LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex
The Houstonian Golf and Country Club
Richmond, Texas
Nov. 20-22, 2009

Second-round notes (updated)

Second-round timeline in Houston.  The second round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex was supposed to tee off at 7 a.m. Friday morning.  A six-hour rain delay pushed the start time to 1 p.m. Friday and play was then suspended for darkness after 5 p.m. that evening.  Second-round play was completely washed-out on Saturday and delayed again on Sunday morning until 12:05 p.m. due to unplayable course conditions.  As of Sunday evening at 5:21 p.m. when play was again suspended due to darkness, 35 players still need to complete their second rounds.  Play resumed on Monday morning at 7:10 a.m. after a brief fog delay.  A total of 79 players made the cut at 3-over-par 147.  The second round took a total of 67 hours and 37 minutes.

Tune in to Golf Channel.  Monday's final round will air on Golf Channel from 3 to 5 p.m. EST.

McPherson leads entering final round.  In the midst of the Rolex Player of the Year race, the current leader is also trying to become a Rolex First-Time Winner.  Kristy McPherson's 8-under-par 136 tally is enough for a one-shot lead entering a Monday finish at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex.  McPherson, who played a complete first round on Thursday and a complete second round on Sunday, shot 5-under-par 67 in lift, clean and place conditions at the Houstonian Golf and Country Club yesterday.

McPherson has held the lead entering the final round twice this season, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship where she tied for second.  She also led at the LPGA State Farm Classic where she tied for 18th. McPherson is in the final group alongside Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Jiyai Shin and McDonald's LPGA Championship Presented by Coca-Cola winner Anna Nordqvist.

Lorena Ochoa by the numbers. 
Looking for her…

• Fourth straight Rolex Player of the Year award
• Fourth straight Vare Trophy
• 25th Tour win in last four seasons
• 28th career win (19th all-time)

Parmlid goes low.  Mikaela Parmlid was 2-under-par through 13 holes when play was suspended for darkness on Friday night.  Nearly two full days later, she returned to the course with four birdies in her final five holes to move into a tie for sixth at the LPGA Tour Championship.  Parmlid rolled in birdie putts on 14, 16 and 18 and chipped-in from 20 feet in the par-3 17th to move to 5-under-par 139 (73-66).  Parmlid has two top-10 finishes this season including a career-best tie for eighth at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger. 

Vare Trophy race heats up.  First-round leader Lorena Ochoa boosted her chances of winning a fourth straight Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average.  The margin of victory for the 2009 award could be the smallest since 2003 when Grace Park (69.99) edged Lorena Ochoa (70.02) by .03 strokes.  In 1994, Beth Daniel (70.90) edged Laura Davies (70.91) by a record .01 strokes.
Ochoa entered the week with a .45 stroke lead in the race for the Vare Trophy over Jiyai Shin (70, -2) and Cristie Kerr (72, E).  She and Shin are the only three-time winners on Tour this season. 

Vare Trophy race
Player                         Average entering this week             Round 1          Round 2
Lorena Ochoa             70.2221                                               66                    72
Jiyai Shin                     70.2674                                               70                    67
Cristie Kerr                  70.2724                                               72                    69
Ai Miyazato                 70.3421                                               73                    68
Yani Tseng                  70.4626                                               69                    71

WD.  Michelle Wie, Seon Hwa Lee, Silvia Cavalleri and Candie Kung withdrew after the first round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex.  Carin Koch withdrew on Sunday.  Jin Young Pak withdrew after 12 holes in the second round.  Beth Bader and M.J. Hur withdrew Monday morning. Natalie Gulbis and Birdie Kim did not start the event. 

Second-round interviews (partial): Kristy McPherson | Jiyai Shin | Anna Nordqvist | Mikaela Parmlid | Helen Alfredsson | Doug Brecht

Second-round notes (partial)

Second-round timeline in Houston. The second round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex was supposed to tee off at 7 a.m. Friday morning. A six-hour rain delay pushed the start time to 1 p.m. Friday and play was then suspended for darkness after 5 p.m. that evening. Second-round play was completely washed-out on Saturday and delayed again on Sunday morning until 12:05 p.m. due to unplayable course conditions. As of Sunday evening at 5:21 p.m. when play was again suspended due to darkness, 35 players still need to complete their second rounds. Play will resume on Monday morning at 7 a.m. and a cut will be made to low 70 and ties before players re-tee for the final round with an expected finish time of 4 p.m. local.

A Texas-sized Rolex Player of the Year race. As if things weren't interesting enough this week in Houston, Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Jiyai Shin decided to up the ante in the Rolex Player of the Year race on Sunday. Shin, looking to become the first player since Nancy Lopez in 1978 to with the Player and Rookie of the Year awards and LPGA Official Money List title, was 7-under-par through 34 holes when play was suspended on Sunday evening. She leads three-time defending Rolex Player of the Year Lorena Ochoa by eight points in the Player of the Year race. Either player can clinch the award with a victory this week. Ochoa is through 35 holes at 6-under-par in a tie for third.

Tune in to Golf Channel. Monday's final round will air on Golf Channel from 4 to 6 p.m. EST.

McPherson leads in the clubhouse. In the midst of the Rolex Player of the Year race, the current clubhouse leader is also trying to become a Rolex First-Time Winner. Kristy McPherson is the clubhouse leader during suspended second round play at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. McPherson, who played a complete first round on Thursday and a complete second round today, shot 5-under-par 67 in lift, clean and place conditions at the Houstonian Golf and Country Club. She currently leads Jiyai Shin (-7, through 16 holes) by one stroke.

