Tag: Nelly Korda

Lexi Thompson finishes strong at CME, but her season’s not over

Lexi Thompson will play in the QBE Shootout, and Brooke Henderson says she’ll head home to Canada for a short break.

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Defending champion Lexi Thompson shot a final-round 68 to move up into a tie for sixth. She had five birdies after making a bogey on No. 3, and again looked more comfortable on the greens since switching back to the claw grip for the second round.

“It was a little shaky of a start, but I stayed strong,” she said. “(Caddie) Benji (Thompson) helped me out a lot out there with the struggle on the first few holes. Finished strong, so I’m very happy with my final round. I’ll be back here in two weeks. My season is not over.”

Thompson will be playing in the QBE Shootout, Greg Norman’s 12 two-person team event from Dec. 11-15 back at Tiburón, with Sean O’Hair. It will be the first time for the pairing. Thompson has played with Bryson DeChambeau once and Tony Finau the past two years.

“He has been pretty close with my brother,” she said. “He grew up with Nick and everything, so they’re close. I’ve met him once or twice, so not super close. He’s such a nice guy, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Henderson shines

Brooke Henderson had her best finish in the CME Group Tour Championship. The Canadian who has a residence at Miromar Lakes was solo fifth after a 5-under 67 to get to 15 under, three behind winner Sei Young Kim on Sunday.

“It was a good round,” Henderson said. “Got off to a pretty good start. Front nine things were looking good. Would’ve liked to get a few more on the back, but overall really happy. Really happy with how 2019 went. Looking forward to the offseason, hopefully get a little better, and be ready for 2020.”

Henderson said she will spend a couple of months in Southwest Florida before heading back to Canada.

“I’m actually going to be here quite a lot, basically like two months. I’m only going home for a couple weeks,” she said.

Henderson was 3 under at the turn, but parred the first six holes on the back. That included what could’ve been a great birdie after hitting out of bushes.

“My stance wasn’t very comfortable,” she said. “It was even hard because of the long grass. I guess the individual grasses were sticking out over my ball so I couldn’t even really get my club behind it, so I was like hovering it like this far above it.

“But was able to hit a great shot. Yeah, unfortunately didn’t convert the birdie, but I was happy to walk away with par there.”

Korda power

Nelly Korda may not have pulled out the win, but Korda and her sister Jessica finished tied for third and tied for sixth, respectively.

“Obviously for me Solheim Cup was a highlight of the year,” Jessica Korda said. “So much fun to be a part of playing. Obviously not the finish that we all wanted, but incredible for Suzann (Pettersen, who made the winning putt for Europe).”

Alex shakes off bad back

An achy back wasn’t going to keep Marina Alex from trying to turn in another strong finish. Alex shot a 5 under 67 to tie for 11th.

After shooting an opening-round 68 to be just three shots off the lead, Alex had to fight a sore back that hampered her start in the second round. She was 3 over after seven holes and considered withdrawing.

“I kind of got unlucky, just woke up Friday and it just wasn’t feeling good but it’s getting better now but (Saturday) and Friday was definitely a struggle,” Alex said. “It was good to finish good today and stick with it.”

But the 26-year old found her rhythm, playing her final 11 holes Friday in 5 under to card a 70. She still was feeling the effects of her back Saturday, but still made it to 9 under with three birdies in her first six holes. She came home with four bogeys and a bogey to stay at 6 under heading into Sunday.

Sunday, Alex turned at just 1 under for the day, but caught fire on the back nine with five birdies but gave a shot back at the 18th to finish her tournament at 11 under par.

Alex missed only one fairway the entire week.

Chip shots

CME Group chairman and CEO Terry Duffy spent a few minutes with Terry Gannon in the booth during the live NBC broadcast Sunday. Duffy reiterated his reasons for raising the purse to $5 million and the winner’s check to a record $1.5 million.

“We think it’s the right thing to do,” Duffy said. “Half of my management team is comprised of women. I’m very big into making sure everybody gets equal opportunities. … I thought to myself ‘What can we possibly do to make the winner comparable to a PGA Tour victory?’ I thought that was important for us to do.”

Part-time Naples resident Steve Stricker, a former winner at the QBE Shootout played at Tiburón Golf Club, was spotted in the gallery with his family. Stricker is a vice-captain for Tiger Woods for next month’s Presidents Cup.

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Nichols: Nelly Korda has only scratched the surface

Beth Ann Nichols writes Nelly Korda easily answers the question, “Who’s the next big star in the LPGA?”

