Nelly Korda has etched her identify within the LPGA Tour file books, successful her record-tying fifth straight match with a two-stroke victory within the Chevron Championship for her second main title.
Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the one gamers to win 5 consecutive LPGA occasions. Her earlier main victory was in 2021 on the Ladies’s PGA Championship.
The highest-ranked Korda shot a 3-under 69 within the ultimate spherical to outlast Maja Stark of Sweden, who birdied her ultimate two holes to shoot 69 and pull inside one. Korda stayed aggressive on the par-5 18th, simply clearing the lake in entrance of the inexperienced and organising a simple up-and-down birdie for a two-shot victory.
“It’s been a tremendous feeling these previous couple weeks figuring out that I can go on this stretch and that if I keep in my bubble and I preserve golf in a way easy and let it circulation, then I can have so, a lot enjoyable out right here,” she mentioned.
Korda had a four-day complete of 13-under 275 at Carlton Woods.
Her mother and father — former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova — beamed as she was offered with the trophy.
“She had a tough ’22 and ’23 in sure methods,” Petr Korda mentioned.
“She didn’t win a match in ’23 and a few issues in all probability made her humble and (she) put lots of work into the place she is true now. With out the work and dedication, she wouldn’t be right here. So seeing that, I’m very completely satisfied.”
Korda entered the final spherical one shot off the lead after finishing the final seven holes of the weather-delayed third spherical early Sunday morning (native time) on a windy and unseasonably cool day.
She birdied two of her first 4 holes to take the lead. Lauren Coughlin birdied holes 13 and 14 to get inside two strokes, however bogeys on the sixteenth and seventeenth holes put her 4 behind. She shot a final-round 68 end tied for third with Canadian Brooke Henderson.
Korda almost aced the par-3 seventeenth, along with her tee shot hitting the opening and hopping within the air earlier than settling inside 10 ft. She settled for par to take care of her two-shot lead.
Korda wowed the big crowd, which adopted her all through the day, by chipping into the wind for birdie on the par-4 tenth gap to take a four-stroke lead. The 25-year-old raised her membership above her head with one hand and pumped her fist after the ball rolled into the opening.
Haeran Ryu of South Korea shot a bogey-free 67 to enter the ultimate spherical main Korda by one. However the 2023 Rookie of the Yr bogeyed the primary two holes within the fourth spherical to fall out of the lead. She closed with a 74 and completed fifth.
Henderson was tied with Korda for second to start out the final spherical after she shot a 64 within the third spherical to set a scoring file for the match since its transfer from Mission Hills, California, to Texas final 12 months.
However the Canadian, who has 13 LPGA wins with two majors, additionally faltered early within the ultimate spherical, with a bogey and a double bogey within the first 4 holes.
Korda took house $US1.2 million ($1.8 million) from a handbag of $US7.9 million, a major enhance from final 12 months’s purse of $US5.2 million. That brings her season earnings to $US2,424,216 and her profession earnings to $US11,361,489.
Winners had been leaping into Poppie’s Pond off the 18th inexperienced at Mission Hills since 1988, and Korda turned the second to do it in Texas by leaping off a small dock into brown-tinged water.
World quantity two Lilia Vu was first to leap into the pond right here after her win final season. She withdrew from this 12 months’s match earlier than the primary spherical after experiencing “extreme discomfort” in her again throughout heat ups.
Eighteen-year-old novice Jasmine Koo offered an unlikely spotlight on the 18th gap. Her second shot bounced off the promoting board within the water and again into play. She ended up with a birdie to shoot 71.
AP
