Nelly Korda ties record with 5th straight win, gets 2nd major. Scottie Scheffler poised to win again
Nelly Korda tied an LPGA record with her fifth straight victory, closing with a 3-under 69 for a two-stroke victory in the Chevron Championship to capture her second major title.
Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA events. Her previous major victory was in 2021 at the Women’s PGA Championship.
Korda held out to win over Maja Stark of Sweden, who birdied her final two holes to shoot 69 and pull within one. Korda stayed aggressive on the par-5 18th, easily clearing the lake in front of the green and setting up a simple up-and-down for birdie.
Haeran Ryu of South Korea shot a bogey-free 67 to enter the final round leading Korda by one. But she bogeyed the first two holes in the fourth round to fall out of the lead. She closed with a 74 and finished fifth.
Korda, who finished at 13-under 275, took home $1.2 million from a purse of $7.9 million, raising her season earnings to $2,424,216.
Scheffler was 20 under and has a five-shot lead with three holes remaining when the final round resumes at 8 a.m. Monday. He was on the verge of winning for the fourth time in five tournaments, the exception a runner-up finish in the Houston Open.
He was trying to become the first player since Bernhard Langer in 1985 to win the week after slipping on the Masters green jacket.
U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark made a furious charge early in the round at 8 under through 11 holes, only to lose ground with a double bogey in the trees. He posted a 6-under 65 and finished at 15-under 269.
Patrick Cantlay was tied for second at 15 under when he hit his approach to the collar of the 18th green. He chose to mark his ball and return Monday to finish. J.T. Poston also was on the 18th hole and among the group at 15 under.
None had a chance of catching Scheffler unless the world’s No. 1 golfer made a series of blunders in the morning, and that looked improbable.
Horschel ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to get in the mix, began to pull away with an eagle on the par-5 12th hole and closed with a 9-under 63 for a two-shot victory over Wesley Bryan.
Horschel, who started the final round three shots behind, all but sealed it with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole.
Bryan, trying to go wire-to-wire, was only one shot behind late in the round. But right after Horschel made his final birdie, Bryan missed a par par putt from just outside 2 feet and fell three behind. He birdied the 18th for a 68 and was runner-up.
Horschel finished at 23-under 265 and earned $720,000 for his eighth PGA Tour victory, and his first in nearly two years.
The tournament was reduced to 36 holes because of heavy rain that washed out Saturday.
Toms shot a 65.
Broadhurst, who finished at 11-under 131, had not won on the PGA Tour Champions since 2018, the year he won three times and his second senior major. The victory moves the Englishman to No. 2 in the Charles Schwab Cup behind Steven Alker, who did not play.
Y.E. Yang (69) and Thomas Bjorn (70) tied for third, three shots behind. Bjorn was playing on a sponsor exemption.
Widing birdied the par-3 17th and finished with a par to get into a playoff with Patrick Cover (69) and Steven Fisk, who lost the lead with two bogeys only to birdie the 18th for a 68.
Cover was eliminated with bogey on the first extra hole at No. 18. Fisk made bogey the second time around.
Miles Russell, the 15-year-old from Florida who became the youngest player in Korn Ferry Tour history to make the cut, shot a 66 to tie for 20th. The top 25 get into the next tournament.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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