Tag: JTBC Classic

Thai rookie sensation Atthaya Thitikul claims first LPGA title in playoff at JTBC Classic

Youth prevailed as 19-year-old Atthaya Thitikul ousted Nanna Koerstaz Madsen in extra holes.

Nanna Koerstz Madsen picked the absolute worst time to record her first three-putt of the week at the JTBC Classic.

Needing to two-putt the 72nd hole to collect her second consecutive title, the Dane pushed her par putt and fell into a tie with 19-year-old rookie Atthaya Thitikul, who had finished play an hour earlier.

As Koerstz Madsen put the finishing touches on a 2-under 70, Thitikul stretched and worked on her short game a bit but never went to the range as she kept tabs on the scoreboard. The Thai phenom closed with an 8-under 64, the round of the week, Sunday at Aviara Golf Club to finish knotted with Koerstz Madsen at 16-under 272 for the tournament.

Only three players have ever won their first two events on the LPGA in consecutive starts. Koerstz Madsen looked to become the fourth, joining Trish Johnson (1993), Emilee Klein (1996) and Ariya Jutanugarn (2016).

Thitikul, No. 14 in the Rolex Rankings, has four wins on the Ladies European Tour, making history when she won the first at age 14. The LPGA rookie looked to win for the first time in just her fifth start in 2022.

Ultimately, youth prevailed, with Thitikul claiming her first LPGA title with bogey on the second playoff hole after Koerstz Madsen’s approach met a watery end.

“It means to the world to me,” said a champagne-soaked Thitikul,

On the first playoff hole, both players had 156 yards left into the difficult 18th. They told each other that it didn’t matter who went first. Koerstz Madsen eventually gave the nod to Thitikul to go ahead, and Thitikul proceeded to nearly dunk her approach for eagle.

Koerstz Madsen couldn’t match the effort, missing the green left. She did, however, nestle her third shot close, and after Thitikul failed to convert for birdie, the pair moved on to a second playoff hole after matching pars.

The second time around, Koerstz Madsen’s tee shot hit the cart path and she hit her hybrid from 216 yards with her right foot still on the concrete. Her approach shot leaked right into the water, opening the door for the rookie to make her mark.

Thitikul needed only to three-putt for bogey to collet her first LPGA victory.

Earlier this month, Koerstz Madsen, whose fiancé Nicki Hansen caddies for her on tour, won the Honda LPGA Thailand in a playoff with an eagle on the final hole.

Nanna Koerstz Madsen tees off the second hole during the final round of the 2022 JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California. (Photo: Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

Last year at the AIG Women’s British Open, Koerstz Madsen came into the 72nd hole tied with Anna Nordqvist but suffered a heart-breaking double-bogey on the taxing 18th that included a shocking shank from a green-side bunker.

That now seems a distant memory.

“I do think before I was chasing a lot the birdies,” said Koerstz Madsen. “I have changed my game plan a little bit the way I hit into the greens. Nicki is in charge of that actually. I just hit the shot. He tells me exactly where I should hit the ball. Just the mentality of not being too aggressive, going after everything, and it’s okay to have a 7-meter putt. Sometimes that’s good enough. And then you go for the pin wherever you can, obviously.

“The British Open was really a good experience for me. I think after the British Open I really wanted to put myself in that position again, so I worked very hard to get there again.”

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Nanna Koerstz Madsen leads JTBC Classic; Jin Young Ko’s amazing streaks end

Jin Young Ko saw the end of two amazing scoring streaks Friday.

The streaks had to end eventually.

Jin Young Ko had posted an LPGA record 16 consecutive rounds in the 60s. She also had a streak going of 31 straight rounds under par.

Both amazing runs came to an end Friday in the second round of the JTBC Classic at the Aviara Country Club in Carlsbad, California.

Ko shot a 1-under 71 after opening the week with a 65. She found herself 2 over after three holes Friday and posted three more birdies on the day.

But winning is the ultimate goal and Ko is just three shots back heading into the weekend.

Nanna Koerstz Madsen is the leader after 36 holes. It was less than two weeks ago that she became the first LPGA golfer from Denmark to win on the tour, doing so at the Honda LPGA Thailand.