Lorena Ochoa by the numbers.
Looking for her…

• Fourth straight Rolex Player of the Year award
• Fourth straight Vare Trophy
• 25th Tour win in last four seasons
• 28th career win (19th all-time)

Parmlid goes low. Mikaela Parmlid was 2-under-par through 13 holes when play was suspended for darkness on Friday night. Nearly two full days later, she returned to the course with four birdies in her final five holes to move into a tie for sixth during suspended second-round play at the LPGA Tour Championship. Parmlid rolled in birdie putts on 14, 16 and 18 and chipped-in from 20 feet in the par-3 17th to move to 5-under-par 139 (73-66). Parmlid has two top-10 finishes this season including a career-best tie for eighth at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger.

Vare Trophy race heats up. First-round leader Lorena Ochoa boosted her chances of winning a fourth straight Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. The margin of victory for the 2009 award could be the smallest since 2003 when Grace Park (69.99) edged Lorena Ochoa (70.02) by .03 strokes. In 1994, Beth Daniel (70.90) edged Laura Davies (70.91) by a record .01 strokes.
Ochoa entered the week with a .05 stroke lead in the race for the Vare Trophy over Jiyai Shin (70, -2) and Cristie Kerr (72, E). She and Shin are the only three-time winners on Tour this season.

Vare Trophy race
Player Average entering this week Round 1 Round 2
Lorena Ochoa 70.2221 66 through 17 holes
Jiyai Shin 70.2674 70 through 16 holes
Cristie Kerr 70.2724 72 69
Ai Miyazato 70.3421 73 68
Yani Tseng 70.4626 69 through 17 holes

WD. Michelle Wie, Seon Hwa Lee, Silvia Cavalleri and Candie Kung withdrew after the first round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. Carin Koch withdrew on Sunday. Jin Young Pak withdrew after 12 holes in the second round. Natalie Gulbis and Birdie Kim did not start the event.

Second-round interviews (partial): Kristy McPherson | Jiyai Shin | Anna Nordqvist | Mikaela Parmlid | Helen Alfredsson | Doug Brecht

Kristy McPherson, 69-67=136 (-8)
Hole 12, 480-yard par 5: birdie – wedge to 3 feet
Hole 13, 399-yard par 4: birdie – 4-hybrid to 15 feet
Hole 14, 338-yard par 4: birdie – 9-iron to 12 feet
Hole 4, 145-yard par 3: birdie – 8-iron to 10 feet
Hole 6, 349-yard par 4: birdie – wedge to 20 feet

MIKE SCANLAN: Kristy, thanks for coming in. If you would, just talk about what the last three days have been like, and now what it feels like to be the clubhouse leader.
KRISTY MCPHERSON: It's kind of weird to have two rounds under your belt after a Sunday afternoon. So, you know, I was lucky to play two uninterrupted rounds. That was nice to have.

But it's kind of weird having two days off in the middle of your tour championship. But, yeah, I mean, our goal today was to get it in before the sun went down, so we were happy to do that.

Q. What did you do?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I watched a lot of football yesterday; I went to a move the day before; a lot of nothing. Sit around and get delayed a couple hours at a time, so you can't really do a whole a lot. We were fortunate enough the first day they told us we weren't gonna play early, so we had pretty much all day.

Get a pedicure, go to a movie, eat a bunch, sit around, watch some football. You know.

Q. What movie did you see?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Couples retreat. (Laughter.) Have you seen it? It was very funny. It was cute.

Q. Obviously this is a unique situation. Did you try to practice? Did you try to think about your game? Did you try to get away from golf? I mean, it's pretty unique you have such a big gap once a tournament starts?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Yeah, I've never been much of a practicer, so I kind of enjoyed my two days off. The extent of my practice was about a 30‑minute warmup yesterday before they told me I wasn't going out.

So, yeah, I'm not much into practicing, especially when it's raining and blowing 30 miles an hour. So I enjoyed being in my hotel.

But, yeah, I just wanted to play golf. Just ready to go play.

Q. Will the course play tougher tomorrow after all this traffic, or better?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Well, I would imagine we would have to play lift, clean, and place again tomorrow. There's four or five holes out there that it's hard to find a dry spot.

But, you know, with the conditions, with the weather that we've had, it's about as good as we could hope for. They've done a great job to get it back to playable now.

You know, it's the first time in my three years we've had to go into Monday, but I think that's the only option this week.

Q. You said you played two uninterrupted rounds. You made it all the way through on Thursday and all the way through today?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Yes. I was very fortunate to have a morning round Thursday, and I was done about 1:30 and didn't tee off today until 12:40.

So a couple days off in there. But, yeah, first tee I told Se Ri, if you ain't finishing, I'm going by myself. I told her, we going.

We had a twosome out there, and we were fortunate enough to be behind L.D. who, yeah, she's it's like not being on the golf course, so it's like being behind a twosome.

But we were fortunate to get through today.

Q. Do you feel like you got the lucky end of the draw?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Absolutely. I know the other girls on that other flip are mad at me. But, I mean...

Yeah, I mean, everybody has been ‑‑ times you get the good draw and sometimes you get the bad. There's definitely good and bad waves this week. I was fortunate enough, like I said, to play two uninterrupted rounds, which not a lot of girls have done that.

But, you know, I've been on the bad end a couple times, too.

Q. With 120 players in the field, does it feel like any other week out here, or does it fell like a tour championship?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Well, how many are in the field now? I think we had about 30 withdrawals, didn't we, after two days? Everybody decided they weren't gonna sit around anymore.

But, yeah, it's a little odd. I've seen girls that I haven't seen in a couple months. You know, it's kind of a different feeling for a tour championship, but I think they kind of wanted to do the unique cut style.

And, you know, in order to do that, you have to start with 120 players. But, yeah. It's still a competition. You still got the best players in the world here, and still playing golf.

Jiyai Shin

Q. Yeah. The course conditions were?
JIYAI SHIN: Wet, and then green was really soft. So greens softer, that's a big help for the players, because we just can aggress your shot.

