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    5 Players to Watch at the Evian Championship

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    Any one of these talented women could win the golf tournament in France.It’s not easy to pick the winner of a major championship in women’s golf.Over the last 21 majors there have been 20 different champions. The most recent: Allisen Corpuz, who captured the United States Women’s Open at Pebble Beach earlier this month for her first tour victory.Will the trend continue at the Amundi Evian Championship, which begins on Thursday at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France? The chances are pretty good given the many talented players who could get on a roll.Here are five golfers to keep an eye on.Rose Zhang hitting from the ninth tee during the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament in early July.Darron Cummings/Associated PressRose ZhangNo one in women’s golf has generated more buzz recently than Zhang.While a student at Stanford, she claimed her second straight N.C.A.A. individual championship, which no woman had done. Then, after turning professional, she defeated Jennifer Kupcho on the second hole of a playoff in the Mizuho Americas Open to become the first woman since Beverly Hanson, in 1951, to win her pro debut.Zhang, 20, played well in her first two attempts at winning a major this year: a tie for eighth at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship in June, where she was in contention until finding the water with her tee shot on the 18th hole, and a tie for ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open.Zhang has a chance to be a member of the U.S. squad at this year’s Solheim Cup matches in Spain.Corpuz hitting a tee shot on the third hole during the final round of the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship in June.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesAllisen CorpuzWhat can Corpuz possibly do for an encore? Win her second major.Corpuz, 25 — who almost backed up her Open triumph with another win a week later at the Dana Open, finishing second by three — was unflappable during the final round of the Open, as she became the first American woman to win it since Brittany Lang, in 2016. Corpuz played the last 11 holes in one under par and was the only one to break par in each of the four rounds.“It was something I had dreamed of,” she said, “but at the same time kind of just never really expected it to happen.”The victory wasn’t a total surprise. In late April, she was tied for the lead after three rounds of the Chevron Championship, the first major of the year, before shooting a 74 to finish in a tie for fourth. She tied for 15th at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A.Corpuz became the second player from Hawaii to win the U.S. Women’s Open. The first was Michelle Wie West in 2014.Lydia Ko of New Zealand hitting off the 18th tee during the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open golf tournament in June.John Minchillo/Associated PressLydia KoPoor Ko. It has been that kind of year.Can she recover from what took place two weeks ago in the final round of the Dana Open, when she was assessed six penalty strokes for playing preferred lies, and another for picking up her ball?Preferred lies come into play when a golfer is allowed to move the ball because of the course becoming too wet. It had rained heavily on Saturday, so the players were allowed to play preferred lies on holes No. 1 and 10, but Ko also adjusted her ball position on three other holes. As a result, her score was a 78, dropping her into a tie for 65th.It was fair to expect a stellar 2023 from Ko, 26, after what she accomplished last season when she was the Player of the Year and won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average (68.9).Early in the season, however, Ko of New Zealand missed the cut at the Chevron Championship, tied for 57th at the KPMG and tied for 33rd at the Open.Nelly Korda playing a shot during a practice round before the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship in June.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesNelly KordaThe year was going very well for the No. 2-ranked Korda, with six top-six finishes in her first seven starts — until an ailing back forced her to miss tournaments in May and June. Still in pursuit of her first tour victory this year, she has an opportunity to make up for lost time.And it looks like she might do just that.Two weeks ago, Korda won the individual title in the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series.She hopes to “take that momentum into the next two big events.”In the majors, she finished third at the Chevron Championship, missed the cut at the KPMG and closed with an 80 at the U.S. Women’s Open to finish in a tie for 64th.Korda, who turns 25 on Friday, won her lone major at the 2021 KPMG Women’s P.G.A.Jin Young Ko of South Korea hitting a tee shot on the eighth hole during the third round of the Cognizant Founders Cup in May.Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesJin Young KoKo of South Korea is due to break out of her small slump. She hasn’t posted a top-10 result since a victory at the Cognizant Founders Cup in May.She certainly knows how to come up big in big events. In 2019, she won the ANA Inspiration and the Evian Championship.With 13 top-10 finishes in 2018, Ko, 28, was the L.P.G.A.’s Rookie of the Year, and in 2019 she was the Player of the Year, an honor she received again in 2021. In late June, she passed the former star Lorena Ochoa of Mexico to set a record for the most weeks (159) at No. 1.“It’s an honor people saying with Lorena and me in the same sentence,” she said. “It makes me happy, but also it makes me humble.” More

