When Taiwanese golfer Juliana Hung holed out from 70 yards away on No. 18 during her second round of the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open, little did she know how important that finale would become.
Hung’s eagle gave her a one-stroke advantage heading into what was expected to be a wild final round of the tournament at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
But when a freakish hail storm pounded the Denver golf course on Friday, organizers had to cancel the final round, meaning that Hung edged Dana Fall by one stroke to take the top prize of $100,000.
Because of this hailstorm, the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club tells us their final round of the Colorado Women’s Open Golf Tournament is canceled. Some good news: the awards ceremony will still be held at 9:30am and driving range opens at noon. Full story at 9:00am. pic.twitter.com/DnHkpIDVOU
— Brian Sherrod (@briansherrodtv) May 31, 2024
CBS Colorado had more on the storm:
General Manager of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club Matt Bryant met up with CBS Colorado Traffic Reporter Brian Sherrod to discuss the impact from the hailstorm. Bryant says the hail started hitting the field around 10 p.m. Thursday. It left hundreds to thousands of dents on the field, causing them to cancel their Colorado’s Women’s Golf Tournament.
Bryant tells CBS Colorado he has been working there for 18 years and this is the first time ever he’s had to cancel this tournament. Bryant says along with the dents, they have to remove the broken tree limbs from around the course. Bryant hopes the course will be reopened by the weekend but says it all depends on the weather.
“When you have hundreds of thousands of hail stones hitting the greens, it’s just like a battlefield,” Bryant said. “We have to do different grounds practices to get the greens back into smooth condition. Hopefully, we will be able to open this weekend.”
Hung, 22, broke the Epson Tour 54-hole scoring record earlier this year when she shot 19 under par at the IOA Championship in California. The record had been set in 2019 by Fernanda Lira and later matched by Alexa Pano in 2022 and Gabi Ruffels in 2023.
