NELLY KORDA IN THE CHASE AT CME GROUP TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Rolex Rankings World No. 1 Nelly Korda is continuing her hot stretch of play, which won the 24-year-old her first tournament of the season and the 10th of her LPGA Tour career last week, into the season-finale CME Group Tour Championship. Korda, who successfully defended her title at the Pelican Women’s Championship just five days ago, shot her fifth-straight round of 3-under or better with a second-round 69 at Tiburon Golf Club. The Florida native had a solid front nine on Friday, sinking four birdies and a bogey, but didn’t score anything other than par on the back.
“I played pretty solid on the front. Just made putts on the front nine, honestly. Just didn't make them on the back,” said Korda, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens with 29 putts. “I gave myself a couple of really good looks, but just didn't convert them… I didn't really take advantage of my length off the tee or how well I hit it, but that's golf. You have those days, and hopefully I can learn from it tomorrow.”
While Korda certainly has momentum heading into the final event of 2022, so does first- and second-round leader Lydia Ko. The Kiwi is -13 heading into round three, five strokes ahead of second place and six strokes ahead of Korda, who sits in a tie for third with three others. Hoping to use Moving Day to close the gap, Korda says she’ll need to “drain some putts” and be strategic about when she can play aggressive, and when she can’t.
“On the greens there's a lot of ridges. So you hit it on -- if you are aggressive and let's say you're hitting a controlled shot and you hit it on one of the down slopes, you can be over the green if you are aggressive, but that's the risk you're taking with playing aggressive,” she said. “So there are holes that I can be aggressive on, and there are holes that I just can't. So it just depends.”
Luckily for the major champion, birdies seem to come easily. Over the last two seasons, Korda has made the highest percentage of birdies or better on the LPGA Tour among those qualified (25.8%). Unluckily for Korda, Ko sits just behind her in that same category at 24.7%. Needless to say, it will be a tight race on Saturday when Korda tees-it-off alongside Gemma Dryburgh at 12:30 p.m., followed by Ko and Hyo Joo Kim at 12:50 p.m.
ANNA NORDQVIST NEAR THE TOP AT CME GROUP TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Last season’s AIG Women’s Open champion Anna Nordqvist has found herself near the top of the leaderboard through two rounds at the CME Group Tour Championship. Nordqvist followed up her opening 4-under, 68 with a second-round 69 on Friday at Tiburon Golf Club, a round that saw her go bogey-free with birdies on holes 6, 14 and 17. She hasn’t made a bogey in 27 holes – Nordqvist last dropped a shot on the par-4 ninth in round one – and considering the windy conditions that have been a constant throughout the week, she’s pleased with carding back-to-back rounds in the 60s.
“Hit the ball really well today. I gave myself a lot of opportunities on the right side of the hole but struggled getting the putts to drop a little bit. I mean, I made three birdies in a row inside 4 feet, so that certainly helped,” said Nordqvist, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens on Friday. “I hit a lot of good shots. Kind of got robbed there on 8. I think I hit the pin and came back 20 feet. So just one of those days, but overall if I play solid and kind of stretch my golf, it's always awesome in wind like this.”
This is Nordqvist’s 12th appearance in the season-ending event, and in her 11 previous starts her best finish is a tie for seventh that came in 2012. She also has three other top-15 results to her credit, two of which came in the last two years when Nordqvist finished in a tie for 12th in 2021 and in a tie for 10th in 2020. It’s been a tough season for the 35-year-old – she only has one top 10 on her 2022 resume, a tie for sixth at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica – and her putting is a large piece of the puzzle that could be to blame. Nordqvist ranks 130th on Tour in putts per green in regulation and 141st in putting average, a frustrating combination that hasn’t given her the results she’s been looking for. But, the 9-time LPGA Tour winner has made a change with the flat stick that she’s hoping will propel her up the leaderboard this weekend and give her a shot at that $2 million first-place prize.
“Last couple of weeks I kind of stopped doing what I was doing and am just trying to go back to speed. I felt like I had a lot of good rolls (today). But you get one or two of those to drop, and it makes a world of a difference,” said Nordqvist, who had 28 putts in round two. “I think when it's tough conditions, you're not going to give yourself as many opportunities sometimes, but I feel like I've been doing a really good job of that. Some weeks are better than others, but it's obviously continued work that I'm working on, but I wish sometimes I was a little stronger and staying a little bit more patient, but I feel my patience has been pretty good this week.”
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