HOUSTON (AP) — Nelly Korda is back to No. 1 in the world and looks every bit the part.
Korda was so untouchable at The Chevron Championship that no one got closer than four shots of her the entire weekend. She played her last 29 holes at Memorial Park in even par and still won by five, the largest margin at this major in 18 years.
And it was one of the toughest times she ever had.
“It’s not easy going in with that big of a lead,” said Korda, “I think that was the challenging point with like, where do I still play like Nelly and where do I play a little defensive?”
That’s why where was much relief as joy when she holed a 7-foot par putt to close with a 2-under 70 to capture her third major championship and return to No. 1 in the women’s world ranking for the first time since August.
She celebrated in the best manner possible — a cannon ball into the 4 1/2-foot pool built to the right of the 18th green to keep with the tradition at this major that dates to 1988 when the winner jumped into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills in the California desert.
“Feet first,” she said with a smile, dressed in the winner’s white robe. “I knew it was 4 feet, so I was expecting to hit the ground very fast.”
No one else expected anything else.
Staked to a five-shot lead at the start, Korda was efficient as ever with two early birdies, and two more on the back nine that put the final touches on this masterpiece.
Playing it safe left her a couple of par putts in the 6-foot range, the ones that had given her fits in the third round. She made one on the 11th. She left the next one short, and her lead was down to four shots.
Her caddie told her she should play well short of the pin on the heavily contoured green at the 13th. Korda had other ideas.
“I actually just sent it at the pin and I had a tap-in birdie,” she said.
Korda followed by hammering a 3-wood to just short of the green for a simple up-and-down for birdie. And then it was back to playing it safe — so conservative that instead of hitting a mid-iron onto the par-5 16th over water, she opted to lay up with a gap wedge and then hit lob wedge to 25 feet for a two-putt par.
The victory was her 17th on the LPGA and 21st worldwide. Not since Meg Mallon in 2000 had an American reached three majors in her career, and the 27-year-old Korda is just getting started.
She doesn’t care for comparisons with her 2024 season when she won seven times, including that record-tying streak of five in a row that was capped off at The Chevron.
But it’s the start to a season that will get everyone’s attention. She has played in the final group in all five of her tournaments, winning twice and being runner-up the other three times. And then she won a major by leading the final 57 holes of the tournament.
Korda joined Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991), both at Nabisco Dinah Shore, as the only players in the last 50 years to win LPGA majors when leading by multiple shots after each round.
About the only drama in the final hour — all weekend, really — was whether Korda could break Dottie Pepper’s 72-hole scoring record that has stood since 1999. Korda was playing it safe with a big lead, hitting to the fat of the green and settling for pars, along with another three-putt bogey.
She finished at 18-under 270, one short of Pepper’s record at Mission Hills.
Korda made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole Friday, and didn’t make another putt over 10 feet the rest of the week. That included a trio of 4-foot misses that kept it from being a blowout, and it stayed in her heard.
But that was part of Korda’s new outlook. Don’t worry about mistakes, knowing she could make up for them, and she did.
‘What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s OK to miss short putts and still win a major championship,” she said with a laugh. “You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.
“I wanted to show it to myself and I wanted to show it everyone looking up to me.”
Ruoning Yin (69) and Patty Tavatanakit (70) tied for second. They were the only ones who could even think about having a chance on Sunday.
Tavatanakit walked in a 25-foot birdie on the sixth hole to get within four shots, only to make bogey with a wedge on the par-5 eighth. Yin went 56 consecutive holes without a bogey until making one on the 17th.
Korda won $1.35 million for a victory that puts her back as the best in women’s golf without any debate. And now it’s off to the Gulf Coast of Mexico for the next LPGA event, taking Monday to celebrate and getting back to work on Tuesday.
She loves competition. In this case, she was competing mainly against her herself. It was a big win in many ways because she had self-doubts when she missed those short putts Saturday. Korda told her caddie she did not want those thoughts to creep in during the final round.
“I want to go out and play golf. Whatever happens — if I jump into that pond, if I have the trophy in my hands at the end of the day — then great. I gave it 100%. If I don’t, then I have next week. I have the week after.
“That’s going to be my mindset for the rest of the year.”
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
