NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Nelly Korda is on a streak she hasn’t seen on the LPGA Tour in 16 years.
She won four of the first seven holes, making much of the rest of Sunday’s T-Mobile Match Play final by defeating Leona Maguire 4-3 at Shadow Creek.
“This golf course is so tough that pars are going to go very far,” Korda said during the awards ceremony. “Stay in your own bubble, hit the mistakes, hit the greens and try not to make any mistakes.” And (I) did it today.”
Lorena Ochoa in 2008 was the last player to win four consecutive starts. Korda, the top-ranked player in the world, will try to match the record of five – set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 and matched by Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05 – in two weeks at the first major of the season, the Chevron Championship out from Houston.
Because Korda took seven weeks off after her January win in her hometown of Bradenton, Florida, this win was her third straight in a scheduled event. Four players share the record of four in a row, with Mickey Wright doing it twice.
This was the first singles competition between Korda and Maguire, but they have experience against each other in similar settings at the Solheim Cup. The Irish player is 3-1 while representing Europe in tag team matches against Korda.
Korda hit 5-7 for a 4-up lead. He was 5 up after 12, saw Maguire birdie 13 and 14 with pars, and ended the match with a par at the par-4 15th.
Korda earned $300,000 for her 12th career victory.
“You know you’re going to have to make birdies if you want to beat her,” Maguire said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t make enough today. Thoughts of her. She’s an incredible player and she’s playing great golf right now. All I could do was play my game, and that wasn’t good enough today.”
This tournament was all-match for the first three years and was played in late May when temperatures are often in the high 90s. Many of the top players chose not to compete.
The format changed this year to three days of stroke play, with the top eight advancing to weekend play. The event has also returned to early April when temperatures are much milder, which has helped attract its strongest field.
It’s a field Maguire dominated during stroke play, finishing the first three rounds at 6-under par, three strokes better than anyone else.
“It almost felt like two separate tournaments this week, the stroke-play event and the match-play event,” Maguire said. “To lead the game around this golf course by three at the end of three days was something I can take a lot of positives from and be very proud of.”