WITH WIN, KORDA MOVES BACK TO NO. 1
A year Nelly Korda would like to forget is ending with the American star in a familiar position as the No. 1 player in women’s golf.
Locked in a battle with Lexi Thompson along the back nine, Korda pulled ahead with birdies on the 16th and 17th hole and held on for a 6-under 64 for a oneshot victory Sunday in the Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Fla.
Korda won at Pelican Golf Club for the second straight year, this one elevating her past Thai teenager Atthaya Thitikul to reclaim the No. 1 ranking.
Korda started the year at No. 1, but then she missed four months with a blood clot in her left arm and has been struggling to regain her form ever since. Her only victory was in the Aramco Team Series in Spain on the Ladies European Tour.
This was her first LPGA Tour title, and the tears when it was over were evident how much it meant to her after all her struggles.
“Honestly, amazing,” she said about her return to No. 1. “It’s been a tough year. I missed two cuts in Arkansas and Dallas, but I kept my head high and worked really hard. It feels really good to be on top.”
Thompson ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to take the lead, and Korda stayed right with her.
They were tied when Korda, in the group in front of Thompson, birdied the 16th. Then, Korda hit driver on the short 17th that set up a 10-foot birdie putt. Thompson
couldn’t match it. Her wedge was badly misjudged because of the spin, and it rolled all the way off the green and left Thompson scrambling for par.
It was the second straight year Thompson, who hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour in more than three years, let a chance to win at Pelican Golf Club get away from her.
A year ago, Korda birdied the 18th and Thompson made bogey, a two-shot swing that led to a playoff that Korda won with a birdie.
This time, Korda’s approach to the 18th sailed over the green and she had to two-putt from some 30 feet to escape with bogey and post a 14-under 196.
That gave Thompson a chance for a two-shot swing by making birdie to force a playoff. But she hooked her tee shot into light rough, and her approach from about 187
yards into the wind went right and long, narrowly avoiding the water.
Thompson’s pitch settled 2 feet away. The par gave her a 66 and a runner-up finish.
Allisen Corpuz, an LPGA Tour rookie who started the final round with a one-shot lead, birdied two of her last four holes for a 69 to finish alone in third.
The leading 60 players in the Race to the CME Globe advance to the season-ending Tour Championship next week in Naples.
The final spot for the $7 million purse next week — the winner gets $2 million, a record for women’s golf — went to Ariya Jutanugarn, who had missed the cut at Pelican.
Alker takes Cup
Steven Alker shot 3under 68 to finish third behind record-setting Padraig Harrington in the Charles
Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, completing his climb from career journeyman to champion of the PGA Tour Champions.
Harrington needed to win and have Alker finish outside the top five to claim the season-long Charles Schwab Cup in his second season on the 50-and-over tour. The 51-year-old Irishman took care of the winning by shooting 6-under 65 at Phoenix Country Club.
Harrington finished at 27-under 257 to break the PGA Tour Champions 72hole record of 258 set by Tom Lehman at the 2012 Schwab Cup Championship. The 27 under matches the record set by Jack Nicklaus at the 1990 Kaulig Companies Championship.
Elsewhere
Tony Finau won the Houston Open and it was never in doubt. For a guy who once had a hard time winning, this one was easy.
Finau had a four-shot lead going into the final round. He led by as many as eight shots along the back nine. Finau shot a 69 and won by four shots over
Tyson Alexander.
Tommy Fleetwood ended three years without a victory when he closed with a 5-under 67 to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa for the second straight time.
Fleetwood overcame a three-shot deficit and held on to win by one shot over
Ryan Fox, who closed with a bogey for a 68. Fox could have moved past Rory McIlroy atop the DP World Tour points list with a win.