One of the more interesting stories this week -- at the least, in my opinion -- has been the women' struggles at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.
Of route, virtually all of the tours -- be it the PGA Tour, the European Tour, or the Champions Tours -- play in Malaysia at some time throughout the 12 months. And in case you've watched any of these tournaments, you know that rain subsequently turns into a hassle. Malaysia receives lots of rain, on occasion every day; in keeping with Wikipedia, they get round ninety eight inches of rain in keeping with year and October is right in the center of monsoon season. (Of direction, while your monsoon season lasts from April to February, it is not so unusual.)
Karrie Webb noted after finishing her round Saturday that designers all around the global could research pretty a chunk from the Kuala Lumpur path in which they are playing, as the route has taken a first rate quantity of rain this week and has nonetheless remained playable. But that doesn't suggest play has gone speedy. The delays have taken their toll.
And what fascinates me is that the second and third rounds have extended well into the night because of them. As a result, some of the players were forced to finish their rounds under artificial lights! Did you know that the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club has artificial lighting so you can play at night? Although the cameras make it look much lighter than it really is -- I wish they would shut down the irises sometimes to show how dark it actually is -- you could still see the players' shadows on the greens as they tried to line up their putts! That doesn't make it any easier to post a good score.
Yet, perhaps even more interesting is that the three leaders have played under the lights in both rounds! Leaders Na Yeon Choi (-15), Inbee Park (-13), and Karrie Webb (-11) have posted better rounds than the rest of the field despite that disadvantage. Just to round out the top 5, Paula Creamer sits as -10 and (almost certain to be) Rookie of the Year So Yeon Ryu is at -9.
The leaders are about halfway through the final spherical as I'm writing this, so I don't know if they will have to face greater rain delays or not. But given how frustrated a number of the players appeared after the third spherical, I believe they will be very happy to get this match within the books... And get dried out earlier than heading to South Korea next week.
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