Third-year LPGA Tour member Brooke Pancake set the pace in the first round of the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic with a bogey-free, 6-under 67. Pancake said she took advantage of the calmer wind conditions early in the round and birdied six of her first seven holes before closing with nine-consecutive pars on her back nine. She leads fellow Americans Brittany Lincicome and Natalie Gulbis, who both finished at 5-under, by one shot.

Play was suspended for the day at 2:47 p.m. ET due to unplayable conditions with the first groups of the afternoon wave through 12 holes. Play will resume at 8:00am ET with the second round planned to start at 10:45am ET.

“I luckily got to get out early this morning and really took advantage of not as strong there’s still wind but not as strong of a wind on my first nine, and I putted really well,” said Pancake. “I gave myself a lot of birdie looks, and I really took advantage of those. It was definitely nice having those going into the back nine and going into the rest of the week.”

Pancake is playing for her first career LPGA Tour win and is coming off a missed cut last week at the season-opening Coates Golf Championship Presented by R+L Carriers. Her career-best finish was a T13 during her rookie year in 2013 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

“It was really nice to be in this position and be able to keep pushing to go lower and lower. I’ve been in situations in the past where I’ll have a really great round going and then I’ll have a couple bogeys here and there,” said Pancake. “I definitely have a lot of trust and confidence in my short game right now, so as I was turning into the front nine, and if I missed a couple greens, it didn’t frazzle me because it was coming so easily on the front nine. It was definitely a really good testament to where my game is headed for the rest of the year.”

Inbee Park, who was unseated from her No. 1 ranking by 17-year old Lydia Ko this week, opened with a 5-under 68 that included an eagle on No. 7 and three birdies on the back nine. Ko was 1-under through eight holes before play Rolex Rankings No. 20 Brittany Lincicome (-5) Rolex Rankings No. 1 Lydia Ko (-1) was suspended with her group on the 18th hole.

“We’ve still got 10 more holes, and I know there are birdie opportunities,” said Ko. “18th is a par 5, too. We’ve just got to stay patient, and hopefully I will make a couple more birdies down the stretch.”

Leaderboard

Position	Player	R1	To Par
1	Brooke Pancake	67	-6
T2	Brittany Lincicome	68	-5
T2	Natalie Gulbis	68	-5
T2	Inbee Park	68	-5

The Passing of the Green Bib

It’s become a tradition for the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings to have their caddies don the green bib with the No. 1 on the back. LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan honored history this week by presenting Lydia Ko and her caddie, Jason Hamilton, the bib on the 10th tee before her 12:20pm tee time. Hamilton, who had caddied for former world No. 1 Yani Tseng during her dominant stretch on Tour, is no stranger to the bib, but Ko was excited by the mini ceremony.

“I mean, he had the green bib with Yani before, so he’s used to it more than me,” said Ko. “But that was really cool. It was in this black, very professional little case. You know, it was really cool, and it was great that the commish could present it to Jason. A very special moment.”

Gulbis Back in Good Form

Natalie Gulbis was ready to let her playing do the talking this week in her first start of the 2015 season. The 14-year LPGA veteran has been struggling with injuries, the most recent a hip injury that she had finally got surgery on this past November. She’s now pain free and was thrilled to get off to a strong start with a bogey-free 5-under 68 in the first round.

“I hit it good,” said Gulbis. “The last couple weeks that I have been able to practice, I’ve been practicing a lot and spent a lot of time with Butch and a lot of time at TaylorMade, and I have some new equipment. It’s been like any other getting ready for the season. I didn’t play last week. I wasn’t quite ready last week. I’m just happy to be back.”

Gulbis considers her last event to be the U.S. Women’s Open last July where she missed the cut. She played on sponsor exemptions in Malaysia and Korea in the fall to test out the physical therapy treatments she was trying but didn’t see the results she wanted. She was invited to Lorena Ochoa’s event in November and then had surgery to repair the tears during the week of Thanksgiving. She said she wasn’t ready to make her first start in Ocala last week and spent her time working with some new gear in her bag.

“All TaylorMade. New driver I think is the biggest difference just because I hit it further, and this course is easier hitting it even though it was windy, I probably hit it 10 yards further, 10, 15 yards further than last time, and I could reach par 5s that I couldn’t reach last year,” said Gulbis.

Braving the Weather

It’s not the first time the LPGA has battled weather issues in the Bahamas and it’s the second tournament in as many weeks the Tour has seen weather delays. Last week in Ocala, play was delayed for both frost and fog.

The rain on Paradise Island on Thursday was nothing compared to the record-breaking rainfall the event saw in its inaugural year in 2013. But the 1.10 inches was enough to call play for the day. “We hit a drive on 18, which was the 9th hole for the day, and just before Jessica hit, it started pouring. We decided to wait a little bit, but then the horn blew, so we came in, waited for, what, an hour or so, and apparently there’s still more coming. Hopefully everything will be cleared up by tomorrow morning, but it was good. I didn’t wear any glasses so I didn’t have to wipe anything.”

It was Ko’s first time playing in the rain without her glasses and said she was relieved that she didn’t have to bother with wiping off her thick frames anymore. The contacts held up well through the first eight holes.

“They’re good, no problems,” said Ko. “You know, it was good. It was good that I was like, man, I’ve got nothing. There’s nothing in my way. I didn’t mind the rain. It was a good test.” Windy conditions hit the first round hard with gusts reaching in the low 20’s mph. Brittany Lincicome was in a mid-morning group and felt the effects off the tee.

“It was different out there,” said Lincicome. “Every time I was with a left-to-right wind I either snap-hooked it way left or blocked it way right...but when the wind was right to left, I crushed it and I did really well.”

Quotable

“I mean, it’s just so fun. Tom and his family, Melanie, they’re just such wonderful people, so any time you see them, you just like automatically smile because they’re just so great, like down to earth people, so we’re going to dinner tonight, so that’ll be fun. It is cool to see like my name on the bag, obviously, and then being affiliated with a sponsor of the event like CME, my sponsor sponsoring the event. It’s a really cool feeling.”

-Brittany Lincicome on playing well as a Pure Silk player ambassador

2015 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic First Round Notes

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