GOLF

LPGA: The Pelican Women’s Championship will be 54 holes because of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Nicole and will not start until Friday at the earliest, the LPGA Tour says.

The one development from washing out the opening round: Hye-Jin Choi decided to withdraw, meaning Atthaya Thitikul has clinched the points-based award for LPGA rookie of the year. Thitikul has won twice this year, and the 19-year-old Thai athlete has reached No. 1 in the women’s world ranking. Thitikul is the second player to be LPGA rookie of the year and reach No. 1 in the world in the same year. Sung Hyun Park did it in 2017.

The Pelican Women’s Championship is the penultimate event on the schedule. The leading 60 players advance next week to the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, which offers a $7 million purse.

PGA: Tony Finau delivered late birdies for a 5-under 65 that gave him a share of the lead Thursday in the Houston Open.

Finau used a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 second hole, his 11th of the round, to start a stretch of four birdies in five holes. He was tied for the lead with bogey-free Aaron Wise and Alex Noren of Sweden.

Tyson Alexander also was at 5-under and drove into the left rough when the first round was suspended because of darkness. Alexander chose not to finish his round and will finish the 18th on Friday morning before starting his second round.

CHAMPIONS: Steven Alker matched Padraig Harrington’s early birdies and kept playing steady golf, giving him a one-shot lead over the only player who can pass him for the Charles Schwab Cup.

Alker shot a bogey-free 6-under 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Alker has to finish no worse than fifth to win the Charles Schwab Cup and is in good position after posting six birdies at Phoenix Country Club.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Ryan Fox reeled off five birdies and an eagle on the back nine to take the first-round lead at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa on Thursday and boost his hopes of overtaking Rory McIlroy in the European Tour rankings.

Fox opened his challenge at Sun City with an 8-under 64 for a one-shot lead over England’s Luke Donald. McIlroy isn’t playing in the penultimate tournament of the season and a victory would put Fox top of the rankings ahead of next week’s season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: The WNBA will allow coaches to challenge one play a game next season, and the league is also heightening the penalty for transition take fouls.

The league announced the changes on Thursday. The league’s competition committee recommended the rules changes and the WNBA Board of Governors approved them.

Both rules, which will go into effect next season, are already used in the NBA.

WORLD CUP: Jim Boylen has not spent any time thinking about what the World Cup qualifying standings might look like after USA Basketball’s game against Brazil on Friday. He just keeps thinking how the Americans have four qualifying games left.

“And in my brain, I’m acting like we’ve got to win four to get in,” Boylen said.

He knows differently. The U.S. (7-1 in qualifying) can clinch a berth in next year’s World Cup with a win Friday, when it hosts Brazil (5-3) in Washington. The national team has a chance to lock up one of the 32 spots for the tournament to be played next summer in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

The World Cup provides the most direct path for teams to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Americans have used primarily G League players in qualifying games; those players know top NBA players will take their roster spots in the World Cup and the Olympics.

TENNIS

BILLIE JEAN KING CUP:  Britain pulled off an unlikely 3-0 victory over Spain in the Billie Jean King Cup on Thursday in Glasgow, Scotland, to reach the semifinals of the top team event in women’s tennis for the first time in 41 years.

Australia also reached the last four in Glasgow, but the story of the day was Britain’s remarkable comeback to win Group C – sealed by a victory by a rookie doubles pairing. Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls were late call-ups following Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal and shrugged off the pressure of a winner-takes-all doubles match against Aliona Bolsova and Rebeka Masarova to win 7-6 (5), 6-2.

The Czechs defeated Poland 2-1 and will play the U.S. for a place in the semifinals. It’s the same scenario for Canada after beating Italy 3-0 in Group A to set up a winner-takes-all match against Switzerland on Friday.