Jin Young Ko was a on mission to find a good egg tart in Singapore.
Jin Young Ko was on a mission to find a good egg tart in Singapore. The defending champion has grown quite fond of the food that surrounds the event known as “Asia’s major,” and the fans there have grown quite fond of her.
After Ko’s victory last year at the HSBC Women’s Champions, she said a wealthy man in the city created a fan club for her that has 27 members, one representing each point needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Ko, a 13-time winner on the LPGA, currently has 18 points.
“There’s never been a time I didn’t want to play at this event,” said Ko. “I always want to come here.”
This marks the 15th playing of the HSBC, and nine of the top-10 players in the world are in the field. Lexi Thompson, No. 6, is the only one not teeing it up at Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong Course.
Ko, 27, began the 2022 season in Singapore and, after winning, looked poised to dominate. But a nagging wrist injury derailed her for much of the year and she didn’t win again. As she took an extended time to rest over the offseason, Ko booked a trip to Europe for 10 days. She asked Finland’s Matilda Castren for advice on how to see the Northern Lights and after a snowy adventure there, went to Paris for Christmas to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.
“One of my highlights in my life was to go and watch Northern Lights,” she said.
After spending a month in Vietnam working on her game, Ko, who took up meditating over the winter, opened the season in Thailand with a share of sixth, recording four rounds in the 60s at a tournament for the first time since the 2022 Amundi Evian.
“I’m training hard in meditation and practicing golf,” she said.
Nelly Korda, ranked second in the world, is one of the stars of the LPGA along with her older sister, Jessica, who’s 18th in the Rolex Rankings. Their parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova, are each tennis stars of their own.
Petr once won the Australian Open, that victory coming two years before the 22-year-old Sebastian, the youngest sibling was born. Jessica’s first professional victory came at Royal Melbourne in 2012 at the Women’s Australian Open, and Nelly followed that up with a victory at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in 2019 at Grange Golf Club.
On Friday, Sebastian, a blossoming tennis star, picked up a big victory in the 2023 Australian Open, topping seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. Sebastian is ranked 31st in the world for singles, knocking off No. 8 Medvedev.
A question about his family came up in his post-match interview. He gave shoutouts to his sisters and their success Down Under in a heartfelt speech that excited the Aussie crowd.
“I’m definitely the worst athlete in the family so far,” he concluded with.
"I'm definitely the worst athlete in the family so far." 😂
The 97th-anniversary edition of the tournament tees off this week — a field of golfers that grows younger and deeper by the year.
ORMOND BEACH, Florida — The 97th-anniversary edition of the Sally Championship tees off this week in its modern form — a field of golfers that seems to grow younger and deeper by the year.
The Championship Division features 85 golfers from top college programs and plenty of even younger talent from the top rungs of the national junior rankings, all here to face the unique challenges presented by Oceanside Country Club, where the fickle beachside elements always play a role.
Following Tuesday’s annual Member-Sally event, the 72-hole, stroke-play tournament — formally known as the Women’s South Atlantic Amateur Championship — runs Wednesday through Saturday.
Leading the way is defending champion Emma McMyler, a junior at Xavier University, who won by a stroke last year with a total of 1-under 287. She tees off at 10:02 Wednesday morning to start her title defense.
Ellen Hume won the Sally Amateur to start 2021. (Daytona Beach News-Journal)
Emma McMyler won last year’s Sally Championship by one shot.
A few other golfers from last year’s top-10 finishers return this year, including the nation’s top-ranked junior, Ohio’s Gianna Clemente. She made history last summer as a 14-year-old, earning three straight LPGA Tour starts through Monday qualifiers.
The second-ranked player on the current junior rankings, Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, also returns this year after tying for fourth with Clemente, at 2 over par, in last year’s Sally. Schroeder, who enrolls this month at the University of Alabama, was the 2022 American Junior Golf Association’s Player of the Year.
This week’s field also includes a handful of high school golfers from the nearby Daytona Beach area: Amelia Cobb (Seabreeze), Riley Fletcher (Seabreeze), Vanessa Perry (Spruce Creek) and Alexandra Gazzoli (Matanzas).
