Leona Maguire rounded off the regular LPGA Tour season with her seventh top-10 while Stephanie Meadow suffered a disappointing final round as Nelly Korda returned to the summit of the Rolex World Rankings at the Pelican Women’s Championship.
Back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 turned a slow Sunday into a decent one for Maguire as she shared tenth place on seven-under after a 68, seven behind eventual winner Korda who held off Lexi Thompson in an enthralling battle down the stretch.
Meanwhile it was another case of the Sunday stumbles for Meadow who signed off a very consistent season with a final round of 74 to fall back to one-under and a share of 37th place.
But it has been a season of progress for the Jordanstown native who had no card stresses entering the final few weeks of the season and while she missed out on the CME Group Tour Championship she can look forward to another season with full LPGA Tour playing rights.
But the day was about Korda who successfully defended her title to return to world number one with her 8th LPGA Tour win.
It’s Korda’s first win in twelve months after a year where she battled a blood clot and after a trying year with her health, the Olympic champion was emotional with her family in attendance to see her win.
A final round of 64 saw her race through the field and become the first player this season to defend an LPGA title.
“Honestly amazing. It’s been a tough year. Lots of ups and lots of downs. Missed two cuts in Arkansas and Dallas, but kept my head high and worked really hard during my few weeks off, and feel really good to be back out.
“I’m most excited about spending the night in my own bed tonight, and then I’ll do some laundry and drive down tomorrow hopefully fresh.
“But right now I’m just going to soak this all up with my family, and next week is a new week, so I’m going to try to get back in shape and see how it goes.”
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