‘Not become buffet meat’: LPGA pros are under attack by … mosquitoes

Royal Mayfair Golf Club, by all accounts, deserves its first word — royal. There’s its history — it’s been around for 104 years. There’s its location — it’s in the heart of Edmonton, Alberta. There’s its golf — it’s tree-laden course has hosted men’s and women’s professional events, including this week’s LPGA stop, the CPKC Women’s Open.

Nelly Korda can certify its standing. The world’s top-ranked player said she’s found good coffee shops and restaurants. She said she’s been enjoying her time on the golf course. She’s also just been looking around. “The golf course is beautiful,” she said. “I mean, you kind of have the skyline of kind of downtown Edmonton, too, on the golf course, which is really pretty.”

Only Royal Mayfair — and all of Edmonton, for that matter — has been besieged this summer by rainfall, which is mostly manageable.

And so is what has come with the precipitation, as long as you can bear itching and losing a bit of blood.

“The mosquitoes have been really liking me,” Korda said earlier this week at Royal Mayfair.

“I will say that was a little bit of a shock to the system.”

So what gives here?

For an explanation, a pair of stories written earlier this year by CBC News will help. One of the stories — written by Kelsie Johnston and headlined “Edmonton has 15 times more mosquitoes now than at same time last year, city scientist says” — reported that Edmonton has been stung by its biggest skeeter population since the 1980s. The other story — written by Wallis Snowdon and headlined “Blame it on the rain: Record downpour in Edmonton will bring monsoon of mosquitoes (hey, a Milli Vanilli reference!) — said that heavy rains in June would create hordes of mosquitoes. For the science behind all of that, the story talked to Mike Jenkins, the city scientist noted in the first headline. Wrote Snowdon:

Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in moist soil or standing water. Depending on the species, they will hatch within days or lay in wait for the perfect flooding conditions before they are “activated” and begin to hatch, Jenkins said.

Within a week or so, the females who have hatched will be ready to draw blood. That means more rain will bring more mosquitoes, and the bugs are in for a banner, blood-sucking summer.

“They can lay dormant in some cases for up to a decade until they’re actually activated by that precipitation,” he said. “And so they’ve been waiting, they’ve been inundated and now have been activated.”

And they’ve been active at Royal Mayfair. Over two days of pre-tournament press conferences, the mosquitoes were, well, all the buzz.

Said Kiara Romero, who is making her pro debut this week: “Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to wear a jacket out there. The mosquitos are not great. It kind of gets better throughout the afternoon and stuff.”

Said Brooke Henderson, the tournament’s defending champion: “Everyone is finding it very buggy. So far I haven’t been finding it too bad. Maybe I’m more used to it. Yeah, that will definitely be a factor this week.”

Then there were the thoughts of Lydia Ko, the LPGA hall of famer who is one of pro golf’s most personable players. During practice rounds, she said she had been applying spray. For tournament rounds, she said she would dress for the occasion.

“Yeah, I’ve got like white stains on my hat and my pants. I bought three different types of insect repellant yesterday and still trying to figure out which one actually works; don’t know if there is one that actually works,” Ko said.

“Yeah, I said to myself the only goal this week is to survive long sleeves and long pants and long socks, because I am not showing skin where it’s unnecessary. I’m pretty known to wear a lot of sleeveless shirts, so there will be no arms showing this week. I’m just trying to be as covered and not become like buffet meat for the mosquitoes.”

Buffet meat. What a quote.

Only Ko’s approach didn’t seem to work Thursday, when play started.

The bugs simply treated longer clothing as players treat longer grass — they were maybe slowed, but they managed.

Huang said the mosquitoes were biting through her sleeves.

“It’s pretty bad,” she said. “My arms are pretty red right now.”

Let’s try to finish this report positively, though. Could there be a silver lining?

Miyu Yamashita thought so. She also shot a blistering eight-under 62.

And that was perhaps due to the mosquitoes.

“There is so many bugs on the course,” she said.

“But these things make me more focused on the game.”

This article originated on Golf.com