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      The Players to Watch at the Evian

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      Five golfers who have a good chance to win the tournament, including the defending champion.The premier female golfers in the world will tee off this Thursday at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France for the Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth of the LPGA Tour’s five majors in 2022.The year’s major winners include: Jennifer Kupcho (Chevron Championship), Minjee Lee (U.S. Women’s Open), and In Gee Chun (KMPG Women’s P.G.A. Championship). The final major, the AIG Women’s Open, will be held in early August.In last year’s Evian Championship, Minjee Lee outdueled Jeongeun Lee6 on the first playoff hole to capture her first major. Minjee Lee fired a 64 in the final round, rallying from seven shots back to take the title.Here’s who to watch this week:The 2021 Olympic champion Nelly Korda has had a difficult season so far, placing 30th at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship golf tournament last month.Scott Taetsch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersNelly KordaKorda, the former No. 1 and 2021 Olympic champion, has had a year that she would surely like to forget.In January, she got Covid-19, which kept her on the sidelines for a while during the off-season.Then, in March, she had surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm. Korda didn’t return to the LPGA Tour until the U.S. Women’s Open in early June, where she finished in a tie for eighth. A couple of months before, she hadn’t been sure she would make it back in time for that tournament.Two weeks later, Korda, 23, lost in a playoff to Kupcho at the Meijer L.P.G.A. Classic. In each of her first three rounds, Korda shot five under or lower, but she cooled off during the final round, firing an even-par 72. She went on to tie for 30th at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship in late June. She is ranked No. 3.With two majors to go, Korda, whose older sister, Jessica, also plays on the LPGA Tour, still has a chance to make this year memorable in a different way.Minjee Lee, ranked no. 2, has been a force since making her professional debut in the Evian Championship in 2014. Terrance Williams/Associated PressMinjee LeeLee, ranked No. 2, seems to be a factor in just about every major these days.That was the case again at the KPMG last month, where she had a chance to nab her third major title in under a year.Trailing by six strokes going into the final round, she put pressure on the leaders. Lee, however, missed a pivotal 4-footer on 17, coming away with a bogey. She rebounded with a birdie at 18, but finished in a tie with Lexi Thompson, a shot behind In Gee Chun.Lee, 26, who made her professional debut at the Evian Championship in 2014 — she tied for 16th at that event — grew up in Perth, Australia. She took up the game at the age of 10, and, in 2012, she won the United States Girls’ Junior championship. Just two years later, she had risen to become the No. 1 amateur in the world.Lydia Ko struggled recently at the KPMG, but she’s still in top form. The New Zealander has finished fifth or better in four of her past five appearances.Matt Rourke/Associated PressLydia KoIt’s true: Ko had a disappointing showing recently at the KPMG, where she recorded rounds of 76 and 79 on the weekend to finish in a tie for 46th. But beyond that, Ko, a former No. 1, has been playing extremely well this season.Before the KMPG, the New Zealander had finished fifth or better in four of her past five appearances. In 12 starts, the KPMG was the only event in which she ended up placing lower than 25th.Ko, who won the Gainbridge L.P.G.A. in late January — edging Danielle Kang by a stroke — is still only 25 years old. That seems difficult to imagine, given how long she’s been around. Ko was the tour’s rookie of the year in 2014 and player of the year in 2015, the youngest ever in both cases. That 2015 season was capped by a win in the Evian Championship, her first major title.Like many top players, she’s had her struggles. After compiling 15 career victories through 2018, Ko didn’t win again until the 2021 Lotte Championship. During that dry spell, she fell to as low as 55th in the world rankings; she has now climbed to No. 4.A 19 year-old rookie, Thitikul captured her first tour victory at the JTBC Classic in March. Elsa/Getty ImagesAtthaya ThitikulFor Thitikul, a rookie this year, the future may arrive sooner than she thinks. It might even be here already.Only 19 years old, Thitikul of Thailand is now ranked No. 5 in the world. At the KPMG, she finished fourth, just two shots behind Chun. Earlier this year, Thitikul picked up her first tour victory at the JTBC Classic. It probably didn’t happen in quite the way she would have imagined — she made a bogey on the second playoff hole to defeat Nanna Koerstz Madsen — but a win is a win. With that victory, Thitikul became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour since Brooke Henderson in 2016.“It’s just crazy in my mind right now,” Thitikul said afterward. “I cannot believe that I became an LPGA winner.”In 2017, when she captured the Ladies European Thailand Championship, Thitikul became the youngest to win on the Ladies European Tour. She was 14 years, four months and 19 days old at the time.Jennifer Kupcho went pro after a stellar run as an amateur. This year, she scored her first career victory at the Chevron Championship.Elsa/Getty ImagesJennifer KupchoIn June, Kupcho prevailed in a three-way playoff with Nelly Korda and Leona Maguire in the Meijer LPGA Classic.Kupcho, ranked No. 9, almost blew it that day, missing a short eagle putt on the first playoff hole that would have ended the competition right there. Some players might have been flustered after a failure like that. Not Kupcho. On the second playoff hole, she made another birdie, then pulled out the victory when Maguire missed a short putt that would have extended the match.Kupcho, who teamed with Lizette Salas to capture last week’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, collected her first career win in April at the Chevron Championship. She had trouble on the back nine, but had started the day with a six-stroke advantage.Over the next two months, she clearly did not play her best, failing to break into the top 15 in any of her six events.Kupcho had a stellar career as an amateur, winning both the N.C.A.A. Player of the Year award in 2018 and the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. She went pro later that year and, in 2021, joined the United States players as they faced off against the Europeans in the Solheim Cup. More