Then no wind today really was perfect.

Q. What did you do during the break for the two days to pass the time before you were able to tee off today?
JIYAI SHIN: Actually, I a little bit worried this morning, because last two days I didn't practice, so...

Q. When is the last time you have not practiced two days in a row?
JIYAI SHIN: Yeah, right.

Q. Long time?
JIYAI SHIN: I think, so this morning I a little worried. I don't have a feeling, so...

But after like couple hole, my feelings come back. And then I think this helps to me, my physical condition really good now. Actually, this is my sixth straight week of tournament.

So before like the first round like I feel bad, not really good. But today was getting really good. And then, yeah.

Q. You're coming down to the final day for Player of the Year. What do you think about your chances? Do you feel like you're in a good position?
JIYAI SHIN: I think so, yeah. I play very good today, and then I still have a good shot and putting skill, so I still feel really close.

Q. For the final round, when you're close to winning, is it easier since you have won so many times before?
JIYAI SHIN: Yes, of course, because every players have like a chance always get nervous and pressure. But also I get nervous pressure, but I much easy control my pressure.

Q. Some of the players said they went to movies, they got pedicures, they watched TV. What did you do since you could not practice?
JIYAI SHIN: Well, I'm so tired, like I was tired, so like a really long sleep. (Laughter.) So my feeling is good.

Q. Will you try to keep an eye on Lorena tomorrow to see what she's doing for Player of the Year?
JIYAI SHIN: Yes, of course. And then tomorrow is the final day, so it's very important. Gonna be important day tomorrow all my life.

Anna Nordqvist, 70-68=138 (-6)

Q. Talk about the second round.
ANNA NORDQVIST: Oh, yeah. Took a while to get done.

Q. Just talk about how you played today.
ANNA NORDQVIST: Um, talking about the second round, I think the rules official did a very good job in preparing the course, the course maintenance.

I mean, I think we're all just very happy to be playing here been ready to go for a couple days. Just really enjoying myself. Played a good par on No. 1, and then just kept playing solid and gave myself a lot of good birdie opportunities.

Rolled a couple in on the back nine. Just hitting it solid and being very comfortable on the course.

Q. How were the course conditions today?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I think it's good. Obviously it's still raining a lot so it's a little bit wet, but I think the course is in good shape. The greens are good, so I think they did a very good job.

Q. Was it tough waiting over a day and a half to play that second round?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I mean, it is what it is. I think you just gotta stay positive. I just wanted, you know, to play if it was Friday or if it was Sunday. I'm just very happy, happy to play. Being patient and staying confident, I think helped me a lot.

Q. What did you did during your spare time? I know you're out here a lot.
ANNA NORDQVIST: I've been sleeping a lot. I was pretty sick last week, so just trying to catch up on sleep. Not doing much. Watching TV, trying to save your energy.

Q. Right. Think back to that double bogey you made on the last hole in your first round.
ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah, I mean, I was playing really, really well in the first round. I was 4‑under after 17, and then hit it in the fairway bunker and chipped that to the lip and couldn't make up‑and‑down when I missed the green.

You know, those are frustrating, but you gotta put it behind. I was playing really good for 17 holes. So I just felt like I was back on track today.

Q. What's it gonna take to win tomorrow, do you think?
ANNA NORDQVIST: Just gonna go out there and do the best you can. There's a lot of good players out there. I'm ready to go, but you gotta have a good day. I'm just gonna try to go slow if I can do.

Mikaela Parmlid, 73-66=139 (-5)

Q. Talk about having to play with all these delays?
MIKAELA PARMLID: You know, it's just the weather, so I can't really do anything about it. So I just take it positive, and just waited.

Q. How hard is it to start up your round when you just got a few holes to play?
MIKAELA PARMLID: It's not hard. It's just, you know, you gotta be just relaxed and just you've gotta play the rest the holes just nice and easy.

Q. How is the course playing?
MIKAELA PARMLID: It's kind of wet now, so it has to dry tomorrow. I hope it gets dry tomorrow.

Q. What do you say are the differences between your first versus your second round was?
MIKAELA PARMLID: I was kind of struggling today. I mean, second round couldn't get any birdies. And, yeah, in the windy and the raining.
So, yeah, oh, well. I'll get it tomorrow.

Helen Alfredsson, 72-67=139 (-5)

Q. Talk about your very long round.
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Yeah, no, it was nice to have it done. I mean, it's obviously very sad for the tournament, because it's been a great tournament so far.

And, you know, the weather that you're having, it's finally nice to come out and play some golf.

Q. How do you think you played over the three days?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: No, you know, I played all right. We didn't play yesterday. I played all right, and then I made a couple of birdies today. So that was nice.

I only six holes to play today. But, yeah, I'm in a good position.

Q. How tough is it to start, think you're gonna start, not start, and then come out and really face the cold?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Well, you have to sort of prepare yourself like you're playing like the full round, Obviously.

You get a little anxious because you just want to get out there and, you know, get it over with. I mean, the days, we don't know, so you're so many times getting ‑‑ you know prepare yourself and then you're back, and then you prepare yourself.

So it's a little tough. But you know what, that's how it is. It's not always perfect.

Q. How are the course conditions out there?
HELEN ALFREDSSON : It's surprisingly quite good. It's taken a lot of rain, this golf course, but I think the staff here has done ‑‑ you know, the grounds staff has done a remarkable job.

The greens are perfect. So that's a big deal when the greens are still nice to putt on.

Doug Brecht, LPGA VP Rules and Competitions

MIKE SCANLAN: Doug, just update us on the plan for Monday.
DOUG BRECHT: The plan, as it stands right now is to resume play for round two tomorrow morning at 7:00. We anticipate having somewhere around an hour and a half of play left on the golf course.