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NAPLES, Fla. – The first time Nelly Korda came out to watch big sister, Jessica, play in a professional event was the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen. Nelly remembers standing outside the clubhouse watching Annika Sorenstam drain an eagle putt on the 18th green. Morgan Pressel took her on a tour of the locker room. Somewhere there’s a picture of Nelly wearing her dad’s tall socks, rolled down, on a dewy morning in Edina, Minn.

“Yeah, she was a local,” said Jessica. “Like I said, she’s been out here as long as I have.”

Nelly was born into tennis but raised on golf. And she’s a kid no more. The 21-year-old ended the 2019 LPGA season as the top-ranked American and No. 3 in the world.

MORE: LPGA schedule, results | Gallery

For those who follow this tour closely, she’s the answer to the ever-popular question: Who’s the next big star?

That’s not wishful thinking, though Nelly certainly presents the complete package. Extraordinary genes, model-like looks, an enviable golf swing, firepower, intensity and an easy laugh. Despite all that she even seems relatable.

It’s all there.

“She’s not even close to playing her best golf yet,” said Stacy Lewis, the last American to reach No. 1. “The way golf courses are set up, they’re set up for the long bombers. They’re perfect for her.”

An unusually off ball-striking day in the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship kept an historic $1.5 million payday out of reach for young Korda, who fell short to Sei Young Kim.

Nelly Korda of the United States talks with her caddie before taking a drop on the ninth hole during the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 24, 2019 in Naples, Florida. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

But her third full season on the LPGA brought a good deal of growth.

She won twice, deepening that rich Korda legacy at the Australian Open. Father, Petr, won the 1998 Australian Open tennis tournament and younger brother Sebastian claimed the 2018 Australian Open junior tennis title. Jessica’s first LPGA victory came at the 2012 Aussie Open.

Nelly successfully defended an LPGA title for the first time in Taiwan, calling it a new kind of pressure. She fed off it, winning in a playoff.

“I would still like to minimize my mistakes,” said Nelly of what can improve in 2020. She plans to take two weeks off before pressing on.

Beyond all the physical attributes, the intangibles are what make Nelly a most intriguing prospect as No. 1. And she’s not afraid to say that being No. 1 is her No. 1 goal.

Players have been known to shy away from that kind of declaration past a certain age.

“Nelly seems to have more here to me,” said Judy Rankin, patting her heart.

It’s not easy being the first. Jessica, 26, blazed the family trail, set the bar and Nelly followed. There was a support system already in place when Nelly started traveling the world.

She even had a built-in Solheim Cup partner, and the sisters went undefeated together at Gleneagles.

Nelly spent a lifetime chasing Jessica. Now it’s Nelly who’s lighting the fire and, in a way, making the tour feel more like home.

“I feel more comfortable,” said Jessica. “I have my little sis with me. Again, I don’t have to – it’s not that you’re searching for friends or anything like that. It’s just that with her, like, you don’t have to be anybody. You don’t have to worry that you’re going to say the wrong thing. You don’t have to – you just know.”

It’s another layer of intangibles that makes their future so bright. The tour can be a lonely place.

Megan Khang became close friends with Nelly when they played together in the Junior Solheim Cup. They often room together on the road, watching scary movies to unwind.

Khang describes Nelly as the perfect example of work hard, play hard. That quiet fire inside the ropes melts away when it’s time to leave the office.

“She’s gonna hate me,” said Khang, “but she’s super goofy.”

As Sei Young Kim posed on the 18th green with the largest check in women’s golf history, Nelly playfully jogged back to the Ritz Carlton with Jessica’s Mini Goldendoodle, Charlie.

Nelly has only scratched the surface of her potential. The sports world will find out soon enough.

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Sei Young Kim leads by 2 at CME after pep talk from Cristie Kerr

Kim punctuated her round by sticking a 6-iron to a foot on No. 18 to get a two-shot cushion over Germany’s Caroline Masson.

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NAPLES, Fla. – Sei Young Kim didn’t light it up in the second round of the CME Group Tour Championship like she did in the first round.

But at the end of the day Friday, the spotlight was still shining on the South Korean at the top.

One day after shooting a 7-under 65 at Tiburón Golf Club, Kim dropped out of the lead, but came back with three birdies in her last six holes and remained up by two going into the weekend.

“I shot pretty solid round today,” Kim said. “My shots and putting wasn’t anything bad today. I think I had a lot of chances for birdie today but I couldn’t make a couple.”

