The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) hosted their first major championship of the season last weekend with the playing of the Chevron Championship at the Woodlands in Texas. While the Chevron might be a bit of a head scratcher to casual fans of the LPGA Tour, this variation of the year's first major used to be held in Palm Desert and used to go by the name of the ANI Inspiration Dinah Shore. Chevron took over title sponsorship some two years ago and moved the tournament nearer to its corporate headquarters.
The big news coming out of the Chevron was that American Nelly Korda, the number one ranked woman golfer in the world, won the title by two strokes to claim the second major title of her relatively young career. The 25 year old Korda, who is the daughter of former Australian Open tennis champ Petr Korda, has had a Scottie Scheffler-like year thus far, coming in a tie for 16th place at the season commencing Tournament of Champions, and then winning her next five LPGA tournaments in a row. Most impressive in her run to the winner's circle is that her victories occurred under different formats in varying climates and conditions.
In January of this year, Korda captured the LPGA Drive On Championship in Arizona, defeating Lydia Ko in a sudden death playoff. Had Ko won the Drive On, she would have accumulated that one more victory she needs for automatic induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Yet such was not the case for Lydia. After taking the month of February off, Nelly returned to action in Los Angeles and won the Fir Hills Se Ri Pak Championship, defeating Ryan O'Toole in another sudden death playoff. One week later Nelly was in Arizona for the playing of the inaugural Ford Championship. This time she took care of business without needing overtime, closing out with a fourth round 65 to beat out Hira Naveed by two strokes. The LPGA then moved on to Las Vegas for the playing of the T-Mobile Match Play Championship where Korda won all of her matches, defeating Leona Maguire by a 4&3 margin (four holes up with just three holes to go) in the finals. The T-Mobile win made it a most impressive four victories in a row.
Which brings us to last weekend's Chevron Championship. Korda was on history's doorstep as only Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam from the end of 2004 to the beginnings of 2005 had ever won five LPGA events in a row. Lopez and Sorenstam are on the LPGA's Mount Rushmore of golfers of note who have played women's professional golf. Nelly not only had the added pressure of a possible five wins in a row, but the site of that fifth win would have to be in the pressure cooker of a major championship. Heady stuff for a 25 year old woman who had previously won the 2021 KPMG Women's PGA Championship as well an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo that same year.(the 2020 Olympics were contested in 2021 because of the Covid pandemic).
The weather in Texas last week didn't exactly excite the local Chamber of Commerce as it was cold, blustery, and rain delayed. Korda opened up with a 66 on Thursday, shot 68 on Friday, and took two days to complete her rain delayed third round with a 69 on Sunday morning. She was -10 under par aggregate but was closely pursued by Brooke Henderson, Miaya Stark, Hae Ran Ryu, and a fast charging Lauren Coughlin. Yet the wind and the toughness of the course made birdies a difficult proposition and no one was going to go low in those conditions.
Korda would make three birdies on the front nine and from the 14th hole onward she played safe golf. However, she missed a short birdie putt on 14, made a watery bogey on the 15th hole, and missed another short birdie putt on 17. Stark would birdie 18 to get to -10 under and suddenly Korda's lead was down to two strokes. The 18th hole is a par five that features water off the tee and water greenside. Korda ripped her drive safely into the heart of the fairway and then carried the water with her second shot from 205 yards away to set up a two putt birdie and a three stroke margin of victory.
Afterwards, Korda acknowledged that "I was really nervous. Now I can breathe." A notoriously fast player, the pace of play on Sunday topped the six hour mark as major championship pressure and the winds made for very indecisive play. That's a nice way of saying a sloth-like pace of play was the order of the day. Yet regardless of the time, the pressure, and all that was on the table, Nelly Korda is now in the history books alongside a pair of golfing greats.
Two majors, a gold medal, the number one ranking in the world, 13 LPGA wins and four other worldwide wins, all by age 25, is what Korda's golfing resume looks like. Whatever happens to Nelly from this moment onward, these most recent five tournament wins in a row will forever solidify her place alongside Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, two greats of the game. Nelly Korda is now officially in rarified air.
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