The biggest weekend of the tournament is almost here!
Join us at The Club House Bar & Grill for food, buckets, and brews!
Friday, April 5 – Saturday, April 6
Drink Specials: $1 off domestic beers
Food Specials: 10% off appetizers
Nelly Korda wasn’t about to let her feat go unnoticed. At a time when Scottie Scheffler was dominating the PGA Tour and nearly won for the third straight start on Sunday, it was actually Korda who checked off that box.
The 25-year-old pro fired a seven-under 65 to come from behind and win the Ford Championship at Seville Golf and Country Club in Gilbert, Ariz., on Sunday, successfully securing her third straight win.
Korda also won last week’s FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, as well as her start before that, the LPGA Drive On Championship, in late January.
She’s the first player on the LPGA to win three straight starts since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 and the first American to do it since Nancy Lopez won five straight in 1978.
“It honestly feels like a blur,” Korda said. “Taking it day by day and really trying to stay very present, and just played really good golf, really solid golf in tough conditions today, which I’m really happy about.”
Korda’s bucking a trend, too. Last week was just the first time in her career she won despite not holding the 54-hole lead. Now, she’s made it two in a row.
Sarah Schmelzel, Carlota Ciganda and Hyo Joo Kim held the 54-hole lead at 15 under, but there was a ton of firepower near the top of the leaderboard. Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and Korda were among a group of 10 players tied at 13 under, two off the lead.
On a rainy Sunday, Korda birdied 5, 6 and 9 to turn in three-under 33, and after birdies on 12 and 13 she got to 18 under to steal the solo lead away from a group that included Thompson, who is still looking for her first win since 2019. (Korda and Thompson now both have 11 career LPGA victories.)
Thompson was four under through seven holes.
“It was crazy conditions,” Thompson said, “but it was almost just like it gets to where it’s mental when it comes to these kinds of conditions.”
Hira Naveed jumped into the mix with a four-under back nine, and her birdies on 16 and 17 got her to 18 under. It was right around that same time Thompson birdied 14 to make it again a three-way tie for the lead.
But that’s when Korda, who didn’t make a bogey on Sunday, pulled away.
With Naveed finishing her round, Korda made a birdie on 16 to be the first to get to 19 under. On the short par-4, she laid up to her ideal wedge yardage and nearly knocked it in for eagle. She said afterward they changed up her game plan on that hole, but other than that the plan was to be aggressive.
“I knew I had to shoot a low one to be in contention,” she said, “and I just played really smart golf out there today.”
Behind her, Thompson seemed like the most likely player to catch Korda. But Thompson, one back at the time, rinsed one in the water from the tee on the short par-4 16th. She made bogey, and then another bogey on 17. A birdie on 18 wasn’t enough. She shot 68 and finished three back.
When Korda got to the par-5 18th, the math was already working in her favor. She got near the front of the green in two and then chipped close and made her birdie tap-in for 20 under. At that time, even with nine players who teed off behind her, it seemed like the win was hers. About 40 minutes later, it was. She won by two over Naveed.
In just four starts this season, Korda already has three wins. That’s one shy of her most in any season, when she won four times in 2021. As for if she can make it four in a row? We’ll find out next week, when she’s in the field at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas.
“It’s very hard mentally to be 100 percent, especially after a win and especially playing in tough conditions,” Korda said. “As boring as it sounds, I was just taking it shot by shot and seeing where I was going to end up, but to get three in a row, that’s just a dream come true.”
Stop by The Club House Bar and Grill this week for our delicious lunch specials!
Beginning today through Saturday we have:
• BLT Sliders
• Chicago Style Hot Dog
Lunch specials available: Tuesday - Saturday • 11am - 2pm
Scottie Scheffler burst onto the scene during the 2019-20 PGA Tour season, which was briefly interrupted by the pandemic.
Not many golfers and fans, both in and outside the sport, knew the talent Scheffler possessed at the time. Tony Finau was even one of those people.
“The first time I played with Scottie, I didn’t really know who he was because he was a rookie on the PGA Tour, and I played with him at TPC Boston,” Finau said Tuesday ahead of the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
“We’re playing together, and after nine holes, I think he shoots 7-under or whatever. I’m not really paying attention; I’m kind of focused on my own game. We get to the 17th, and he makes another birdie. I look over to my caddie, and I’m like, man, this guy’s got to be 8 or 9-under, and my caddie’s like, how about 11?”
During the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust, formerly the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs held at TPC Boston, Scheffler went on a tear.
He birdied eight of his first 11 holes, as the rookie soared up the leaderboard in the process.
Three more birdies at the 14th, 15th, and 16th holes followed, and by the time he arrived at the par-5 18th, Scheffler needed a birdie to reach golf’s perfect score: an illustrious 59.
Unsurprisingly, Scheffler did, in fact, birdie the 18th, holing a 4-footer to shoot 59.
“I was playing with him, and that was the first time I heard of him; it was the first time that I played with him,” Finau said.
“So that gave you an idea—maybe not the first time I heard of him, but I vaguely knew who he was coming from the Korn Ferry Tour. I knew he was a good player. But anyways, that was the first time I played with Scottie; he shot a 59 at TPC Boston, and I knew he was special from that moment on.”
Scheffler finished fourth that week, 13 strokes behind Dustin Johnson, who shot a preposterous 30-under for the tournament. But Scheffler went on to qualify for the Tour Championship, an impressive feat for any PGA Tour player, let alone a rookie.
Since then, Scheffler has made the 2021 and 2023 Ryder Cup teams, triumphed at Augusta National in 2022, and ascended to the world’s number-one ranking. He currently has eight PGA Tour victories to his name, two of which have come in his last two starts.
“When he won the Masters, I played with him the first two rounds, and it was evident to me that he was going to be hoisting the green jacket after that on Friday,” Finau added.
His tee-to-green metrics have been off the charts for the past two seasons, leading many to compare him to Tiger Woods. Scheffler rarely makes a mistake and finds fairways and greens at a rate not seen since Woods in 2006, when he won The Open Championship and PGA Championship.
But Scheffler’s charming personality and love for his family are infectious, too.
“I played enough rounds with him to know how great of a player he is, but I think it doesn’t beat the person that he is,” Finau said.
“I think he’s pretty fantastic for our game, and it’s cool to see all the success that he’s having.”
