Nelly slows down a bit, but still leads Chevron by five
HOUSTON—Nelly Korda tied the 54-hole scoring record at The Chevron Championship on Saturday, taking a five-shot lead going into the final round, the largest of her career, with a victory that took her back to No. 1 in the women’s world ranking.
And she headed straight for the putting green after settling for a two-under-par 70 at Memorial Park, where she opened up as large as an eight-stroke lead only to miss three four-foot putts over the final 11 holes in an otherwise exquisite performance.
“On the back nine, I learned that I needed to stay in it and not to focus so much on my mishits with my putts,” Korda said. “So I just needed to keep giving myself opportunities, which I was. I don’t want it to bleed into the other parts of my game where I start to get so frustrated that it affects my driver, affects my irons.
“Just didn’t want that at all,” she continued. “I wanted to continue giving myself opportunities even if I wasn’t holding them. I was still trying my best and at the end of the day, that’s all I can control. I can’t be frustrated with anything but that.”
Korda looked close to unbeatable for so long with another clinic controlling her irons on the heavily sloped greens. And then the gap began to shrink as her contenders did just enough to stay in range.
“I played really solid on the front and then just kind of … not may have lost concentration, but the wind started picking up and then I just put myself into great positions (and) didn’t kind of execute really well,” Korda said.
The heat and humidity also took a toll and Korda often walked the fairways with an umbrella to shield her from the sun.
Patty Tavatanakit, who went 48 holes without a bogey before making one on the 13th, bounced back with a pair of birdies over the last five holes for a 69 to get within five shots. It was a remarkable scrambling performance for Tavatanakit, who won this major as a rookie in 2021. She got up and down seven out of eight times.
Ruoning Yin of China, a Women’s PGA champion and former No. 1 in the world, shot 66 and was six shots behind, along with Pauline Roussin-Bouchard of France, who had a 67.
Korda was at 16-under 200 to tie the tournament record set by Jennifer Kupcho in 2022, the last year the major was at Mission Hills in the California desert.
