BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Nelly Korda rallied to win her hometown LPGA Drive On Championship and delay Lydia Ko’s LPGA Hall of Fame entry, outlasting the New Zealander on the second hole of a playoff Sunday after overcoming a three-stroke deficit with an eagle-birdie finish.
In calmer conditions after wind gusts to 30 mph at Bradenton Country Club, Korda won with a 3-foot par putt on the par-4 18th after Ko’s 4-footer caught the lip and spun out.
Ko won the season-opening Tournament of Champions last week at home in Orlando for her 20th tour victory to move within a point of qualifying for the Hall of Fame.
Four strokes ahead of Ko beginning play Sunday, Korda shot a 2-over 73 to match Ko at 11-under 273. Ko, playing in the group ahead of Korda, also eagled the par-5 17th in a 69.
Korda dropped four strokes in a three-hole stretch — making a bogey on the par-4 14th, a double bogey on the par-3 15th and a bogey on the par-4 16th — before rallying with the eagle putt across the green on 17 and an approach to a foot on 18.
The 25-year-old Korda led wire-to-wire for the first time in her career en route to her ninth LPGA Tour victory and first since the 2022 Pelican Women’s Championship.
EUROPEAN TOUR
RAS AL KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Thorbjorn Olesen won the Ras Al Khaimah Championship by six shots over fellow Dane Rasmus Hojgaard.
The 34-year-old Olesen shot a 5-under 67 to finish at 27 under for his eighth victory on the European Tour.
Olesen finished with a 69.
OTHER TOURS
Kazuma Kobori won his second straight PGA Tour of Australasia event — a feat last accopmplished by Adam Scott in 2013 — in the Webex Players Series Victoria. Kobori, the 22-year-old from New Zealand, made a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a one-stroke victory over Ashley Lau. Kobori closed with 6-under 65 to finish at 18 under. He won the previous week at Murray River. .. Ryan van Velzen won his third Sunshine Tour title in 10 months, shooting 64-64 on the weekend for a four-stroke victory in the Mediclinic Invitational in Vereeniging, South Africa. He finished at 25 under.
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