Out of the Rough: The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican (2025)

The LPGA Tour returns state-side for the penultimate event of the 2025 season for this week’s The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

This is the fifth year that this event has been in existence and has been played at the Pelican Golf Club, also known as ‘The Pelican,’ for each of its editions.

This is the only event on the LPGA schedule that is named after an individual, played under the namesake of golf legend Annika Sorenstam.

The event benefits the ANNIKA Foundation which is geared toward junior golf initiatives.

It too features one of the largest purses within the women’s game at $3.5 million.

This too is the final event for any hopeful to find themselves within the top 60 of the Race to the CME Globe points standings to secure a spot in next week’s season finale.

The Field

Serving as the penultimate event of the season combined with having one of the largest purses in the game, this event annually draws a star studded field.

World No. 2 Nelly Korda headlines the field as she too comes in as the defending champion. This event served as her seventh victory of the 2024 season, becoming the first woman since Yani Tseng in 2011 to reach such a feat. She too became the first American since Beth Daniel in 1990 to win seven events in a season. Korda also won this event in both 2022 and 2021.

Korda will be joined by Miyu Yamashita (No. 4,) Charley Hull (No. 6,) Mao Saigo (No. 9,) Rio Takeda (No. 13,) Haeran Ryu (No. 14) and Maja Stark (No. 15) as those within the top-15 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to be teeing it up this week.

As previously mentioned, this is the final event for golfers to find themselves in top 60 of the Race to the CME Globe standings for a chance to tee it up next week.

As it stands, Manon De Roey, Pajaree Anannarukarn, Jenny Shin, Wei-Ling Hsu and Cassie Porter are the first five within the cut line. All five will be playing this week.

Brooke Matthews, Robyn Choi, Saki Baba, Gurleen Kaur and Julia Lopez Ramirez are currently the first five out. All five will be in attendance this week, seeking big performances to get across the cut line.

Lilia Vu won this event in 2023 and too will be teeing it up this week.

The Course

The Pelican Golf Club plays as a par-70 at 6,349 yards.

It was originally a Donald Ross design and was redesigned by Beau Welling in 2008. The goal of Welling’s redesign was to pay tribute to Ross’ original design while bringing the course up to par with modern advancements within the game.

The redesign was described to seamlessly blend rich history with contemporary elegance.

One of the biggest parts of the redesign was the inclusion of Latitude 36 Bermudagrass across the fairways, becoming the first course on Florida’s west coast to do so.

The land that the course sits on is flat but the architecture effectively uses fairway bunkers and elevated greens to create its largest lines of defense.

Off-the-tee, golfers will be treated to wide fairways that measure nearly 40-yards across on the front-nine and 60-yards across on the back-nine.

Although the fairways are large and everyone will be hitting them, finding the correct side of the fairway to be on will be the biggest challenge.

Pelican Golf Club features large, undulating greens and landing on the wrong side of the fairway will make it that much more challenging to put the approach shot close to the pin.

The greens at The Pelican feature intimate, subtle rolls with various knobs and tiers.

The greens at this venue make this a true second-shot course.

Two holes are highlighted this week, first being Hole 12, a short par-three that features the course’s lone true-carry of water. The rest of the greens this week are designed for run-up shots but that won’t be the case on Hole 12.

Hole 18 is par-four that blends length with clever design, culminating in a challenging final hole.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is at most a five-percent chance of precipitation across all four days. Thursday is currently calling for a zero-percent chance as Friday through Sunday is calling for a five-percent chance. Temperatures will begin at 72-degrees on Thursday and will gradually increase to 75-degrees come Sunday. Winds will be at their highest on Thursday at nine miles-per-hour before dropping to eight miles-per-hour on Friday and seven miles-per-hour across the weekend.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Ball Striking

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

• Average Driving Distance

• Sand Save Percentage

• Par 3 Average Scoring

Betting Card

A Lim Kim (+2800)

Earlier this season, I was on Kim a bit, citing that she was much better than her run of form and odds suggested. I was correct, it just took some time. She’s finally found her form as of late, making six consecutive cuts coming into this week. She last appeared at the Maybank Championship where she placed fourth. She also placed third at the BMW Ladies Championship, tenth at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, tenth at the LOTTE Championship, 29th at the Kroger Queen City Championship and 24th at the FM Championship. She is currently seventh on Tour in ball striking, 12th in average driving distance, 25th in par-three average scoring, 36th in SG: APP, 53rd in sand saves percentage and 80th in SG: PUTT. She placed T34th here a season ago, missed the cut in both 2023 and 2022 and placed T33rd in 2021. 

Jin Hee Im (+4000)

This is great value for someone who was the runner-up here a season ago. She hasn’t missed a cut since the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, 12 events ago. As of late she placed 23rd at the Maybank Championship, 31st at the BMW Ladies Championship, 22nd at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, 35th at the LOTTE Championship, 22nd at the Kroger Queen City Championship and fifth at the FM Championship. She is currently eighth on Tour in sand saves percentage, 22nd in par-three average scoring, 29th in SG: PUTT, 59th in ball striking, 78th in SG: APP and 89th in average driving distance.

Gaby Lopez (+6500)

Lopez has been great at this event and venue over the past five seasons. She placed T32nd a season ago, T12th in 2023, T4th in 2022 and T6th in 2021. She last played the Maybank Championship where she placed 23rd. Prior to that she placed 45th at the BMW Ladies Championship, 18th at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, missed the cut at the Kroger Queen City Championship, ninth at the CPKC Women’s Open, missed the cut at the the AIG Women’s Open Championship and placed ninth at the Amundi Evian Championship. Lopez is currently 29th on Tour in ball striking, 31st in average driving distance, 44th in par-three average scoring, 61st in SG: APP, 86th in SG: PUTT and 90th in sand saves percentage. 

Allisen Corpuz (+10000)

Corpuz too has been great at this event and venue over the past three seasons. She placed T14th a season ago, T25th in 2023 and third in 2022. She has made five consecutive cuts coming into this week. She last played the BMW Ladies Championship where she placed 40th. Prior to that she placed 47th at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, 14th at the LOTTE Championship, 47th at the Kroger Queen City Championship and 20th at the FM Championship. Corpuz is currently 13th on Tour in sand saves percentage, 19th in ball striking, 34th in SG: APP, 53rd in par-three average scoring, 96th in SG: PUTT and 122nd in average driving distance.