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PHOENIX — Hyo Joo Kim beat Nelly Korda for the second straight week, pulling away across the flip Sunday and shutting with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory within the Ford Championship.
Kim was poised to interrupt the LPGA Tour’s scoring file for 72 holes till one mistake led to a double bogey on the eighth gap and gave Korda hope.
Korda, who trailed by 4 firstly of the ultimate spherical, instantly was just one shot behind. However the American missed a brief par putt on the ninth, and that was adopted by a two-shot swing on the tenth — Kim hit her strategy to 18 inches for birdie, and Korda did not get up-and-down for par.
Korda by no means obtained any nearer till the match was out of attain, ending eagle-birdie for a 67.
Kim, who additionally received the Ford Championship final 12 months, now has back-to-back wins for the primary time in her profession, each in opposition to Korda. Final week within the Founders Cup, the 30-year-old South Korean held off a Sunday cost by Korda.
“I needed to ask Nelly the way it feels to win back-to-back,” Kim mentioned with fun, referring to Korda successful 5 straight begins throughout the 2024 season.
Kim completed at 28-under 260. With three early birdies — and every week during which she twice had posted rounds of 61 — it seemed as if she might break the LPGA scoring file of 257 set by Sei Younger Kim on the 2017 Thornberry Creek LPGA Traditional.
These hopes took successful on the par-4 eighth gap, when Kim pulled her tee shot. She tried to punch a hybrid beneath tree branches, however it ran scorching on the sunbaked fairway, by the crusty inexperienced and did not cease rolling till it went down a slope and into the desert scrub.
That led to double bogey. Kim twice missed 5-foot birdie possibilities, and she or he additionally had a three-putt bogey on the sixteenth.
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However the placing points belonged to Korda, who missed a 2-foot par putt on the fifteenth — her second quick miss of the spherical — that each one however ended it.
“The place it went unsuitable? There is a couple pictures right here and there that I wish to get again, extra like a pair putts all through the week,” Korda mentioned. “I will miss a bunch of these putts all through my complete profession, and I simply can’t get down on myself.”
Korda has received and twice been runner-up in three begins on the LPGA this 12 months. It was the bottom she has been beneath par (26 beneath) in her LPGA profession. She simply bumped into one of many hottest gamers in ladies’s golf.
“I am accomplished enjoying along with her,” Korda mentioned, jokingly.
This was the fifth straight time they had been in the identical group, and Korda has had a superb view of exceptional play, notably Kim’s placing.
“Hyo Joo has been enjoying superb golf,” Korda mentioned. “She an exceptional participant, and individual. She undoubtedly motivates me on the golf course.”
Minami Katsu of Japan shot 65 to complete alone in third. Lydia Ko, who started the match with a 60, wound up in fourth, eight pictures behind.
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