{"id":139844,"date":"2026-02-01T18:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139844\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T18:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:12:07","slug":"lpga-starting-late-sunday-in-freezing-orlando-toc-reduced-to-54-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139844\/","title":{"rendered":"LPGA starting late Sunday in freezing Orlando, TOC reduced to 54 holes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated Feb. 1, 2026, 12:58 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As celebrities grind in sub-freezing temperatures in Orlando, Florida, LPGA players are still waiting to get on the course. After high winds suspended play at 4:19 p.m. ET on Saturday, a blast of extreme cold hit central Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Celebrities competing in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/golf\/lpga\/leaderboard\/5008493\/tee-times\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">2026 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions<\/a> began playing at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday, but officials have pushed back the LPGA restart until at least 1 p.m. ET with the last tee time scheduled for 2:39 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This would have set up a Monday finish but the tour has decided to reduce the TOC to 54 holes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Annika Sorenstam, a Lake Nona resident who is playing in the celebrity division, teed off on the 10th hole at 10 a.m. ET and played nine holes in 1 hour and 45 minutes. (The final round for celebrities was reduced to nine holes.) Sorenstam said the conditions Sunday morning were &#8220;very playable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t know why they&#8217;re not playing,&#8221; said Sorenstam. &#8220;There&#8217;s pitch marks. I mean, I hit some crispy shots today and the ball even stopped. I am surprised. It&#8217;s difficult, it&#8217;s cold but it&#8217;s as fair as anything. I told J.R. we can continue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As for why celebrities are playing and LPGA pros are not, a tour official said they lacked an optimal competitive environment for a professional event, but couldn&#8217;t elaborate on exactly what conditions would be optimal. The celebrities, the official noted, are playing in an exhibition (though there is a purse).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As former MLB pitcher John Smoltz finished up his third round mid-morning, it was 30 degrees with a feels-like temperature of 20. There were white caps on Lake Nona.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Twice LPGA players went out to the range but were sent back inside after officials pushed their start time to 11 a.m. ET and then noon ET.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A total of LPGA eight players have yet to finish Round 3. It&#8217;s uncertain how they will be re-paired to finish the third round. As it stands, leader Nelly Korda will not be in the final group but is scheduled to now is set to tee off at 2:17 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/78482385007-getty-images-83937478.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Feb. 1, 2026, 12:58 p.m. ET As celebrities grind in sub-freezing temperatures in Orlando, Florida, LPGA players&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[31,139,141,140,67619,67620,2380,39,2209,27456,343,9121,20521,342,9124,3786,307,300,379,401,34],"class_list":["post-139844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-accessfree","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sstssportsgolflpga","tag-sstsnlpga","tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","tag-tagflorida","tag-taggolf","tag-taginternational-sports-competitions","tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","tag-taglpga","tag-tagmlb","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnelly-korda","tag-tagorlando","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagweather","tag-tagwomens-sports","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}