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      Sebastian, Nelly and Jessica Korda Succeed in the Family Business

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      Petr Korda has long envisioned greatness for his children, the pro golfers Nelly and Jessica and the tennis pro Sebastian, who won his first-round match at Wimbledon.WIMBLEDON, England — Sebastian Korda watched from his father’s hotel room in London on Sunday night as his sister Nelly achieved a major dream, winning the Women’s P.G.A. Championship in Atlanta. Two days later, on a different sort of green, Sebastian kept the family business booming. More

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      Nelly Korda Wins the Women’s P.G.A. Championship, and Her First Major

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      After beginning the final round tied with her fellow American Lizette Salas at 15 under par, Korda pulled away and finished the tournament at 19 under.ATLANTA — As soon as Nelly Korda’s approach shot landed safely on the 18th green on Sunday, her older sister, Jessica, swooped in on their mother in the gallery and tugged on her arm, leading her to a spot behind the hole.Nelly Korda, who had spent the entirety of her 22 years known mostly as either her mother or father’s daughter or Jessica or her brother Sebastian’s sister, had stepped out of the shadows at last.Nelly Korda carded a four-under-par 68 at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course for a three-stroke victory at the Women’s P.G.A. Championship over Lizette Salas, who closed with a 71. Korda, whose 72-hole total was a 19-under 269, is the first American woman to win a major since Angela Stanford at the 2018 Evian Championship. Giulia Molinaro (72) and Hyo Joo Kim (68) tied for third at 10 under for the tournament.“This is something that I’ve worked for since I was 14, since I played in my first one,” Nelly Korda said during the trophy presentation at the conclusion of her 26th major start. “I wanted to be a major champion.”The Kordas are an answer to a “Jeopardy!” question waiting to be written: “Who is the first family of sport?”The sisters’ father, Petr, won the Australian Open tennis title in 1998 and reached No. 2 in the world men’s singles rankings. Their mother, Regina Rajchrtova, was a top-30 tennis player who represented her native Czechoslovakia at the 1988 Summer Olympics.The sisters’ younger brother, Sebastian, 20, won his first ATP Tour event in Italy in May and is eligible for the U.S. Olympic men’s tennis team.Jessica Korda, 28, closed with a 71 to finish in a six-way tie for 15th at four under and secure a spot on the U.S. women’s Olympic golf squad. That team will be led by her sister, who matched her father in major victories and raised him one by ascending to the top of the women’s world rankings.Nelly Korda, who has six L.P.G.A. titles, including three this year, is the first American to hold the women’s No. 1 ranking since Stacy Lewis in 2014 and the first Korda to hold a No. 1 world ranking.“Really?” said Rajchrtova, who walked the first nine holes of Jessica’s round before peeling away to walk all 18 in Nelly’s gallery. “I didn’t know that but it’s nice. We wanted one. Now we have one.”After Nelly Korda’s par putt on No. 18 dropped, one piece of family business remained. Someone had to text Petr, who is at Wimbledon with Sebastian, to spread the good news. Rajchrtova said she couldn’t send updates to her husband during the round because she keeps her phone turned off and tucked away in her backpack.“I’m superstitious,” she said. “I don’t talk to anybody during round.”For Nelly, who became the first woman since Lydia Ko in 2016 to win a major the week after winning a regular tour event, it was a fabulous end to a month that started with a disappointing missed cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, won by Yuka Saso of the Philippines.The month has passed in a blur for Saso. After closing with a tournament-low 67 on Sunday to finish at three under par, Saso referred to herself as a 19-year-old, having forgotten that she turned 20 seven days prior.Since her U.S. Women’s Open victory at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, Saso learned that she is to be honored in the Philippines with her own postage stamp, never mind that she can’t remember the last time she wrote a letter.