The Sally’s history is tied to a wintertime group of amateur tournaments in Florida dubbed the Orange Blossom Circuit. Its list of past champions includes a pair of Hall of Famers — Patty Berg (1938-39) and Babe Zaharias (1947) — as well as some modern LPGA Tour stars such as Cristie Kerr, Grace Park, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and Brooke Henderson.
Nelly Korda, the younger sister of LPGA player Jessica Korda during the first round of the 86th South Atlantic Amateur at Oceanside Country Club.
From the 1920s to the 2020s, an oncoming Sally sends golfers to the oncoming forecast. This week’s daily offerings from Wednesday through Saturday, at least so far, include a temp range from low 80s to low 50s, predominant winds from three different directions, and a decent chance of thunderstorms during Thursday’s second round.
Tee times run from 7:30 a.m. to about noon each day.
“It was scary. You know, it was two centimeters from her heart. I mean, she could’ve died.” — Jamie Mulligan on Nelly Korda’s blood clot.
To play off a phrase from the old Dos Equis beer commercials, I don’t write much about the LPGA Tour – we’ve got the incomparable Beth Ann Nichols for that – but when I do, it’s for something special.
But seeing 24-year-old Nelly Korda win the Pelican Championship on Sunday and return to World No. 1 just eight months after a life-threatening blood clot attempted to derail her season, if not a lot more, qualifies as something special in my book.
Her swing instructor Jamie Mulligan, who also works with sister Jessica, detailed what happened to Nelly in March in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where she was doing an instruction shoot for another publication.
“The next day, it rained during the Players Championship and we were hanging out at the house where we were staying. Patrick’s (Cantlay) physio David Sunderland was working on the girls and Patrick. I was upstairs working and David came upstairs and said, ‘Hey, there’s something the matter with Nelly.’ And I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ He goes, ‘I can’t really put my finger on it.’ A little while later I called Nelly to see how she was doing, and Nelly’s not usually emotional and she was sounding emotional and she said, ‘My hands are turning weird colors.’ And I said, ‘Give me a minute, and I hung up.’ I called (PGA Tour Commissioner) Jay Monahan, who’s my longtime friend, and he opened with ‘Hey, I heard that Nelly was in town.’ I said, ‘That’s why I’m calling you. We have a problem. I think she might have a blood clot and I need your help. He called in the cavalry and he helped us so she immediately got to see a doctor and then they ended up doing a procedure, but Jay was a catalyst on that and it was really, really cool that he did that.”
Mulligan said the procedure was supposed to last 45 minutes and it ended up taking almost three hours.
“It was scary,” he said. “You know, it was two centimeters from her heart. I mean, she could’ve died.”
Mulligan could see a victory on the LPGA Tour brewing for Nelly. She had won the individual title in August at the Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande by three shots.
“She’s been trending the right way and it was getting a little better and she worked really hard the last couple of weeks,” said Mulligan, the 2021 PGA Teacher and Coach of the Year and CEO of Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, California. “Given all she’s been through and to get back to World No. 1, I think it is more impressive than probably the year before when she won four times and the gold medal.”
Most of Mulligan’s students are homegrown products, such as Cantlay. For all his coaching prowess, Mulligan has been reluctant to take on new clients, particularly players that already had made the big time. But he let it be known that he was a fan of the Korda sisters – Jessica’s swing already was mechanically one of the best he’s ever seen and he marvels at how Nelly creates effortless power. If he were to make an exception, it would be with someone like the Kordas.
Cantlay’s fiancée Nikki Guidish is good friends with the Korda sisters and once they got wind of Mulligan’s crush, they ended up meeting and one thing led to another. They went “Facebook official” about a year ago.
Women’s golf has been waiting for a global superstar, specifically an American player who could lift the game to new heights. Nelly has the potential to fill that role.
“She’s it,” said Mulligan, who coached World Golf Hall of Famer Amy Alcott and has been teaching golf for four decades. “She’s like almost nothing I’ve ever seen before. She’s got it all. She has the ability to make a hard sport look easy. As far as like the ability to match mechanics and tempo and mind over body over spirit and being like driven to be a great player, she’s a unicorn, you know.”