Once we get it done, we' will make a cut to the low 70 players and tie. Start the third round approximately 9:00. And last time would then be somewhere about 11:00, and finish this golf tournament at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Q. You're confident you can get it in, 54 in tomorrow?
DOUG BRECHT: I'm confident that right now that from the amount of time that I need to play a golf tournament and the amount of daylight that we have left, that we can finish tomorrow.

Q. Any interesting developments on the course in terms of conditions?
DOUG BRECHT: Um, players were extremely complimentary of the conditions of the golf course when they got out there and started playing. From an officiating standpoint, we had a lot less rulings than we thought we were gonna have. Most of the casual water issues were taken care of by the players, and we didn't have that many calls as far as that goes.

Actually, our pace of play is quicker than we thought it was gonna be. So we may have bought a little bit more time than we originally thought we were gonna have, and that's a good thing.

But everything about the golf course is extremely positive. I cannot begin to think thank the maintenance crew and how hard they've worked and the time they've put in and all their efforts to allow us to play this golf tournament.

Because at 7:00 this morning, guys, there wasn't a way. There was no way. We were saying, hopefully, maybe by 12:00. And at 12:00 it was fine. It was good.

Q. Were the conditions at 7:00 worse than you anticipated as of 5:00 last night?
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah. I thought they would be a little bit better from what I saw. I mean, it was the same general places. It was holes 3, 9, and 10, which we knew all along were the worst. We thought they would be a little bit better.

And they were, in fact, better than what we saw yesterday. I just thought they would be a little bit better than what they were. We used obviously every resource available to us to be able to play golf today.

Q. This is in terms of players locating their marks, where they had marked their balls, there was no problems in resuming play?
DOUG BRECHT: We never even had a call. Normally ‑‑ I think we had one, maybe two calls before we resumed play, and it was more about taking casual water relief. None of the marks had really been disturbed or out of position from when they first were ‑‑ when they first got out there and were trying to get their ball replaced and back in play.

Q. So you didn't go back and forth whether you should start at 9:00 or noon? Pretty much noon was the soonest you could start?
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, because we all got out there and looked. I mean, our process ‑‑ we started by me going out to the 10th fairway at 6:00 this morning trying to use as bright of lights as I can to try and make a determination. I could still hear the water squishing around. I couldn't really see enough to make a determination then.

We were back out at 7:00. We, all five of us that are here this week, went to the 9th fairway and looked that and knew we still had problems.

Then we split out and went to different holes, because the 9th being one of our toughest ones, one of our big problem areas, we ‑‑ and the 3rd. Then we went to the 3rd and then we went to the 10th and then went to other various holes and saw where we were.

Based on all of our experience looking at all those different holes, realized that we had a lot of work to do to get to 12:00, but maybe we had a chance.

By the time we went out to look again, which was around 9:30, very much improvement. We use ‑‑ the golf course has an instrument called a Water Hog, which basically just sucks water up into ‑‑ I think it's like a ten‑gallon drum, and then takes it off to the side and dumps it out.

That moved a lot of water for us and allowed things to dry out pretty quickly after that.

Q. (No microphone.)
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, I mean, we've had dots down on the green where round three hole placements were gonna be ever since ‑‑ ever since we almost were done with the ‑‑ well, go back to the first round.

We had the dots already down where they were gonna be for the second round. Then once the second round was being completed, we went back to put the hole locations for round three out again.

Q. Will you repair according to the score for the third round?
DOUG BRECHT: For the third round, we will repair according to the score off of two tees in groups of three, with the high scores ‑‑ the low scores of the tournament going last off No. 1, the high scores of the tournament going last off No. 10.

Q. Any discussion about, you know, bringing back less than 70 for the final round?
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, we talked about it. We have a regulation that says we can go 60 and highs for the final round. Because of the nature of this event and the last round being a cut to 30 and ties, we discussed that.

The thing about 30 and ties versus 70 and ties, if you do the math and take 30 and ties versus 70 and ties, it takes you about five and a half to five hours and 45 minutes to play 30 and ties.

To play 70 and ties, it takes you about seven hours. So you got about an hour 15 difference. With all we're trying to accomplish and the scenario I've already set out for you as far as finishing at 4:00 and knowing that players tend to, when a cut is involved, play toward that cut line. If you're a little above it, play conservative so you can make it to the next round. If you're a little below it, try and be aggressive going for that cut.

So now you go to 30 and ties, they're going, Why you changing this now? That was one factor. The factor that it's only an hour and 15 to an hour and 30 minutes difference, it might make a difference as to whether we can finish tomorrow or not.

But more than likely, the way the scenario plays out, we were either gonna finish with 70 and ties or finish with 30 and ties. Or if we didn't, both of them would have to be a Tuesday finish situation.

So that's why we made the decision we made to go to 70 and ties.

Q. You have an hour and a half left in round two.
DOUG BRECHT: Approximately, yes.

Q. So you don't get finished Monday, be another decision to come back on Tuesday?
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, we'll finish 54 holes.

Q. On Tuesday?
DOUG BRECHT: On Tuesday. If ‑‑

Q. Or whenever. (Laughter.) On Thanksgiving.

UPDATE ON PLAY - Sunday 10:30 a.m. CT

Second-round play at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex will resume at 12 p.m. local time on Sunday.

UPDATE ON PLAY - Sunday 7:00 a.m. CT

Second-round play at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex continues to be delayed. Play is being delayed until 12:00 p.m. CT.

UPDATE ON PLAY - Saturday 2:00 p.m. CT

Second-round play the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex has been suspended for the day due to unplayable course conditions. Tour officials hope to resume the second round on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. local time.

