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04/25 18:33 CDT Nelly Korda slows her torrid pace and settles for 5-shot lead
in Chevron Championship
Nelly Korda slows her torrid pace and settles for 5-shot lead in Chevron
Championship
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
HOUSTON (AP) --- Nelly Korda tied the 54-hole scoring record at The Chevron
Championship on Saturday. She had a five-shot lead going into the final round,
the largest of her career. A victory would take her back to No. 1 in the
women's world ranking.
And she headed straight for the putting green.
For so much that had gone right for Korda, who stretched her lead to eight
shots at one point at Memorial Park, there was part of her game she needed to
polish. She missed three 4-foot putts over the final 11 holes and had to settle
for a 2-under 70 in an otherwise exquisite performance.
"On the back nine I learned that I needed to stay in it and not to focus so
much on my mis-hits with my putts," she said. "So I just needed to keep giving
myself opportunities, which I was. I don't want it to bleed into the other
parts of my game where then I start to get so frustrated that it affects my
driver, affects my irons. Just didn't want that at all. I wanted to continue
giving myself opportunities even if I want holing them.
"I was still trying my best, and at the end of the day that's all I can
control," she said. "I can't be frustrated with anything but that."
Korda looked close to unbeatable for so long with another clinic controlling
her irons on the heavily sloped greens. And then the gap began to shrink as her
contenders did just enough to stay in range.
"I played really solid on the front and then just kind of ... not may have lost
concentration, but the wind started picking up and then I just put myself into
great positions (and) didn't kind of execute really well," Korda said.
The heat and humidity also took a toll, and Korda often walked the fairways
with an umbrella to shield her from the sun.
Patty Tavatanakit, who went 48 holes without a bogey before making one on the
13th, bounced back with a pair of birdies over the last five holes for a 69 to
get within five shots. It was a remarkable scrambling performance for
Tavatanakit, who won this major as a rookie in 2021. She got up-and-down seven
out of eight times.
Ruoning Yin of China, a Women's PGA champion and former No. 1 in the world,
shot 66 and was six shots behind along with Pauline Roussin-Bouchard of France,
who had a 67.
Korda was at 16-under 200 to tie the tournament record set by Jennifer Kupcho
in 2022, the last year the major was at Mission Hills in the California desert.
For seven holes, this was the best player in women's golf in full flight.
A long bunker shot to 4 feet gave her a birdie on the par-5 opening hole. She
hit 8-iron to 3 feet of a dangerous front pin on the par-3 second, hit a gap
wedge to 6 feet for birdie on the fifth, and holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the
next hole to reach 18 under.
Korda didn't miss a green until a lob wedge to the par-5 eighth was slightly
strong and just rolled over the green into a shaved area. She chipped that to 4
feet and missed for her first bogey.
That turned out to be the start of the doldrums. Korda had a 12-foot birdie
putt on the 13th that narrowly missed, and then she missed the 4-footer coming
back and made bogey. She was just over the green in two on the par-5 14th,
chipped that to 4 feet and missed the birdie putt.
She took on another front pin at the par-3 15th in a narrow part of the green.
That settled 8 feet behind the pin. The birdie putt never had a chance.
Korda missed only two greens but took 32 putts. The short misses have been
noticeable even this year when she was runner-up twice to Hyo Joo Kim in
consecutive weeks.
Even so, the American star is right where she wants to be. Korda will be in the
final group for all five tournaments she has played this year, including her
weather-shortened win to start the year at the Tournament of Champions in
Florida.
"I'm just going to focus on myself, kind of work on my process, really dial
into that, make sure that I have tunnel vision, and not really focus on the
exterior noise," Korda said.
Tavatanakit one-putted every green through six holes and tried to stay in the
game, even when falling eight shots behind. She took on the pin at No. 4 and
went down a hill, only to hit a superb flop shot to 2 feet for par. It was like
that for so much of the day.
"You just do what you got to do," she said. "It's a major championship. It's
playing tough. You're not going to always have your best, but you just got
figure out what's in front of you."
Farah O'Keefe, the 20-year-old junior at Texas, had a 72 and remained the low
amateur at 7-under 209, putting her in a tie for sixth place and nine shots
behind.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