I haven’t had the most luck when it comes to injuries in my career, nonetheless I’m going to keep on keeping on.”
Jessica Korda will not be competing in the final two events of the LPGA season. Korda announced on Instagram that a back injury put an end to her 2022.
“I’m beyond bummed,” Korda wrote. “I haven’t had the most luck when it comes to injuries in my career, nonetheless I’m going to keep on keeping on. Excited to be back next year for my 13th season on tour healthier and stronger.”
Korda will miss this week’s Pelican LPGA Championship in Belleair, Florida, where her sister Nelly is the defending champion. She’ll also miss the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, which boasts a $2 million winner’s check, the largest in tour history.
Korda finished runner-up at the Chevron Championship, her best finish at a major, and is 32nd on the CME points list. She missed several months in the spring as well due to injury.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cks8wMrrobS/?hl=en
Korda is one of three players inside the top 60 on the Race to the CME Globe who have not yet entered the season-ending event. She’s joined by Inbee Park and Linn Grant.
The deadline to enter is Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. Park, who is 50th on the CME points list, hasn’t competed on the LPGA since last August at the AIG Women’s Open. Grant, who finished solo third last week at the Toto Japan Classic and T-8 prior to that at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, hasn’t competed on the LPGA in the United States this season.
The leading player on the Ladies European Tour, Grant has full status on the LPGA and has competed in six events this season. She’s No. 51 on the CME points list.
The Aramco events are not official LPGA events, but the LPGA did enter into a joint venture with the LET in 2019.
Lexi Thompson won for the first time in three years at the Aramco Team Series event at Trump Golf Links Ferry Point. The victory certainly meant plenty to Thompson, who last won at the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic and has suffered a number of heartbreaking losses.
But what does it mean for the LPGA?
It’s a complex question.
There are six events on the Ladies European Tour schedule that are sponsored by Golf Saudi and the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The Aramco Team Series and it’s $1 million purses have no doubt added a significant amount of money to the LET schedule, where it’s tough to make a living. Only 29 players have made over 100,000 euros so far this season, and that’s without travel costs and other team/caddie expenses.
The Aramco events are not official LPGA events, but the LPGA did enter into a joint venture with the LET in 2019.
From a financial standpoint, it’s lucrative for LPGA players to compete in Aramco events, even if the purses are smaller than those on the LPGA. Organizers offer appearance fees to LPGA players, a rare occurrence in the women’s game. The events also carry world ranking points.
Several of the top stars who competed in the Aramco event in New York did not compete in the LPGA event that preceded it in California, nor will they be in the field at this week’s BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea or two weeks later in Japan.
It’s worth noting that with the Taiwan event gone from the schedule, there’s a week off between the events in South Korea and Japan, making it a tough Asian swing.
Still, some of the big names at Aramco won’t be playing on the LPGA again until the Pelican Women’s Championship in mid-November. That’s a six-week break from the LPGA.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has made it clear that they’re interested in a women’s tour. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan has said that she will meet with LIV. What comes of those conversations remains unknown, but it’s clear from the field in New York – and many previous Aramco fields – that LPGA stars are comfortable taking money from Saudi Arabia. In some cases, they’re comfortable enough to wear the Aramco and Golf Saudi logos.
Last week at Ferry Point, Lexi Thompson was asked during a press conference if, given the backlash that has occurred with LIV Golf, LET and LPGA players should face similar scrutiny, especially given Saudi Arabia’s history of human rights abuses toward women.
“I would say that without the support of Aramco, LET would not be as strong as it is today,” said Thompson. “And I think they are growing the game of golf in women’s golf, and I think that if you speak to any of the Ladies European Tour players, they are extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I think that’s what Aramco is trying to do. They are trying to grow the women’s game, and I support that fully.”
LPGA and LET players who are sponsored by Golf Saudi pose for a photo ahead of the New York event.
Both Thompson and Korda were also asked for their thoughts on becoming involved with LIV, should the opportunity present itself.
