Sparks flew on the windy Pacific coast as Sunday served up a feast of drama in the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship at Palos Verdes and Nelly Korda emerged at the top of the pile.
By mid-morning, the top-ten players would be separated by just two strokes, with another seven lurking just a further shot back. The back nine would not disappoint, with various charges for the top from Korda, Charlie Hull, Ryann O’ Toole and Jiyai Shin, among others. The leaders traded blows all the way home with each tilt for the top being reeled back in as the players chopped and changed position with every passing hole.
It was a step too far for Leona Maguire but a creditable T13 for the week. She’d started the final round four back, and despite turning at +2, was still in with a slender chance as the lead remained at -9. Five pars to start her back nine ended all hope of an unlikely victory, but she’d finally strike back with birdie on the par-4 15th to bring her back to within five and she’d par her way home to finish on four-under.
In what could have been a killer blow Korda would make a huge eagle on the par-5 14th to give herself something that nobody had been able to achieve all day; clear daylight at the top. Her 201-yard uphill second catching the backstop beautifully to put her momentarily three clear on -11. Korda, who sits second on most LPGA wins since 2018 with 9, surely had one hand on the Championship as holes were running out for the chasing pack. Ryann O’Toole, who started the day T15 made a long par save on the 18th to take the clubhouse lead and -9 was the score to beat as the last few groups filtered home.
Unbelievably, Korda would card eagle-bogey-birdie-bogey-bogey to finish, leaving her tied with O’Toole. A playoff it would be, but with Gabriella Ruffels waiting in the long grass just a shot back playing 18, would it be two or three-way? The Australian could only par and Korda and O’Toole would go again on the 18th in a fitting end to a Sunday for the ages.
After two beautiful approach shots from the rough, O’Toole would lip-out for her birdie leaving Korda an uphill putt inside 10 feet for the tournament. And straight in the middle it went. With the win, Korda joins an elite group on 10 LPGA wins and returns to number one in the world as well as number one in the race to CME Globe points standings.
“Oh yeah, I definitely love that, I’m ageing myself really quickly out here,” she said sardonically. “Yeah, I think I was definitely rusty the first day, I shot one-over but I was playing well, I was just rusty in a few areas, and I had my coach Jamie Mulligan out here with me all week, and that really helped. We worked before the rounds and after the rounds but yeah, it’s definitely not easy coming back after a long break like that. Not really knowing where our game is at. But fought really hard the last three days, and the weekend was brutal. I mean today was just really tough. But I think that’s also the beauty of the game. It’s fun to play in these conditions, and kind of be a little bit more artistic out here.”
A $300k reward for Korda’s week’s work. Next up on the LPGA Tour sees the inaugural staging of the Ford Championship at Seville Golf and Country Club in Arizona.
If this weekend was anything to go by, more entertainment is sure to come.
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