THE WOODLANDS, Texas – As if winning five consecutive starts – with the fifth at a major championship – weren’t challenging enough, Mother Nature had to get involved. For Nelly Korda to extend her streak, she’ll have to play 25 holes on Sunday and fend off several heavyweight contenders.
Play at the Chevron Championship was suspended at 2:57 p.m. CDT at the Club at Carlton Woods for dangerous conditions. With too many storm systems in the area, officials ultimately suspended play for the day after a half-inch of rain had fallen. Forecasters expect another inch to inch-and-a-half more of rainfall tonight. Round 3 will resume at 7 a.m. CDT, and once the third round is complete, players will be repaired by score for the final round.
The final round will begin at approximately 9:20 a.m. CDT off Nos. 1 and 10 with the final group off at 11:31 a.m. CDT.
When asked why players weren’t sent off both tees on Saturday, an LPGA official said Saturday’s storm system came in much earlier than forecasted.
Atthaya Thitikul holds a one-stroke lead at 11 under over a white-hot Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda. Rookie Jin Hee Im, playing in her first LPGA major, sits two shots back at 9 under.
Henderson had already played 17 holes Saturday when play was suspended. Her 8-under performance included a stretch of 10 consecutive one-putts. She has one par 5 left to play.
The course record is 65 at Carlton Woods and the championship record, set at Mission Hills’ Dinah Shore Tournament Course, is 62, set by Lorena Ochoa (2006) and matched by Lydia Ko (2021).
“I think the last like month and a half, two months I’ve been working with my putter trying to get comfortable,” said Henderson, “just trying to be a little bit more confident. I’ve seen progress every week, which I think is really good, and earlier this week I was feeling really comfortable, just wasn’t really making anything, but today started to make some stuff, so hopefully this is a good sign for what the future will hold.”
Thitikul, who is making her 2024 LPGA debut after suffering a thumb injury, is through 12 holes while Korda and Im are through 11. The Thai player, a former world No. 1 who won the Vare Trophy last year for low scoring average, is one of the best players on tour without a major title. She’s definitely the most rested player this week.
“I think it’s not that big (of a) deal,” said Thitikful of a long Sunday. “I think last year in Malaysia I played more than this with the playoff, 27 holes, which is fine. Still fine. Still young now. Still good.”
Korda will sleep on the most pressure as she looks to become only the third player in tour history to win five consecutive starts, joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05). Sorenstam’s fifth win was at this same major championship. She triumphed by eight.
Korda killed time during the rain delay watching PGA Tour coverage. Earlier in the week, she talked about how exhausted she felt coming home after winning three consecutive titles in as many weeks. All three victories were in difficult weather conditions. She didn’t leave the house for two days.
“If you think about it positively,” she said of the marathon that awaits, “then I have a lot of opportunities left in the day that I can go out and maybe capitalize on a couple of them, then that’s good. But I’m going to think about it positively rather than negatively.”