IN the French spa town known for its purifying mineral water, it was torrents of the wet stuff which forced officials to abandon the first round of the Evian Championship, the final major of the women’s season.

After five hours of torrential downpours combined with strong winds on the shores of Lake Geneva, it was decided to reduce the event to 54 holes.

This will be the second time the Evian Championship has been contested over three rounds – having also been cut in 2013, the year the event was first elevated to major status.

As a result of yesterday’s abandonment, almost half the field will get to reset their scores and start off again.

That will come as a relief for Sung Hyun Park, the current US Women’s Open champion, who stumbled to a nine on her second hole and racked up a triple-bogey on her fifth before play was initially suspended and then wiped out completely.

Those who fared better, meanwhile, will have to start again too.

Jessica Korda and So Yeon Ryu had squelched their way to the top of the leaderboard

at two-under through eight and five holes respectively when the klaxon sounded to bring proceedings to an end.

“While we did not make

this decision lightly, we believe that this is the right decision

to have the fairest, most competitive tournament for all players in this field,” said LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan. “It’s pretty

saturated and we were worried about safety.”