It didn’t take long for Nelly Korda to return to her winning ways.
Korda held on Sunday to win the Mizuho Americas Open for her sixth victory in her past seven tournaments on the LPGA Tour. She had won an LPGA record-tying five straight starts before tying for seventh at the Cognizant Founders Cup on May 9.
“Oh, my gosh. Six,” Korda said. “I can't even really gather myself right now with that.”
Korda acknowledged that she didn’t have her “best stuff” in the final round, which she began with a two-stroke lead over Hannah Green. Korda bogeyed three of her first seven holes at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey, to fall one stroke behind Green. But Korda played the final 11 holes in 3-under and then watched at No. 18 as Green, who held a share of the lead, bogeyed the final hole to lose by one.
“I knew that it was going to be a battle on the back nine,” said Korda, a 25-year-old American. “I knew Hannah and I were obviously playing in the same group and we were close. It was just amazing to share the stage with Hannah. I consider her a pretty good friend out here, and it was a lot of fun going head-to-head against her.”
Korda closed with a 1-under 71 for a 14-under 274 total. With her $450,000 winner’s check from the $3 million purse, Korda widened her lead in the LPGA’s season earnings at $2,943,708, more than doubling the prize money of her next closest competitor.
"I knew that it was going to be a battle on the back nine."
Nelly Korda
“To lose to Nelly … it's sad, but then it's also Nelly Korda,” said Green, a 27-year-old Australian who has won twice this season. “She's obviously so dominant right now. To feel like second behind her is quite nice.”
After tying for 16th at the season-opening Tournament of Champions in mid-January, Korda won the next week at the LPGA Drive On Championship in her hometown of Bradenton, Florida. She did not compete for nearly two months while the LPGA was in Asia but returned to rack up consecutive victories at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, Ford Championship, T-Mobile Match Play and Chevron Championship, matching the five-victory streaks of Nancy Lopez and Annika Sörenstam, before the hiccup at the Founders Cup.
Korda has won 14 times since joining the LPGA in 2017 and sits solidly atop the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. She also is the reigning Olympic gold medalist. She is the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to win six times in a season.
Korda had made only two bogeys in the first 54 holes at Liberty National.
Liberty National, a 2006 design by Robert E. Cupp and Tom Kite that sits just across the Hudson River from New York’s Manhattan skyline, has hosted PGA Tour events in recent years: FedEx Cup playoff tournaments Barclays (2009, 2013) and Northern Trust (2019, 2021) and the 2017 Presidents Cup matches. The course sits next to Ellis Island, with New York’s towering Manhattan skyline just east across the Hudson River.
The tournament was marred by a wave of eight withdrawals for various reasons ranging from illness to injury. Rose Zhang, who won the inaugural Mizuho Americas Open in her professional debut last year and was coming off a victory at the Founders Cup, withdrew after three holes of the first round, citing an undisclosed illness. The LPGA issued a statement on Friday saying that medical professionals had treated players for “symptoms related to a viral infection.”
According to the LPGA, Zhang was expected to play in the U.S. Women’s Open on May 30-June 2 at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Country Club.
Steve Harmon