Evian cut to 54 holes after first round abandoned
Ryu So-yeon of South Korea follows the flight of her ball after playing on the 10th hole during the first round of the Evian Championship in Evian-Les-Bains, eastern France, on September 14, 2017.
Rain and strong winds have forced Thursday's play to be scrapped at the final women's golf major of the season, which will start afresh on Friday as a 54-hole event.
LPGA Tour Commissioner Michael Whan said what the little play was achieved on Thursday morning at the Evian Championship is wiped from the record.
Whan announced the abandonment at 2:30pm almost 4 1/2 hours after players had been called off the wind-swept course overlooking Lake Geneva.
"Nobody even played half a round," Whan said, adding that a 54-hole championship finishing on Sunday offered the "cleanest, fairest, most competitive" option.
"We know that if we said 72 holes and we start again tomorrow (Friday), we're probably looking at Monday and Tuesday, and that's not great for anyone," Whan said.
Forecast weather is for "pretty good" playing conditions for the next two days and some more rain on Sunday, Whan said, noting that 72 kilometers per hour gusts were experienced on Thursday.
The leaderboard had been headed by top-ranked Ryu So-yeon of South Korea and Jessica Korda of the United States on 2 under. Ryu finished five holes while Korda had gone through eight.
A re-start was good news for Ai Miyazato, the former No. 1 from Japan playing her final event before retiring. The 2009 and 2011 Evian champion was 3 over through six holes.
