CHASKA, Minn. (AP) — In the final round of the Women’s PGA Championship, Nelly Korda moved to within three strokes of the leader, making three sharp shots for birdie on the 10th hole.
Three weeks after Korda returned with her first U.S. Women’s Open title, opening the season with her third straight major victory was within reach on a windy Sunday at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
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“I was really trying to take it one thing at a time,” Korda said. “I was trying to focus on myself because I didn’t know where the leaders were.”
Heavy rain in the morning had softened the greens, delayed play by 3 1/2 hours, and a shaky putter got the best of her, as did the rest of the formidable group at the top of the leaderboard. That’s why the feat she was pursuing is so rare and a daunting prospect even for the runaway LPGA Tour leader.
Hyeran Ryu finished with a 13-under 275, beating Ina Yoon by two strokes, becoming the sixth Korean to win the tournament in the past 12 tournaments. Brooke Henderson and Dewi Weber tied for third at 10 under. Three American players, Alisen Corpuz, Auston Kim, and Allison Lee, tied for fifth place, six strokes behind Ryu.
Korda shot a 1-over 73 to finish seven strokes behind and fall into a four-way tie for eighth place, but she couldn’t match Inbee Park in 2013 and Babe Zaharias in 1950, the only women to win the season’s first three majors.
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For her, it wasn’t an accomplishment she was intentionally pursuing, even though her huge success on the course this year has only increased fan interest in the sport, and fan interest was evident wherever she went this week.
“You guys made it so big. I wasn’t thinking about it, no,” Korda said. “I was just a little disappointed with how I played this week, it wasn’t really a lack of results. I was just thinking about my play and not like the real big picture that everyone is talking about.”
Korda hit five three-putts this week after only three-putts in other tournaments this year. Hazeltine’s distinctive lakeside holes also held him back, with double bogeys in the first and fourth rounds on the 16th. On Sunday, his second shot from the right edge of the fairway went into the water, resulting in a costly penalty stroke and a two-putt on the par-4 hole.
This was the second time in nine official stroke play events this year that Korda did not finish first or second. He also tied for 8th place at the Queen City Championship held in Cincinnati in May. Korda still needs two points to secure a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame. Under this system, a player only needs one more win in a major tournament or two more wins in a regular tour event to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. But Korda has two more majors to play, with the Evian Championship and Women’s British Open coming up next month. If he wins one of them, he will complete a career Grand Slam at the age of 27.
Next week, she plans to rest and reset before traveling to Europe.
“Take a few days off and then practice,” Korda said.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