Saturday weather update

Doug Brecht, LPGA VP of Rules and Competitions

DOUG BRECHT: We'll start with the update. At 1:00, just before 1:00, we went out and looked this golf course again. Having had it rain for quite a bit longer than we were led to believe it was gonna rain, the conditions on the golf course were the worst we've seen all day.

Instead of getting a little bit better, it's gotten worse. So we decided to not play anymore golf -- or not play any golf today. Not that we ever played any. We're not playing any shots today.

We have a schedule for the rest of this event with an approximate start time of 8:00 in the morning for those players who have already begun their round and are on the golf course; with those that haven't started starting at 8:20.

The rest of the field will then tee off, and we will finish round two tomorrow, make a cut to the low 70 and ties, and play round three on Monday, starting approximately 7:00 in the morning with an approximate finish time on Monday being 2:00.

Plan on making another course visit this afternoon somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 and see if conditions have improved, gotten worst, whatever the case may be, and then have a further update as far as the feasibility of trying to start at 8:00 in the morning, if we can still hold to that time at that point or if we need to make an adjustment to that.

Q. So Doug, I guess with the rain, it just forced your hand today for 54. Just didn't have no other option really?
DOUG BRECHT: With the plan that we set out before today, we had a chance of playing 72 holes by the end of the day tomorrow. We could obviously still try and implement that plan and put it into effect and try to finish 72 holes by the end of the day Monday.

But as I mentioned to you before, there was some possible hiccups with that plan, and rather than forcing people's hands and probably forcing them to stay on Tuesday to finish, we felt it was in the best interest of this event and for our players and everyone concerned to now shorten this event to 54 holes.

Q. Is everything official if you ended up playing only 36 holes?
DOUG BRECHT: 36 holes on the LPGA Tour is an official. We have to play at least 36 holes for this event to be official. I have been to an event before where we only played 18, and that event became unofficial. 36 holes does make this an official event.

We are, at this point, committed to 54 holes. We'll cross that road we know we get to it as far as -- I mean, we got to determine if the golf course is a playable.

Right now - I'm not trying to duck your question - but we're gonna do everything we can to play 54 holes. If we have to cut back to 36, at that point in time we'll make those decisions and comment further about that.

Q. Did you consider cutting to 30 instead of 70?
DOUG BRECHT: We considered cutting to 30 and ties. Our regulations even give us the latitude of cutting to 60 and ties.

Again, looking at what golf course we have right now, what the forecast is, it's forecasted for -- probably seeing some sun for the rest of the day today and sun all day Sunday and Monday, we've got plenty of times to let 70 and ties come and finish this event.

In the best interest of what the LPGA is trying to accomplish with all the factors being considered, we felt like that was the best route and avenue for us to take.

Q. This has nothing to do with you obviously, but, man, the weather forecast was a little bit off today. Wasn't it was supposed to be sunny a lot earlier this morning? (Laughter.)
DOUG BRECHT: We could go back a little farther than and tell you how much off it was for tomorrow. At one time, we were predicted to get three to four inches of rain. You want to think about where we would be right now if that happened, it'd be worse off than where we are.

At one time yesterday when we delayed the start, we did it basically because of how hard it was raining and what was moving at us, knowing we weren't gonna have a chance to play, and then all that dissipated as it got here.

So we had a plan based on the information that we got right there. Finally we were able to go ahead and play. Our plan this morning was good, because, again, we're looking at a forecast, and we weren't gonna get a little bit of rain last night, which ended up being a half inch, and then no rain after 8:00 today.

Well, that, front stalled right over on the east side of Houston. The back end of it kept swirling around and dumped rain on us until about 1:00. You know, weathermen are great. We have a great weatherman. He works his tail off and does a terrific job for us. He's as good as the information that's given to him, too.

We can look at all the weather bands we want and all the forecasts we want, we can put radar in motion and see where we think that radar is gonna be at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon.

May not get there.

Q. (Question regarding input from the players regarding the delays.)
DOUG BRECHT: The players are part of the equation. We certainly seek and ask for their input as far as our decision-making process goes. But in the end, it's up to the LPGA officials and our committee to make the decision that's best for the event.

But we definitely do talk to our players and get their input as to what their feelings are.

Q. Did changing flights during a holiday week affect your decision?
DOUG BRECHT: That's part of the equation. When we first heard all the information about flight switching and how difficult it was and how there weren't very many flights available, that really hasn't been the case as far as we're concerned, because we already started switching some of our flights ourselves.

None of us had a problem whatsoever. Seem to be plenty of seats available on multiple airlines flying -- not getting everywhere you want to go, but to a lot different places and a lot of different locales.

Q. (Question regarding amount of rain.)
DOUG BRECHT: At 6:00 this morning, it was just over one and a quarter inches. We've had a little bit more since then, but I don't have a measured amount to give you at this time.

Q. That's all week?
DOUG BRECHT: That includes the week, the playing time up until 6:00 this morning.

Q. (Question regarding Monday start time.)
DOUG BRECHT: The Monday time right now is approximately a 7:00 start, going off both 1 and 10 tees, playing in groups of three with ten-minute starting time intervals, cut to 70 and ties.

Q. Sending the players out this morning, you thought that maybe you could get it going, and once they got out there you knew there was no way?
DOUG BRECHT: I was in contact with the golf course personnel when I first got here who were out working on the golf course. I plain and simply asked them the question: Can you have the golf course ready for me to play at 7:00 this morning? The reply was absolutely no problem.

We went out when it got to be daylight enough to see, which was 6:45 to 6:50 to assess that situation. Unfortunately, we had already made a decision that we needed to have players going out there at 6:45 to be in position ready to play at 7:00.

By 7:02, we had made a determination the golf course was now not playable. Players were already out there, so we just turned them around and sent them back in. That's just happened plain and simple. No different than what our normal procedure is and how we would approach it.