Kim punctuated her round by sticking a 6-iron to a foot on No. 18 to get that two-shot cushion over Germany’s Caroline Masson at 12-under 132. She got a pep talk from Cristie Kerr, who was working as a guest on-course analyst for the Golf Channel. After missing a birdie putt on No. 17, Kerr told her dinner would taste better if she had a good finish.

“I just said ‘Yeah I’m going to make the birdie,'” Kim said. “It came true.”

Masson had her own memorable finish, making a long downhill putt from just off the green for birdie. Masson had a 4-iron coming in that went long.

“Just went over the green just a little bit, which it’s not awful but it’s not easy coming through the fringe which is very grainy and downhill after that,” Masson said. “To be honest, I hit it a little bit hard. It was tracking, though. It was on line and hit the pin and went in.

“Just the little luck that you need sometimes, and I feel like I earned that this week giving myself chances, and once in a while you make one of these, and it really feels really good.”

The touted global tour is in evidence on the leaderboard with nine countries represented in the top 14 (which goes through 6 under). Five are Americans, and only two are South Koreans.

Saturday’s third round will be live on Golf Channel digital from 1 to 4 p.m., and on TV from 4 to 7 p.m. tape delayed.

Nelly Korda was feeling good after taking the lead with a 5-under front nine, but she stumbled, shooting 1 under on the back to finish at 9 under and is three behind. She fell into a tie for third with Canada’s Brooke Henderson.

“Definitely hit the brakes on the back,” Korda said. “Started missing my shots a little.”

Henderson, a Miromar Lakes resident, did just the opposite of Korda, draining a long birdie putt on No. 12 to kickstart a finish that featured five birdies in her last seven holes.

“I wasn’t hitting it that great, but then on the back nine I made a long putt on 12 and that really started to get things rolling, and I had a great crowd out there today, as well, which is always really fun,” Henderson said. “I started to make some birdies there, and it just seemed like I could make everything. So the last like six holes were really fun.”

Su Oh of Australia also jumped up the leaderboard and is in fifth at 8 under, one ahead of defending champion Lexi Thompson and Nelly Korda’s sister, Jessica, and China’s Yu Liu.

Jin Young Ko, who already has wrapped up the Player of the Year and No. 1 ranking, still is well back at 4 under, but remains in position to win the Vare Trophy for season-long stroke average.

The increase in the prize money – combining the $1 million Race to the CME Globe that existed previously with the $500,000 first-place check – and the doubling of the purse to $5 million has had the desired effect.

“It definitely feels like a U.S. Open or British Open,” Kim said. “It feels like a major tournament.”

With a major leaderboard going into the weekend.

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Nelly Korda could be the heir apparent in American women’s golf

Two wins before October. A crushing loss to Europe in the Solheim Cup. Three players in the top 10 in the world, and only one in the top five. The year-to-year, ongoing saga of where Americans stand on the LPGA Tour against the rest of the world …

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Two wins before October. A crushing loss to Europe in the Solheim Cup. Three players in the top 10 in the world, and only one in the top five.

The year-to-year, ongoing saga of where Americans stand on the LPGA Tour against the rest of the world appears to be in another downturn.

Does it really matter?

Maybe not to the tour itself, which has successfully marketed itself as a global tour and tapped into the Asian market, which continues to grow rapidly. Maybe not to the players that much. Golf’s an individual sport anyway, and many tour players are happy to have friends on the tour from other countries.

“It matters to the tour in the aspect of people watching and your sponsors,” said former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis. “Your American players that are the ones that sell a little easier. On our side, for the players, we don’t care. I don’t see those other players as being Koreans or Japanese. They’re just people I want to beat.”

So it comes down to the American fans, the TV audience when an abundance of tournaments still are played on U.S. soil, and the sponsors that also still skew toward being based in the U.S., even though the fact that many are involved in a global economic market may make that less of a factor.

CME Group Tour Championship: Tee times

“Us Americans, we’re just trying to do our best,” said Lexi Thompson, who has been one of the top Americans on tour for a few years. “It’s not like we come together and we’re like, ‘Hey, we got to play well this week.’ No. We’re all bringing the talent to the table. It is a global tour, so we come from so many different countries all over the world.

“It’s great to see the talent level out here, and it’s just getting better and better.”

There are players from 30 countries on the tour, and the tour plays in 12 countries. As Lewis pointed out, the PGA Tour doesn’t have that — at least not every week.

“We’re playing with the best players in the world, every single week,” she said. “There’s no other tour on this planet that does that. Until the PGA Tour does that, I think you can’t compare it to the PGA Tour. You can’t compare it to any other tour in the world.”

