PALOS VERDES ESTATES, Calif. — Nine-time LPGA Tour winner Nelly Korda will be looking to pick up her second 2024 LPGA Tour victory on Sunday at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship. The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 2 carded a 4-under 67 on Saturday in Southern California to move from a tie for 15th into a tie for third at Palos Verdes Golf Club, currently sitting two shots back of 54-hole leaders Alison Lee and Jiyai Shin.
Starting the third round at 3-under overall, Korda quickly grabbed a birdie on the par-4 third hole to get to 4-under and then birdied again on the par-4 5th hole to move to 5-under with 13 holes to play. After parring the sixth hole, she picked up a pair of back-to-back birdies on the par-5 7th and par-4 8th holes to turn in 32, now at 7-under for the tournament.
She slipped up with a bogey on the par-3 11th hole and then recorded four consecutive pars before making her fifth birdie of the round on the par-5 16th hole. Korda gave that shot back with a bogey on No. 17 but recovered immediately with a birdie on the last to post a 67, her lowest round of the week at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“Today was definitely, I would say, the toughest day with the wind and a little bit softer conditions with the rain we had in the morning,” said Korda, who finished in a tie for fifth last year at this venue. “I would say the wind was a huge factor, especially (since) we’re pretty much on top of the hill. You don’t get many flat lies in the fairways here. That’s tough enough, and then you factor in the wind. I’m very pleased with 4-under today.”
This is Korda’s second time competing at Palos Verdes Golf Club, and while she wouldn’t want to play this challenging of a venue all the time, she enjoys having to play different shots with the windy conditions and sidehill lies that are an ever-present threat at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship.
“I think this golf course is so fun because it brings out the creativity,” said Korda. “You never really get a really flat lie, and a lot of these greens are really bouncy and firm, too, so it’s definitely different from what I’m used to playing on Bermudagrass, playing (Poa annua) with the greens. I wouldn’t say I would want to play this every week, not playing on the side of a hill and windy, but I enjoy playing it because it brings out the creativity, and I feel like that’s fun with golf.”
This week marks Korda’s third start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, as the major winner took an extended seven-week break following her playoff victory over Lydia Ko at the LPGA Drive On Championship in her native Bradenton, Fla. If she were to pull out a victory on Sunday at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, it would be the second time in her career that she has won in back-to-back starts on the LPGA Tour and first time she has done so since winning the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June of 2021.
Korda would also be the 39th different player from the United States to earn double-digit victories on the LPGA Tour, and with a win, is projected to move to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the sixth time in her LPGA Tour career. It would be the first time she’s held the top spot since August 2023.
But Korda isn’t thinking too much about any of that with 18 holes left to play, a two-shot deficit to make up and more windy weather on the way. Instead, she will be putting a premium on par-5 scoring and course management in the final round as she works to track down her 10th career LPGA Tour title at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“I don’t think the weather is going to get any easier. I think it’s actually going to get tougher,” Korda said. “I think they’re projecting for actually stronger winds. So just sticking to my game plan and trying not to make mistakes and take opportunities when I can. Sometimes these par 5s are downwind, majority of the time, so trying to take advantage of the downwind holes and trying to play it safe and make (the least) amount of mistakes possible.”
BY: Nadeem Faisal Baiga
