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The conditions at the Memorial Park Golf Club are not favorable. The last couple of days in Houston, Texas saw a lot of rain. The fairways were flooded enough for the course to be evacuated thrice in two days. Now that the major has teed off, the pros are paying the price for the poor conditions. And that has made it difficult for them to perform.
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As Beth Ann Nichols from Golfweek reported, “It’s a complete guessing game. The topic of mud balls came up often during pre-tournament press conferences at soggy Memorial Park. On Thursday, in the opening round of the Chevron Championship, many LPGA players were surprised by the tour’s decision to play the ball down. Two-time Chevron winner Brittany Lincicome counted seven times during the course of her opening round that her ball had enough dirt caked on to impact the flight.”
Looking to compete for her third Chevron Championship title, Brittany Lincicome has had a horrid time in the first round of the event. After 18 holes, she shot a 6-over 78 in a round packed only with bogeys. Six bogeys and twelve pars were enough to push her down to T122 on the leaderboard. We can assume the seven mudballs throughout the day had a huge role to play in that.
But the tournament officials didn’t budge. Even after watching the multi-time major winners downfall. They didn’t even listen to Hannah Green, who had the same complaint.
“I feel like we need to have our ruling go to a card length instead a club length. Because I feel like the reason why we never play it up is because we actually are somewhat changing the angle of the shot. With a scorecard length, you can’t. Maybe one day that rule will change and help us out a little bit.”
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The PGA Tour changed the rules of preferred lies after receiving a lot of complaints about it. They modified the relief from club lenght, (46 inches on average,) to full scorecard lenght (11 inches). That made the rule more acceptable.
However, the LPGA Tour still follows the club lenght rule for preferred lies. Green believes that’s the reason the tournament officials don’t apply it frequently in challenging conditions. She believes that if the LPGA Tour also changes the rules, then the tournament officials will be more comfortable exercising them.
However, it’s worth noting that the PGA Tour didn’t change the preferred lies rule on a whim. They faced a lot of backlash from the fans before they decided to modify it.
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Why the LPGA Tour needs to learn from the PGA Tour instead of waiting to change the rule
As mentioned, the PGA Tour didn’t take the decision to change the preferred lies rule in the blue. After implementing it for a few events, they realized there is a major flaw in it that didn’t receive the approval of the netizens.
The most backlash they faced was during the TOUR Championship in August 2025. After constant rain and flooded fairways, the tournament officials were forced to apply the preferred lies rule for three straight rounds. And that didn’t sit well with the fans.
The internet criticized the event officials for making the situation too convenient for the players. Especially in the third round, they were furious that the rule was in play despite there being no rain for many hours.
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The Tour had been receiving such reactions every time they brought the rule into play throughout 2025. That must have forced Brian Rolapp & Co. to modify it enough that it doesn’t give the players too much of an advantage.
Speaking of the LPGA Tour, if they want to consider changing the rule, then they need to take the PGA Tour as an example. If they wait too long for the fans to react to it, then the product might become too frustrating for them to continue watching it. However, if the rule is modified soon, then not only will they avoid the backlash, but also make it just enough convenient for the LPGA Tour stars to get some relief in events with bad weather conditions.
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