Q. Will fans be able to redeem today's tickets for tomorrow?
DOUG BRECHT: I'm sorry, I can't answer that, because that's not -- I don't deal with those type of things. That's Becky Newell and the people from IMG who have to decide that.

Q. 54 doesn't affect any kind of player of the year, the points...
DOUG BRECHT: Points will be the same. We'll still plan a having a standard money distribution. Nothing will change other than the fact we're playing 18 holes less, and obviously we won't make a cut to 30 and ties for the last round.

Q. (No microphone.)
DOUG BRECHT: That's what our plan is right now. We will update further this afternoon once we have another chance to look at the golf course. There will be some type of announcement tonight.

Q. What parts of the course are the worst?
DOUG BRECHT: All of it. (Laughter.) The greens, let me -- the greens are great. We can play -- there was never a time when we couldn't have played on a green and had a very good result.

But the fairways are saturated, the tees are saturated, the bunkers have some water in 'em. Probably the bunkers are okay to play out of. They drain a little bit better than everything else.

The real problem right now is the saturation point has been reached, and this water has nowhere to go. A whole squad of helicopters would be nice just sitting over the top of the golf course, but...

NOTES

Play suspended on Saturday in Houston. Second-round play never got underway on Saturday at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. More rain that expected fell overnight and throughout the morning on the Houstonian Golf and Country Club, making conditions unplayable. Tour officials attempted to get play started at 7 a.m. local time, but soggy course conditions forced players back to the clubhouse. At 1:30 p.m., Tour officials decided to cancel Saturday play. The second round is expected to resume at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning with a cut to 70 and ties following play. The tournament will be shortened to 54 holes with the third round beginning on Monday morning with an expected finish time of 2 p.m.

Tickets will be honored Sunday. Ticket holders who purchased Lone Star or One-Day tickets for Friday and Saturday play can use those tickets for entrance to the grounds on Sunday, according to LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex officials.

Lorena Ochoa by the numbers.

• Has been the first-round leader for over 48 hours.

Looking for her…

• Fourth straight Rolex Player of the Year award
• Fourth straight Vare Trophy
• 25th Tour win in last four seasons
• 28th career win (19th all-time)

Vare Trophy race heats up. First-round leader Lorena Ochoa boosted her chances of winning a fourth straight Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. The margin of victory for the 2009 award could be the smallest since 2003 when Grace Park (69.99) edged Lorena Ochoa (70.02) by .03 strokes. In 1994, Beth Daniel (70.90) edged Laura Davies (70.91) by a record .01 strokes.
Ochoa entered the week with a .05 stroke lead in the race for the Vare Trophy over Jiyai Shin (70, -2) and Cristie Kerr (72, E). She and Shin are the only three-time winners on Tour this season.

Vare Trophy race
Player Average entering this week Round 1
Lorena Ochoa 70.2221 66
Jiyai Shin 70.2724 70
Cristie Kerr 70.2724 72
Ai Miyazato 70.3421 73
Yani Tseng 70.4626 69

WD. Michelle Wie, Seon Hwa Lee, Silvia Cavalleri and Candie Kung withdrew after the first round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. Natalie Gulbis and Birdie Kim did not start the event.

UPDATE ON PLAY - 10:00 a.m. CT

DOUG BRECHT, LPGA VP of Rules and Competitions

DOUG BRECHT: We awoke to half an inch of rain overnight, much more than what we expected. We anticipated still starting on time, sent the players out there to do so. We evaluated the golf course once it was light enough to do so, which was about 6:45, 6:50, and found out the golf course was virtually underwater. The third fairway was a lake in and of itself. We decided we couldn't play and pulled the players off. We just went and reevaluated again at 9:00, and it basically has not changed. You can't see as much water on the third fairway, but you can't take a stance on the third, ninth or 10th fairway – and probably more, but those were the main three we looked at – where you wouldn't be standing in water. Even if the water is not visible right now, you just can't play golf. We are going to reevaluate the golf course at 1:00 and have a further announcement at 1:30. What that announcement might be, I can't even speculate right now. We are looking at all of our options as far whether we will try to complete 72 holes or cut to 54 holes, but we have no decision on that yet. No later than the end of the day, we will have that decision made.

Second-round interviews: Doug Brecht | Cristie Kerr | Paula Creamer | Wendy Ward

Second-round notes (partial)

First-round ends, second begins in Houston. Rain and threatening storms in the area caused a six hour delay that kept players off the course until 1 p.m. CST at the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. Ten players finished their first round this afternoon and 58 of 116 players had their second-round suspended by darkness. Second-round play will resume on Saturday at 7 a.m. CST when the remaining 58 will tee it up.

The unique format of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex features a cut to low 70 and ties after 36 holes and a cut to low 30 and ties after 54 holes. Tournament officials expect to make the first cut on Saturday afternoon and the second cut on Sunday morning.

Lorena Ochoa by the numbers.
Looking for her…

• Fourth straight Rolex Player of the Year award
• Fourth straight Vare Trophy
• 25th Tour win in last four seasons
• 28th career win (19th all-time)

Vare Trophy race heats up. First-round leader Lorena Ochoa boosted her chances of winning a fourth straight Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. The margin of victory for the 2009 award could be the smallest since 2003 when Grace Park (69.99) edged Lorena Ochoa (70.02) by .03 strokes. In 1994, Beth Daniel (70.90) edged Laura Davies (70.91) by a record .01 strokes.

Ochoa entered the week with a .05 stroke lead in the race for the Vare Trophy over Jiyai Shin (70, -2) and Cristie Kerr (72, E). She and Shin are the only three-time winners on Tour this season.

