FLORIDA – Nelly Korda made a downhill par putt on the second play-off hole to defeat Lydia Ko of New Zealand and win the LPGA Drive On Championship on Jan 28 at Bradenton Country Club.
Korda, the daughter of former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda, took her first LPGA title since the 2022 Pelican Women’s Championship. Her last worldwide crown came in 2023 at a Ladies European Tour event in London.
The Bradenton native nabbed her ninth career LPGA victory despite squandering a four-shot lead to start the day.
In the play-off, Korda and Ko parred the par-four 18th hole. They then replayed the hole. Korda’s approach rolled off the back of the green towards the hospitality tent. Ko landed her ball on the green, but after Korda chipped on, Ko’s long birdie putt stopped several feet short.
Ko then watched her uphill par putt lip out. Korda calmly sunk hers from six feet before celebrating with the home crowd. “Even when I was down, they were so positive, keeping me in it,” Korda said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “It was just such a grind out there, so back and forth. I can’t even believe it right now.”
She and Ko took much different paths to finish 72 holes in 11-under 273. Ko posted a closing two-under 69 and Korda signed for a 73.
Korda went one over on the front nine, and her hopes took a blow with a bogey-double bogey-bogey stretch at Nos. 14-16.
Ko then made a remarkable eagle at the par-five 17th hole to grab sole possession of the lead. Her second shot narrowly avoided water, bounced up onto the green and rolled to inside a foot of the hole.
Shortly after Ko’s tap-in eagle, Korda made her own eagle putt at No. 17 from nearly off the green. Ko parred No. 18, meaning Korda needed birdie to tie, and she dialled up an approach shot that nestled within inches of the pin, forcing the play-off.
“I honestly thought that the tournament was over going into 17,” said Korda, 25. “I just kinda gave myself a chance. I knew that if I got that eagle in, I’d have to birdie the last hole. I always seem to make it very dramatic and interesting. There’s no better feeling to do it in front of a home crowd.”
Ko won last week’s season opener and continued her red-hot start to the season. Had she won on Jan 28, she would have bagged her 21st career LPGA victory and qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame. The second play-off hole did her in.
“I actually hit a good stroke on (the second putt), it just broke a little bit more than I thought,” Ko, 26, said. “The first putt, it’s difficult when there’s a lot of grain. I honestly didn’t think I hit it that short but obviously I misjudged the slope and the grain of it.”
Megan Khang made three early birdies to reach 12 under but bogeyed Nos. 9, 14, 15 and 16 for a 72. She was third on 276. Lucy Li (69) and Japan’s Ayaka Furue (73) were a stroke behind. REUTERS, AFP
