carriers.
Play never resumed as heavy downpours in the area forced rules officials to suspend play for the day at 3:15 PM. Play will resume again at 7:30 AM with 27 players yet to tee off for the second round and only 22 players in the clubhouse with two rounds under their belts.
Ko and Ha Na Jang are tied for the lead at 7-under-par for the tournament but Ko has played 35 holes while Jang has yet to tee off in her second round. Ko, the No. 1 player in the world, was 4-under-par for the day with a birdie putt to potentially post a 67 when play was called for the day and said she had just been telling her playing partners, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, that she had never been suspended for play at the last. Thursday became the first time.
“I said, ‘Hey, I’ve never been suspended where I have got one putt to go or I’m on the green,” Ko said. “Then the girls were saying, ‘Ah, now that we said it it’ll probably happen.’ And guess what? It did. No, but I mean, what can we do about it. Not like we can play in really dangerous conditions.”
Despite the unfortunate timing of the delay, Ko was particularly pleased with her round to that point. She had yet to make a bogey to go with four birdies on the day and found herself in a share of the lead with Jang when the horn blew.
“I hit the ball really well today. I struggled a little bit with my driver yesterday, but today I hit all fairways so I was super happy with that,” Ko said. “Obviously I left a few putts out there where I did have good looks for birdies, but what can do you do about it? I still got one more good look for birdie. No, I just got to stay patient out there. Just really pleased that my driver is going really well.”
Ko and Jang are at the top at 7-under-par when play resumes Friday with Haru Nomura and Kelly Tan just a shot back while Xi Yu Lin and Lizette Salas are two shots back. Nomura posted the round of the day (6-under-par 66) among the 22 fi nishers while Tan was only through three holes and Lin and Salas were both on the 17th hole when play was suspended. Suzann Pettersen had clawed her way back onto the leaderboard as well after a disappointing opening round 73 with a 5-under effort Thursday through 17 holes. “It’s always nice to play good golf, at least have some scoreable rounds in your body early on,” Pettersen said. “I’ve played a lot of golf at home during practice, but this probably more so just go play and golf and don’t worry too much about the rest.”
Round three is projected to begin at 1:45pm and will be a one-wave, two tee-start beginning with the median scores going off first on both tees.
PETTERSEN MOVES INTO CONTENTION ON RAINY DAY IN OCALA
Suzann Pettersen had checked the forecast in advance of play Thursday and figured at some point the storms were going to roll in and play would have to be suspended. She was just hoping it’d be after she finished off an impressive round in which she was 5-under-par for the day through 17 holes when the horn blew.
“I was a bit surprised,” Pettersen said. “We were kind of trying to count how many dry holes we got in. We didn’t really see the suspension of play, but I guess it was just in time.”
At one point during her round Thursday, Pettersen posted five birdies in six holes and joked that it really should have been six with one birdie putt just hanging on the edge. She’s at 4-under-par for the tournament, three shots back of Ko and Jang.
Pettersen made the switch to Butch Harmon in advance of last season and saw it pay off with a win in June, and she’s starting to see the swing her and Harmon have crafted taking hold. Therefore, there was minimal changes in the off – season and it was more just get out on the course and play.
“Pretty much all the same. I mean, that’s Butch. Old school. Which for me is very hard, because I want to make it more complicated and he keeps telling me, ‘Just go play some golf!’” Pettersen said. “I’m like I don’t do it that way. I got to think about some stuff .”
With the swing solved, though, Pettersen’s major focus in the off season has been turning the ball striking into lower scores on the card without tinkering with her swing.
“For me, in that manner it’s quite challenging for me,” Pettersen said. “I’ve been working a lot on my putting and been putting good these two days, so that’s nice to see. Like I said, just nice to go out there and hit shots under the gun.”
JAPAN’S HARU NOMURA POSTS 6-UNDER BEFORE RAIN
One of the 22 players who finished was Haru Nomura who posted a 6-under round of 66 to climb from a tie for 38th into a tie for third.
“The putting is good and irons good. Like basically everything was pretty good feeling,” Nomura said. Nomura, who finished tied for 13th in the season opener last week, credits some of her success to a new hobby she picked up in the off season.
“I started surfing because I live in Hawaii. I enjoy so much surfing.”
PROGRAMING UPDATE
Golf Channel’s airtimes will remain the same tomorrow (airing in primetime, 8-10 p.m. ET). GolfChannel.com and Golf Live Extra will live stream coverage tomorrow now from 4-6 p.m. ET (originally was 3-5 p.m. ET).