Vare Trophy race
Player Average entering this week Round 1
Lorena Ochoa 70.2221 66
Jiyai Shin 70.2724 70
Cristie Kerr 70.2724 72
Ai Miyazato 70.3421 73
Yani Tseng 70.4626 69

WD. Michelle Wie, Seon Hwa Lee, Silvia Cavalleri and Candie Kung withdrew after the first round of the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex. Natalie Gulbis and Birdie Kim did not start the event.

Second-round interviews: Doug Brecht | Cristie Kerr | Paula Creamer | Wendy Ward

Doug Brecht, LPGA VP of Rules and Competitions

Q. Talk about the weather and what the plan is for the rest of the week
DOUG BRECHT: Good afternoon. We're playing what I call bonus golf right now, golf we didn't ever expect to be playing today.

That's a very good thing, because it gives us the possibility of finishing all 72 holes of this tournament by the end of the day Sunday.

We still need a little bit of luck to go with that, but here's what we have laid out. Hopefully the groups playing this afternoon are going to clear the 1st and 10th hole, the last group will, so that we'll be able to start with the afternoon group of the second round tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. off 1 one and 10 tees. They'll basically fall right in like they would normally.

It'll take that wave about seven hours to finish their round from when the first group tees off to until the last group's in the hole. That gives us until -- actually, it'll take six and a half hours, because there's only an hour and a half worth of time. So that's 8:30; five hours from that is 1:30.

We can do a cut and a turnaround in about 30 minutes, so we anticipate starting round three at 2:00. It's gonna take about seven hours for that round to be completed. So we're gonna have three and a half hours of golf that we're gonna play Saturday night, come back at 7:00 Sunday morning and play three and a half more hours of golf.

That gets us to 10:30. Make a cut to 30 and ties. Tee off at 11:00, approximately an hour's worth of starting times in groups of three off both tees. With five hours for the last group to play, puts us right at 4:30, 5:00 to finish, which is a few scant minutes of daylight left. (Laughter.)

We're pretty lucky right now in that a big storm was headed our way and we didn't think we'd even get to to play as long as we're playing right now. Like most storms that have headed here today, it broke up before it got to us and it's not near as strong or severe as what we originally looked at.

We got couple of other issues that we'll see how they pan out. One of them being how much more rain we get tonight, because the storms are definitely not gone. Maintenance is all set to do whatever they need to do let us start in the morning at 7:00.

The storms could linger into the morning, which could possible set us back again. And then the number of people that make the cut will be an issue for us, too, because we are playing 70 and ties and 30 and ties.

If those tied numbers would creep up into the 80s, that puts more groups on the golf course and that makes the time schedule that I have laid out possibly go a little bit later than what we were planning for.

Some good news. We're playing a lot faster than yesterday because, basically because there's less rulings and no wind. So actually playing a little bit faster than the time schedule that I've laid out for us going forward from here. That's basically where we stand right now.

Q. Is part of that the ultimate fear that at the end of all this you would get to the leader or the final group on 15, and that's when darkness hits?
DOUG BRECHT: If that happens, we'll be back here Monday and we'll finish it up. There's no doubt.

Q. There will be no determination in terms of start time for that final round on Sunday afternoon? You're gonna kick that off and try to finish...
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, I'm gonna go as quick as I can the whole way around. If I can play four hours of golf Sunday afternoon, then I'm gonna play four hours of golf Sunday afternoon.

Because this is our Tour Championship, it affects player of the year, it affects a lot of -- all the major awards. If affects players going -- who has to go to Q-School and who doesn't have to go to Q-School. It affects players on our priority list and where they fall on that priority list.

There's a ton of things riding on this tournament. Because of that and the importance of it, we are committed to playing 72 holes.

Q. So is (cutting the tournament to) 54 holes pretty much off the table, or are thinking there could be a possibility depending on all the variables you mentioned?
DOUG BRECHT: At this point in time, I would say -- I mean, I'm not gonna say 100%, but I'm gonna say we're gonna play 72 holes. Okay?

Q. The timeline today, where you guys thought that storm was coming in, how did that work?
DOUG BRECHT: I mean, it actually started at 4:00 this morning, because I got together with my weather man at 4:00 this morning. He let out the scenario to me. I then met him here at 5:00; we started looking at it again, and at 6:00 we were committed to starting this round at 7:00 this morning.

About ten till 7:00 it was pouring with rain. It was absolutely ridiculous to start a golf tournament at that point in time for this round in those conditions.

So we delayed. We went and looked at the radar. We delayed, at that time, for about an hour. After an hour, the rain had subsided a little bit. We went and looked at the fairways and were pleasantly surprised at the condition, because the golf course was playable.

We another big cell that was heading right towards us. Big yellow nasty thing that was gonna dump about another quarter, maybe a little bit more right on top of us.

Expected to be out of here probably around 11:00. So that's explains all the decisions we made. We made a decision basically at 8:30 to tell the players that we wouldn't hit a ball until 1:00, and that we would update them at 11:00. Give us a chance to look at the radar, see what else has happened, and update them at 11:00 as to whether 1:00 was a go or not.

Well, that big yellow blob disappeared, and there was three hours we could have been playing golf that we didn't get to play golf. As officials, we can only ask what's available to us and what we can see that's right there in front of us.

At 11:00 it looked good. There was gonna be some light rain, but the back end of it was pretty dry, looked pretty good.

So that's when at 11:00 we said 1:00's a go. We're gonna tee off then. Gotta give them time to warm up on the range, hit some balls, get loose, and then go for their starting time.

That's proceeded to here. We looked at the chance of how bad that was gonna be with the rain storm. Here it was light, so that's where are. That's how we got to the decisions we got to and where we are now.

Q. Doug, you said it's important that both sides get through the 1st and 10th holes, right?
DOUG BRECHT: It helps us out with the time frame that we're looking at, for sure. If they don't, I'll just start the second wave a little bit later.

