Out of the Rough: The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican (2026)

The LPGA Tour returns state-side for the penultimate event of the 2026 season for this week’s The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

This is the seventh 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 for a non-major within the women’s game at $3.25 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

Being the first stop back within the United States and serving as the final event before the end-of-the-season CME Group Tour Championship next week, many of the World’s best will be teeing it up this week in Florida.

World No. 1 Nelly Korda, a three-time winner of this event (2021, 2022 and 2024,) leads the charge this week. Korda hasn’t played since the Solheim Cup and hasn’t appeared on the LPGA Tour since the FM Championship in August.

Haeran Ryu (No. 3,) Lottie Woad (No. 7,) Charley Hull (No. 8,) Sei Young Kim (No. 9,) Brooke Henderson (No. 12,) Gaby Lopez (No. 14,) Ina Yoon (No. 15,) Hye-Jin Choi (No. 16,) Akie Iwai (No. 18) and Lauren Coughlin (No. 20) join Korda as those ranked within the top-20 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to be playing this week.

Linn Grant comes in as the defending champion. Grant topped Jennifer Kupcho by three strokes a season ago. Grant will be back to defend her title this week.

Other former winners of this event playing this week include Lilia Vu (2023) and Sei Young Kim (2020.) 

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, Thursday is currently calling for a 25-percent chance of precipitation. Friday is calling for a 20-percent chance as both Saturday and Sunday are calling for just a five-percent chance. Temperatures will be the highest on Thursday as highs currently call for 76-degrees. Temperatures will drop to 69-degrees on Friday and 65-degrees on Saturday before returning to 69-degrees on Sunday. Winds are currently projected to reach 15 miles-per-hour across Thursday through Saturday before settling to a max of ten miles-per-hour on Sunday.

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 for my full betting card!

2025 Betting Card

• A Lim Kim (+2800) - T48th

• Jin Hee Im (+4000) - MC

• Gaby Lopez (+6500) - 3rd

• Allisen Corpuz (+10000) - T33rd

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