ORLANDO, FLORIDA | It sits alone, bracketed between the post-CME Group Tour Championship goodbyes and the first LPGA Tour Asian swing that kicks off in Thailand in late February. Like Midway or Malta, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is an island between two worlds, buffeted to the rear by the Sea of Exhaustion, where everyone promised to put the clubs away until after Christmas, and in the front by the Ocean of Hope, where promise always springs fresh and new.
Most players sail right by HGV Island. Only 29 are in the field at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, winners from the past two seasons on the LPGA Tour. Some LPGA Tour players won’t tee it up again in competition until March 23, when the first full-field event kicks off at Superstition Mountain in Arizona. But for those who docked at this January outpost – the second time Hilton Grand Vacations has hosted the event at Lake Nona, arguably the best golf course in Orlando – expectations vary.
“No golf,” Moriya Jutanugarn said when asked how she spent her o...
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