Q. If they don't get through, are you automatically into Monday?
DOUG BRECHT: No, no. I'm just -- I'm looking -- I'm an optimist. I'm looking for all the best things I can possibly get. Right now we're on pace for those groups to get where I need for them to get.

Again, if they don't, the fact that my pace is better than it was the first round, that helps me buy time that I didn't think I was gonna get.

Q. So for your plan, you just need everyone today to have at least nine holes basically?
DOUG BRECHT: Yeah. If I can get that -- like I said, I call it bonus golf. If I can get that, I'm pretty happy.

Q. I assume you anticipate playing lift, clean, and place throughout the weekend.
DOUG BRECHT: It's always an option that we do it round by round. If I had to bet, I would say we still play it through the rest the event.

Q. The course is that wet?
DOUG BRECHT: It's pretty saturated. The water table here is pretty high. When it does rain, it takes a while -- it does drain off, but it just takes a while for it to do it just because the high water table.

Q. What was the exact amount the rain on the course today?
DOUG BRECHT: Before we started at 1:00, we had had .64 inches, and I haven't heard an update since then. Been virtually light since then.

Maybe another -- maybe a tenth, but that may be too high, too, you guys. I don't know for sure.

Q. So you have to start round three at 2:00 p.m. and then round four at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday?
DOUG BRECHT: Roughly, yes.

Cristie Kerr

Q. Just talk about the conditions out there today.
CRISTIE KERR: Super wet. I mean, um, we had a lot the rain. I was surprised we even went out, frankly. It looked like another band was kind of moving towards us, so I think we got kind of lucky there.

Yeah, just kind of wet. They definitely had to play ball in hand. It's just -- there's so much casual water out there. They must've had a couple inches the rain today.

Q. Did you feel like given all that you played okay?
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I played great. Didn't hit a really good drive on 18. It was kind of in the first cut, kind of on a sidehill/downhill lie. I had a long club in my hand, and just tried to make a really good swing at it.

Sometimes when you try and do that you try a little too hard. You know, I hooked it left and that was kind a tough up-and-down. I actually hit an okay chip, but it's just getting so dark.

Maybe I could have waited, but I didn't want to. I wanted to finish the hole. I didn't see the appropriate amount the break for the putt. I hit a good putt.

So under par for this nine holes I think is a little victory considering the tough draw that we've had the last two days with the wind, and then having to wait all day.

You know, so I played good. I'm glad I'm gonna have a chance to hit some balls and kind of work on my swing before I go out and play tomorrow. It can be good. You get in a groove and you have a lot of golf to play and, you know, get it going.

Q. Strategy for tomorrow?
CRISTIE KERR: Go low.

Q. I mean with the conditions or anything.
CRISTIE KERR: You just have to see. Could be really windy. You never really know. You have to kind the wake up and see how the conditions are and then kind of go from there.

Paula Creamer

Q. Paula, talk about your day and the bad weather.
PAULA CREAMER: No, I don't mind playing in bad weather. I actually probably prefer it more than good weather. Makes it, you know, harder for everybody. You have to come out and focus on -- you know, par is a good score.

Yesterday was, you know, just a very bad day. So it was good to come out and play a good nine holes. I didn't finish, you know, putt out on 18, but I hit the ball really well. So I'll sleep a little better tonight than I did last night.

Q. What you did you leave yourself with on 18 to start out in the morning?
PAULA CREAMER: I'd say about a 30-footer or so. I have to come out anyway, so why not just be a 100% and see the green a little better. It got pretty dark fast.

Q. I you know you talk about playing better in this type the weather, but what about the disruption and other players who don't have to play at all today and played in the nice mild conditions yesterday morning?
PAULA CREAMER: We definitely got the short end the stick with the draw, that's for sure. You look at it overall and kind add them up here and there, and this is definitely one those ones where the afternoon waves yesterday, we definitely didn't get the good times.

But it is what it is, and we have a lot more golf left.

Q. You hit that final nine tomorrow. For you anyway, is your game a little better feeling than it was yesterday? Are you feeling strong?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, I mean, definitely. Yesterday I had a couple bad holes. You know, overall I played pretty well. But, you know, just kind the got in my own way on some certain shots.

It was tough. It was very windy but still, not an excuse.

Wendy Ward

Q. How was it out there for you today?
WENDY WARD: You know, starting out it was really nice. You know, you start to think, you know, did you get the good or the bad end the draw, silly things like that.

The wind was hardly blowing, it wasn't raining, and then Doug Brecht, our official, he kind the gave us the one-hour window before the rain was coming, and he was pretty accurate with us.

And then it just -- you just gotta kind the mutter through it, you know.

Q. Seemed like when you were on like about 4 you could look and see some darker clouds the you're thinking, that's probably gonna knock us off the course, but it really never picked up.
WENDY WARD: This course really drains well. The officials told us that it only got a half inch from last night through this morning, so we expected to play till dark. I did at least.

Q. Are you pleased with the amount the golf you got in today?
WENDY WARD: Yeah, very, very. We've got six holes left, and you know, we just knew it was gonna be overcast and not quite get 5:30 out of it.

I was happy that I had a tap-in for birdie on 12. So I was happy just to finish that out, and fresh start tomorrow.

Q. How pleased are you that the LPGA is back in Texas?
WENDY WARD: Oh, I'm tickled pink. I've been trying to get back here forever. Been trying to get to San Antonio, Houston, Dallas. I'm not that picky where we play.

I sure noticed it on the 1st and 10th tee respectively the last two days. Just some people excited that we're back and excited to see their Texas girls playing.

Q. So you're getting some additional support being from Texas?
WENDY WARD: I feel like I am. I ran into a high school golf coach that I hadn't seen in probably 18, 19 years, you know. Just kind the brings back memories. It's always good to, you know, kind of have somewhat of a hometown event