This week is the second playing of the Blue Bay LPGA, which is being held at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course. Though no major storms are expected, the wind could play a factor this week at the seaside resort golf course designed by the Mark Hollinger and JMP Golf Design Group located along the southeastern coastline of China’s Hainan Island.

"I think it’s going to be different but with the water being here the wind is going to play a huge factor," said Lydia Ko. "I think everyone is going to expect some windy days."

"The Hainan Island are at the same latitude of Puerto Rico with Island Caribbean-type weather, and there are no tropical storms in the forecast," said LPGA Rules Official Brad Alexander. "There is a 15 to 20 percent chance of rain in the afternoon as it heats up just like South Florida."

The 6,778 yard, par 72 Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course is considered a tropical links-style golf course.

“I’d love to defend it. I’m playing well at the moment, striking the ball great,” said Lee-Anne Pace. “I think it’s a nice golf course where you have to attack the small parts of the green, so if you’re pretty accurate with your irons, you’re going to score well this week.”

The rough will be about one inch in length with the greens running about 10 ½ on the stimpmeter, although the course is not without other challenges, like most links courses, the combination of stronger winds and undulating greens are a factor.

"The biggest playing challenge this week are the green complexes," said Alexander. "Here the greens are very uniquely designed, and the players need to think about how to play their shots into the greens because they are very undulating, and all have different portions. So most of the green centers have big undulations and the left, right and back are flat which is where we put the hole locations. Each hole has a couple different target greens."

Ko played well at Blue Bay LPGA last year and recalled the course had quite big greens with a variety of pin positions.

"Last year obviously with the rain you couldn’t see the whole area," said Ko. "It’s quite undulating greens, so if you hit it on the wrong side, you can get some tricky pin positions. I think I played the 72nd hole in the dark with Mariajo (Uribe) and were like we’re not coming back for one hole. Hopefully, I get to see more of the 18 holes this time."

Tricky Greens Can Play a Factor this Week

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