Koerstz Madsen, whose fiancé Nicki Hansen caddies for her, has posted scores of 66-67 and is at 11 under, two shots ahead of Hye-Jin Choi and Lydia Ko.

Jin Young Ko is tied for fourth with Na Rin An and Maude-Aimee Leblanc at 8 under. Pajaree Anannarukan is in seventh place at 7 under.

The JTBC is Ko’s first tournament in the U.S. since she won last November’s CME Group Tour Championship. She has six wins in her last 10 starts on the LPGA.

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Jin Young Ko leads JTBC Classic as LPGA streak in the 60s extends to record 16 rounds

Jin Young Ko has been under par on the LPGA for 31 straight rounds.

Jin Young Ko knows exactly where she stands statistically. Her streak of rounds under par has extended to 31, and she now has a tour record 16 consecutive rounds in the 60s after a flawless opening 7-under 65 to lead the JTBC Classic.

Ko was asked on Thursday if she takes time to reflect on her record-breaking streaks.

“I would say yes,” said the World No. 1. “And also, it’s great, feels great to record like one step at a time.”

This mark’s Ko’s first time competing in the U.S. since last November’s CME Group Tour Championship, which she won. Ko’s parents are in San Diego with her for the first time, and her mom likes the area so much she’s ready to buy a house.

“I said, ‘Do you know how much the house in here?’ ” said Ko, laughing.

Her parents will be with her on the road in the states through the U.S. Women’s Open in June. Ko said she can hear her mom cooking and washing dishes from her room and has mixed feelings about the situation. On the one hand, it feels like home. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to see mom work too hard.

“I feel little sad,” said Ko, “because my mom is not too young right now, but not old, but I’m only child, so she wants to make me play better all season, so she wasted the energy for me, to me.

“So it’s a little sad, so that’s a little bit of motivated to me. So I really want to play well front of my parents.”

Ko has won six of her last 10 starts on the LPGA and currently leads by two over Gemma Dryburgh and Hye-Jin Choi at Aviara Golf Club. Lydia Ko is three strokes back along with Canada’s Maude-Aimee Leblanc, who posted eight birdies and two bogeys in her first 10 holes. She finished with a 4-under 68.

Leblanc last competed on tour at the LPGA Drive On in early February and said she spent three weeks of the break in Canada practicing on simulators.

“Funny enough, in the simulators they had Aviara Country Club,” said Leblanc, “so I played it like 10 times when I was up there. I felt pretty comfortable out there.”

As Ko looks to go two-for-two to start her 2022 season, she says this isn’t yet the best golf of her career.

“I’m doing well, but mostly many people say 2019 was your career high; it is,” said Ko, who won two majors that year.

“But I thought, no, not yet. It’s not coming yet. … It’s coming soon, maybe.”

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Nelly Korda not playing this week’s JTBC Classic in California; return remains unknown as year’s first major looms

The World No. 2 last teed it up in early February at the LPGA Drive On Championship.

Nelly Korda is not in the field for this year’s JTBC Classic, the LPGA has confirmed. The World No. 2 announced on social media on March 13 that she’d been diagnosed with a blood clot in her arm and that she was at home resting.

“I am currently at home getting treatment to eliminate further risks,” Korda wrote.

Originally scheduled to compete in the JTBC after taking off the Asian swing, Korda last teed it up on the LPGA in early February at the LPGA Drive On Championship.

The deadline to sign up for the Chevron Championship, the year’s first major is late Tuesday afternoon. Korda has finished in the top three of the event the past two seasons. This year marks the final time the event will be held at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

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Korda won four times on the LPGA in 2021 as well as Olympic gold in Tokyo and was named Female Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America.

The JTBC Classic at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California, marks the debut of World No. 1 Jin Young Ko on U.S. soil this year. She competed once, at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and won, before the taking the next two weeks off.

Last year’s wire-to-wire champion at Aviara, Inbee Park, returns to Carlsbad as does Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee, Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim, Lexi Thompson and Leona Maguire.

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