“I can only speak for myself, but my eyes are set on the LPGA,” said Korda. “That’s all speculation to me. I’m focusing on the LPGA Tour and what’s in front of me and with all the LIV stuff going on, that’s all speculation and I don’t focus on speculations.”
Added Thompson: “Exactly. All we are doing is focusing on the LPGA tour and what we are playing. No opportunities have been brought upon us or the tour, so I know Mollie said that she would have conversations, but that’s not in our control. We are just doing what we can on our tour.”
An open letter to the @LPGA Commissioner, Board of Directors, and Players — pleading them not to embolden MBS by potentially aligning with LIV Golf.
— Lina Alhathloul لينا الهذلول (@LinaAlhathloul) October 11, 2022
Prior to the start of the Aramco event in New York, activist Lina Alhathloul posted an open letter to the LPGA commissioner, board of directors and players, urging them to distance themselves from the Saudi regime.
In the letter, Alhathloul described the abuse her sister, Loujain, a prominent activist in Saudi Arabia, has faced – being kidnapped off the streets and deported back to Saudi Arabia where she was held in prison and tortured.
“Now, I understand that you might believe that your involvement with such a country could positively impact their fate, but given the present context,” Alhathloul wrote, “your participation in events hosted by the Crown Prince will only help rehabilitate him and cover up all the violations. In fact, I am sounding the alarm on the consequences of such events, which form part of the authorities’ strategy to use art, culture and sports to distract from the dire human rights situation on the ground.”
A handful of rookies could make their event debut at Finca Cortesin.
The 2023 Solheim Cup heads to Spain for the first time Sept. 22-24 and a number of new faces might make their debuts at Finca Cortesin. Much can happen between now and then, of course, but U.S. captain Stacy Lewis and European captain Suzann Pettersen have several impressive rookies already the mix.
The selection criteria is different for the two teams. Team USA takes the top seven players from the Solheim Cup points list (points are doubled next year), plus the next two highest-ranked players off the Rolex Rankings. Lewis gets three captain’s picks.
Team Europe takes only the top two players off its points list plus six LET members off the Rolex Rankings not already qualified. Pettersen will receive four captain’s picks.
Right now, Carlota Ciganda seems to be the only Spanish native with a chance to make the team, though Azahara Munoz recently returned from maternity leave and could make a run. Munoz is a veteran of five Solheim Cups and most recently competed in 2019.
Other players not listed below but worth keeping an eye on include: Hawaii’s Allisen Corpuz, California’s Alison Lee, Yealimi Noh, and Mina Harigae, Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden and Germany’s Leonie Harm.
It’s the first win for Nelly Korda since returning from injury.
Nelly Korda has another trophy she can add to her collection.
Korda, the third-ranked female golfer in the world, won the individual title Saturday at the Aramco Team Series event at Sotogrande in Spain. A final round 5-under 67 was enough to capture the title by three shots. She finished at 13 under and won $73,955.
The Aramco Team Series features team and individual competition and has five events this year. The first two were in Bangkok and London. The next is in New York. The event is co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour. It’s Korda’s second LET victory.
Jessica Korda led heading into the final round, but a 77 on Saturday landed her in a tie for second with Pauline Roussin and Ana Pelaez Trivino. Jessica’s team won the team competition, which concluded Friday, at 33 under.
“I haven’t won this year, so it feels nice to get a win under my belt, but I’m also very sad as it wasn’t the day Jess was expecting,” Nelly said. “I guess we were hoping for a bit more of a battle going down the stretch, but it’s golf and that sometimes happens.”
Lost luggage continues to be a problem for players across the pond.
Jessica Korda has given up on seeing her suitcase this week in Scotland. On Monday, she wore Megan Khang’s pants (the significantly shorter Khang rolls up her pants, Korda said.) On Tuesday, she wore her sister Nelly’s pants. On Wednesday, she borrowed Alison Lee’s.
“If anyone knows anyone at the Zurich airport that would like to put my suitcase on the one flight a day that they have coming into Edinburgh,” said Korda, “I’d deeply appreciate it.”
A six-time winner on the LPGA, Korda opened the AIG Women’s British Open with a 5-under 66 at iconic Muirfield that included a 20-foot eagle putt on the 17th. She wore FootJoy pants on a rainy, windy and sunny Thursday morning after receiving an emergency shipment before the first round.
