Ai Miyazato, one of three LPGA Tour stars involved in a multi-car crash on Sunday night, pulled out of this week’s HSBC Women’s Champions event in Singapore due to accident-related neck and shoulder pain.
Paula Creamer was also fighting symptoms a couple of days after the five-car pile-up the golfers and their entourages were involved in on the way to the Bangkok airport following Inbee Park’s victory in the Honda LPGA Thailand event.
Miyazato hit some 20 balls on the practice range Tuesday but shut things down after her neck began hurting.
“I still have some stiffness in my neck, shoulder, and back area,” Miyazato said in a statement, “but it is also a precautionary measure so as not to risk further injury this early in the season.”
The ninth-ranked golfer, who finished T21 last week, said she would return to her native Japan to work with her trainer.
Suffering whiplash, Creamer nevertheless took part in a promotional photo shoot Tuesday along with Pettersen, world No. 1 Yani Tseng, and this week’s defending champion Angela Stanford.
"I've felt better, that's for sure," Creamer said. "Those things happen all the time and you can't control something like that.
"I had pretty bad whiplash from hitting the headrest but I took it easy and hope that I can tee it up on Thursday,” she added. “It's pretty amazing...how we walked away, but things happen."
Pettersen, whose car was the last one in the procession and was not part of the accident, was uninjured but rattled.
"We're just lucky enough that we all got away with no major injury," Pettersen said.
The HSBC Women’s Champion starts Thursday on the 6,660-yard, par-72 Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club.
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