Nelly Korda finally gave herself a break from the high stress, thrill-a-minute golf that has produced the best start on the LPGA in more than a decade and returned the 25-year-old American to No. 1 in the world.
All she had to do for her third straight win — the longest streak on the LPGA since 2016 — was overcome a two-shot deficit, navigate through 15 players who began the final round within two shots of the lead and play bogey-free in the rain for a 7-under 65.
It doesn’t sound easy. Korda just made it look that way.
“I think it was definitely one of my least stressful wins,” Korda said after her two-shot victory in the Ford Championship outside of Phoenix.
Considering the previous two victories, she’s right.
Korda won in blustery Florida conditions in late January by going bogey-double bogey-bogey to give up the lead, answering with an eagle-birdie finish and beating Lydia Ko in a playoff. Two weeks ago in cold, windy, miserable conditions along the California coast, Korda finished bogey-bogey, let off some steam and then won a playoff with a 10-foot birdie putt.
This latest win, her 11th career LPGA title, looked easy enough that her swing coach, Jamie Mulligan, suggested it was “the most Tiger-like victory she’s had.”