Korda has an AirTag on her bag so she knows where it sits, but she can’t get her hands on it, a common refrain for many travelers to the U.K. and Europe this summer. Given the chilly temps in Scotland, Korda has especially missed her accessories.
“Wearing a Muirfield hat right now,” she said. “I have some great partners and it’s just tough, when you play well and you’re obviously in the hunt, and you can’t kind of wear that. A lot of my warm stuff. My hand warmers … my hands get really cold, so I wear gloves all the time. That, and I’ve got a lot of heat patches for my lower back and my vitamins, don’t have that.”
Jessica Korda plays their third shot on the second hole during Day One of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield on August 4, 2022, in Gullane, Scotland. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)
Korda posted her best finish of the year in a major last spring with a runner-up showing to Jennifer Kupcho at the Chevron Championship. She has one top-10 finish at the AIG, a tie for fifth, back in 2014. The 29-year-old American trails 2019 AIG winner Hinako Shibuno by one shot.
“It’s really fun,” said Korda of playing Muirfield for the first time. “Really stressful. Definitely would like to not have to put a score together, but it’s fun to be able to hit different shots.
“I’m aiming so far left or so far right of like my actual finishing line, which is not something I do obviously on a weekly basis, so there’s a lot of trust in my golf game. Almost like being willing to fail on every single shot, it’s pretty tough, but fun to be able to see the ball do things that you normally don’t see it do.”
Korda’s younger sister, Nelly, teed off in the afternoon.
“It was the first day, but alternate shot is tough, and you forget how out of rhythm you get in alternate shot.”
Sisters Nelly Korda and Jessica Korda were amazed by the number of fans waiting in line to scan their tickets early Wednesday morning in the pouring rain at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational.
“That’s dedication right there,” said Jessica of the Midland Michigan, community.
The Korda sisters – “Team Jelly” – opened up play with a 1-under 69 in the alternate-shot format, one stroke behind early clubhouse leaders Amy Olson/Katherine Kirk and Frida Kinhult/Linnea Johansson. Play was halted mid-morning due to heavy rain and delayed for 2 hours and 40 minutes, resuming at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The Kordas, who also team up at the Solheim Cup, bogeyed the first hole but played the next 17 in 2 under. The pair tied for 12th in 2019 and tied for 17th last year at the Dow.
“We’re kind of ham-and -egging it pretty well,” said Jessica. “It was the first day, but alternate shot is tough, and you forget how out of rhythm you get in alternate shot.
“I think the first day is always kind of the toughest because you are trying to find your footing in it. But yeah, take under par. Anything under par is always good.”
Close friends Olson and Kirk also bogeyed the first hole, and Olson had an unusual response: She smiled.
“That’s not your typical response when it’s just you, right?” said Olson. “There is just something about having a partner, someone who has your back, and you’re, like, it’s going to be fine, we got this that kind of helps you almost boost yourself up while you’re trying to lift your teammate up.”
Kinhult and Johansson – “Team Swedish Fish” – are playing together for the first time in this event. Kinhult, who likes to analyze, figured out who should tee off where.
“Don’t get me started,” said Kinhult, laughing. “I’m crazy with numbers and stats and stuff like that. I do it for fun, and it seems like it worked out good today. Just happy.”
While some partnerships this week first developed at Solheim Cups, Kristy McPherson and Maddie Szeryk played alongside each other at Q-Series. This is McPherson’s second LPGA event of the season, having played only the ShopRite ahead of this week.
“I mean, I just rode her today,” said the 41-year-old McPherson, “just let her do all the heavy lifting, and it’s nice. She’s so consistent, and like I said, I played with her at Q-Series and she birdied the last two to get her card, and that’s means a lot, and it’s hard to do when you know you have to do it, and she asked me to play.”
LPGA Hall of Famers Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb are competing in the same tour event for the first time since 2008. While Sorenstam is with fellow Swede Madelene Sagstrom, Webb is partnered with good friend Marina Alex. Both teams went off late in the afternoon due to the morning weather delay.
