Nelly Korda wins Chevron Championship for historic fifth straight LPGA Tour victory

CNN
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American golfer Nelly Korda clinched a exceptional fifth victory in a row on Sunday, sealing her second main title with a win on the Chevron Championship and within the course of levelling the LPGA Tour document for consecutive wins.

The world No.1 completed two pictures away from Sweden’s Maja Stark at Carlton Woods in Texas, a remaining spherical three-under 69 sufficient to prime the leaderboard at 13-under total.

Having begun the yr on eight LPGA Tour wins, Korda has surged to 13 in a matter of months. The 25-year-old Floridian’s fifth successive triumph sees her be part of compatriot Nancy Lopez (1978) and Sweden’s Annika Sörenstam (2005) as the one LPGA gamers to construct such a streak.

Set to tee up on the JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles this week, she may stand alone with six in a row by Sunday. For the second although, its time to have fun – and breathe.

“It’s simply been a loopy, loopy, loopy couple of weeks, with some actually strong golf,” Korda, nonetheless damp from her leap into the lake beside the 18^th gap, advised reporters.

“I used to be positively beginning to really feel it on the again 9, simply the nerves setting in,” she added. “It’s all the pieces that I’ve all the time needed as a bit of lady, to raise that main trophy.

“I can lastly breathe now and simply benefit from the second as a result of I used to be positively actually nervous. I really feel sick to my abdomen.”

It was a hard-earned second main crown for Korda, who claimed her first on the Girls’s PGA Championship in 2021.

Saturday’s play had concluded early after storm delays, leaving the American to complete the final seven holes of her third spherical on Sunday.

Seven straight pars noticed her start the ultimate spherical one shot behind South Korean chief Ryu Hae-ran, however Korda wasted little time making her transfer, birdieing 4 occasions via the primary 10 holes to race forward.

A bogey on the following gap marked her first for the reason that 7^th of Friday’s second spherical, an unblemished 39-hole run. But 24-year-old Stark was placing collectively a run of her personal to use strain, by no means carding lower than par throughout the final 26 holes and shutting with back-to-back birdies to ship Korda to the ultimate tee with a slender one-shot cushion.

Any self-confessed nerves had been arduous to identify although, as Korda got here near changing for eagle from inside 30 ft earlier than stroking residence for birdie and $1.2 million in prize cash.

Korda has already topped her most prolific season, a dominant 2021 that noticed her tally 4 LPGA Tour wins. But the next yr noticed her enjoying appearances hampered, as surgical procedure on a blood clot on her arm noticed Korda – “scared for her well being” – take a chronic break from aggressive motion.

“I used to be not enthusiastic about competing in any respect,” she admitted Sunday.

“However I believe all the unhappy occasions and the well being scares that I’ve gone via have made me who I’m as we speak. I believe it has matured me loads, and I might say it’s formed me into the particular person I’m as we speak, and I’m very grateful for the ups and downs.”