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

• Three-Putt Avoidance

• Sand Save Percentage

• Par 3 Average Scoring

Betting Card

Check back early next week for my full betting card!