BRADENTON, Fla. ― Nella Korda had no thought her homecoming would contain a journey on a rollercoaster.
Up by 4 strokes when play started in Sunday’s remaining spherical of the LPGA Drive On Championship, the Bradenton resident misplaced the lead on the again 9, then pulled again even on her remaining two holes to pressure a sudden-death playoff with Lydia Ko. From there, the golfer winless on the tour since 2022 made certain 2024 could be totally different by profitable on the second playoff gap to say the event win on the Bradenton Nation Membership.
For the victory, Korda’s ninth LPGA triumph and first since capturing the Pelican Ladies’s Championship in November 2022, she earned a first-place prize of $262,500 and 500 factors within the Race to the CME Globe. She completed Sunday’s spherical at 2-over 73, and 11 underneath for the event, an identical to Ko, the winner of final week’s opening occasion of the LPGA season.
“Gosh, I assumed that the event was over going into 17,” Korda mentioned. “I simply type of gave myself an opportunity. I knew that if I rolled that eagle in, I needed to birdie the final gap. Yeah, I appear to all the time make it very dramatic and fascinating, so there isn’t a higher feeling than to do it in entrance of a house crowd. What a day.
“It was such a grind on the market, so backwards and forwards. I felt like I by no means actually obtained something going. However, I imply, I simply can’t even imagine it proper now.”
For her efforts, the 26-year-old Ko took residence a second-place prize of $163,689. Her win in final week’s Hilton Grand Holidays Match of Champions left her one level shy of reaching the 27 required to enter the LPGA Corridor of Fame. Below the present standards to realize enshrinement at 26 years, 9 months and 4 days, Ko would turn out to be the youngest participant to be inducted.
Behind Korda and Ko at 8 underneath 8 was Megan Khang, who earned $118,745. Lucy Li and Ayaka Furue completed tied for fourth, every incomes $82,897. Auston Kim and Xiyu Lin tied for sixth at 6 underneath. They every took residence $55,564.
A homecoming that adopted the script for the primary three days of the event flipped horribly for Korda. Her four-shot lead getting into the day evaporated because the world’s No. 4 participant submitted two bogeys and one double bogey on the again 9. The fade allowed Ko to take benefit.
Ko carded two birdies and an eagle on her again 9 to vault forward of Korda with two holes to play.
Korda wanted to select up three strokes over these remaining two holes, and the 25-year-old did simply that. She eagled the No. 17 gap, transferring one shot again of Ko, then needing a birdie on the par-4 18, Korda did, pulling even with Ko and forcing the sudden-death playoff. Korda carded a 65, 67 and 68 her first three days of the tourney earlier than Sunday’s 2-over 73.
“Yeah, going into final week, who would have identified that I’d come first the primary week after which to be in a playoff to have the ability to once more,” mentioned Ko, who went winless in 2023. “You already know, I performed rather well this week. I feel my second day was most likely essentially the most iffy. Aside from that, simply type of reveals which you could by no means quit till the very finish. After I made the bogey on 16, I assumed I used to be means again, then I noticed the leaderboard and I used to be, like, tied with the lead. To have the ability to eagle the seventeenth to set myself up for a chance to be within the lead, I feel that was most likely the spotlight of the week.”
As for Khang, her 4 birdies and eagle on Saturday shot her from a tie for twelfth right into a tie for second initially of Sunday’s play. And consecutive birdies on holes 6 and seven introduced her even with Korda, who completed her entrance 9 at 1 over, the results of a bogey on the par-4 No. 5 gap.
The LPGA will take almost a month off earlier than resuming motion in mid-February with the Honda LPGA Thailand. The next week, it travels to Singapore for the HSBC Ladies’s World Championship. After that, the Blue Bay LPGA returns to the Folks’s Republic of China for the primary time in six years resulting from journey restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
