Hours After the Rose Zhang Stunner, 2024 Mizuho Americas Open Faces Yet Another Annoying Misery

The Mizuho Americas Open seems to be fraught with unfortunate events. The most recent was the withdrawal of defending champion Rose Zhang. The 20-year-old began her first round on the back nine, but she pulled out after completing three holes in New Jersey. “I was really looking forward to trying to defend my title,  but unfortunately spent the last 12 hours with really bad intestinal pain”, she said.

In one of the rarest occurrences, both the alternatives So Mi Lee and Mao Saigo, had to enter the field during the first round itself. This was because there were back-to-back withdrawals of players on Thursday at the Liberty National Golf Club. Well, the misery did not end with the withdrawals. To add to the list, the golfers were heavily scrutinized for slow play.

No mercy was shown to the golfers for slow play at the Mizohu Americas Open

A golf reporting page, Monday Q Info, recently took to their official X (formerly Twitter) account and shared an entire thread where they shared the status of the a particular group that was warned for the slowplay and despite the warning at the 16th hole, the golfers were unable to cope up. The caption of the tweet explained the incident in detail and stated, “So this group was warned on 16 (their 8th) and actually fell further behind on 18. So the rules official gave them another warning.” 

The next string was a picture of the rules official, who was given the responsibility of timing the group to get prepared to sit on his cart. As stated by the alleged reporters, “They will now be timed as you see him doing here. They have 30 seconds to play once it’s their turn.  He records times in notes.”

The official did not leave the side of the players and accompanied them from one hole to the next. The constant supervision did keep the players on their toes as they hurried between the shots, and the news of another group of golfers supposedly getting fined could have added to their already tense situation. The thread continued with a tweet that mentioned, “The players were now lightly jogging between shots.  According to someone I spoke with, another group had already been fined today. Until they are back in the position they are subject to timing”.

The weather conditions were not the best either; the constant drizzling even irked 13-time LPGA Tour winner Nelly Korda as it hindered her gameplay. It was not only fines and withdrawals; there was also a disqualification! Among the 24 female junior golfers on the AJGA Tour, one was faced with a rather tense scenario after the completion of round 1, leaving only 23 amateurs to compete alongside the 120 pros.

Mia Hammond signed an incorrect scorecard

The 212th-ranked women’s amateur golfer, Mia Hammond, was disqualified after the first round of the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open. As reported by the LPGA Tour, she ended up signing the scorecard incorrectly after the Thursday round. The incident was reported by the amateur golfer herself. Now, why is there such strict action for one tiny mistake?

According to the 3.3b (3) rule set by the LPGA Tour Committee, every golfer must check the scorecard and raise it to the members if there is any issue. However, they must also keep in mind that the marker cannot change anything on the scorecard as long as it has not been approved by the members of the committee. Any player who fails to abide by the rule shall be disqualified!

With such an influx of inconvenience in the first round itself, who knows what the other three days of the Mizuho Americas Open have in store for its fans? Nonetheless, currently, So Mi Lee will enter the Friday round taking the lead with a 6 under 66 score. Stay tuned to find out what happens next.