Mud balls a hot topic at soggy Chevron Championship
LPGA players at the Chevron Championship were surprised by the tour's decision to play 'ball down' after heavy rains.
HOUSTON ā The topic of mud balls came up often during pre-tournament press conferences at soggy Memorial Park . On Thursday, in the opening round of the Chevron Championship , many LPGA players were surprised by the tour's decision to play the ball down. Two-time Chevron winner Brittany Lincicome counted seven times during the course of her opening round that her ball had enough dirt caked on to impact the flight.
Linn Grant, who opened with a 2-under 70, felt playing preferred lies would've been the right choice after storms rolled through early week, dumping 2. 9 inches of rain and shortening the Tuesday pro-am. Officials closed the course three times in two days.
"I saw Haeran (Ryu) had a couple where the ball just went everywhere," said Grant. Nasa Hataoka's double-bogey on the par-5 eighth came after a clump of mud caused her 3-wood to veer offline so far to the right that she had to chip out of the trees, ultimately making double-bogey. Count Hataoka in the preferred lies camp.
Lydia Ko's first mud ball came on the third hole. "It's a complete guessing game," said Ko, who wondered if the tour's standard for using preferred lies is different for majors. Maja Stark opened with a 69 and said that she was spared from the mud.