“Every market that they go to there is someone that people want to root for,” Golf Channel analyst Karen Stupples said. “That’s huge in terms of where they are placed in the marketplace.”

“Probably the real true golf fans have less of an issue with it because they can watch and admire the skill of people and the competition,” Golf Channel analyst Judy Rankin said. “But it hurts with the casual fan. There is no doubt about it.”

Thompson, just 24, is the name Americans most associate with women’s golf. And she had what she says is a successful year, with a victory and six other top-10 finishes. It’s the seventh straight year that Thompson has had at least one tour win.

Still, the media, fans and others expected more, but that can pretty much be said every year.

“It’s definitely tough,” said Thompson, who won her only major title five years ago. “I’ve gotten better with it over the years. It’s especially tough when you come out here at 15 and accomplish what I have in the first few years. And with what I’ve done, to not get the expectations from the outside and have that affect you in some way.

“But I think overall in the last few years, I’ve just kind of taken it in, but at the same time, I’m going to do me. I’m going to just try my best, and I can’t let the outside world get involved with my life.”

Nelly Korda, whose older sister Jessica also is a top player on the tour, has started to break through with two victories – she was one of three Americans to win in October – and is the top-ranked American at No. 3 in the world. The 21-year went 3-0-1 at the Solheim Cup, too.

“Playing with my sister at Solheim Cup, that was really special,” Korda said. “I’m going to look back to that moment for the rest of my career and life, actually.”

Nelly Korda (right) celebrates with her sister Jessica Korda (left) after winning the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship Finals in New Taipei City, Taiwan. EPA-EFE/JOEY YU

But it won’t be a moment that includes the win.  Europe won the final three singles matches to pull out the victory in September.

As for the tour, not surprisingly, Asian players are remaining the dominant force.

Jin Young Ko of South Korea already has sewn up Player of the Year, won two majors this year, and is No. 1 in the world.  Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand finished No. 1 last year, when there was just one American, Danielle Kang, in the top 10. South Koreans So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park tied for it in 2017 when Thompson tied for third.

No American has finished the year No. 1 since Lewis in 2014.

“It’s a cool accomplishment to be the highest-ranked American, but definitely my No. 1 goal as a professional golfer is to be the No. 1 golfer in the world,” Korda said. “I’ve been getting a lot of messages from little girls saying that I inspire them to take up the game of golf, so that’s really something that, you know, makes me happy.”

So did proving to herself that she could continue to win out on the tour.

“I think that I’ve learned that I can compete with a lot of these girls. I can win multiple times,” she said. “With the work I’ve put in, I’m just happy to see that it’s finally paying off.”

With Korda’s second win, Americans finished with five victories, including one from a relative unknown (Cheyenne Knight) and Danielle Kang, who also was on the U.S. Solheim Cup team.

Three American rookies — Knight, Jennifer Kupcho and Kristen Gillman — also finished in the top 60 to qualify for the CME Group Tour Championship.

So there are Americans coming up to bridge the gap as several thirtysomethings try to regain form. That includes Lewis, who coming off a rib injury this week, Paula Creamer, who has struggled since undergoing wrist surgery two years ago; Morgan Pressel, who finished 33rd on the money list, her best since 2015; Brittany Lincicome, who missed most of the year after having a baby in July; and perhaps most notably Michelle Wie, who took the last half of the year off due to lingering problems with her right wrist.

Ironically, two of Korda’s three career wins have been in Asia and at the same tournament.

“I think in little increments, Nelly Korda just keeps coming along,” Rankin said. “I mean, she’s already a star, but she’s just got all the qualities to be among the very top players in the world and the game.”

Korda also defended her title at the Swinging Skirts LPGA in Taiwan last month and did so at a different course.

“It was my first time ever defending, so it was definitely a type of pressure that I’ve never felt before,” she said. “I really liked it. I mean, the fans in Taiwan were great. I had so much fun that week. It was just a dream of a week, and to have my sister there.

“… Seeing my face on all the billboards, it was just a cool experience. You want to defend. You want to play well because you see all the fans chanting your name and telling you, ‘Again, again.’ So obviously it’s a good type of pressure.”

It’s also a type of pressure Korda has learned to deal during a professional career that began in 2016 on the Symetra Tour.”I definitely feel a bit more grown up, more mature,” she said. “Kind of learned from my mistakes as a golfer, anything really.

“But, yeah, I would say I’m a bit more mature. I’m a bit more mature as a person for sure. Being out here you definitely have to mature to succeed.”

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