“I send emails,” Saso said, adding, “I always call or text my family.”Her birthday brought Saso, who has a Filipina mother and Japanese father, closer to a difficult decision. Saso, who lives in Tokyo, has dual citizenship, but by her 22nd birthday she has to choose whether to continue representing the Philippines, the country whose flag she’ll compete under at the Olympics, or drop her Filipino citizenship so she can maintain her Japanese passport.Will the Tokyo Olympics mark the last time that Saso represents the country that has stamped her as a national treasure?A noncommittal Saso said, “It’s going to be a tough choice.” She added, “Whatever I choose I’m both inside my heart.”Before the U.S. Women’s Open — and after her brother’s breakthrough victory — Nelly Korda joked, “I get referred to as Petr Korda’s daughter and Jessica Korda’s little sister, and now I’m going to be referred to as Sebastian Korda’s little sister.”On a sultry summer afternoon, after near misses in consecutive majors at the ANA Inspiration and a tie for third at this event in 2019, Nelly Korda played second fiddle to no one.She stood on the 18th green holding aloft the championship trophy, as had the male P.G.A. champions before her: Larry Nelson (1981), David Toms (2001) and Keegan Bradley (2011).Like Bradley in the final round 10 years ago, Nelly Korda eagled the par-5 12th (she also eagled the par-5 fifth and played the four par-5s in 11 under for the tournament). Like Jason Dufner in that same round, she stood on the 15th hole with a five-stroke lead and then promptly made double bogey.Unlike Dufner, who frittered away his lead in the last three holes of regulation and lost to Bradley in a playoff, Korda made par to write the latest chapter of history at a course on a street named after Bobby Jones, one of the most prominent men’s golfers. Her performance raises the profile of the women’s game sure as she raised the trophy.“A major championship and No. 1 in the world,” Nelly Korda said. “Is this week even real?” More

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      Co-Leaders Lizette Salas and Nelly Korda Put on a Golf Clinic

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      The Americans played together in the third round at the Women’s P.G.A. Championship and are tied at 15 under par heading into Sunday’s final round.ATLANTA — Lizette Salas, who is tied for the lead with Nelly Korda after 54 holes of the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship, is not the same golfer who closed with a 79 from the final group of the 2013 ANA Inspiration, her first time contending deep into the weekend for a major title.That player brooded over imperfect shots and prayed that her ball stayed out of bunkers, so little confidence did she have in her sand shots. Fast forward eight years to the sixth hole Saturday at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands course.After making birdies on four of her first five holes, Salas’s approach on the par-4 sixth bounced through the green and landed in a bunker. Salas strolled up to her ball, surveyed the 50 feet she had to negotiate to the pin, and smiled. Here was her chance, she thought, to cash in on all the hours she has spent hitting balls out of the sand during her practice sessions.Salas blasted out to three feet and made the putt. Though she would card six birdies on the front nine, the sixth hole par was her highlight.“You get this, like, tingle in your stomach when you pull off a shot that you’ve been working on for so long and you just have it perfectly pictured in your mind and somehow your body just knows what to do,” said Salas, who described it as her “best shot” of the day.“I gave myself props after that one,” she said, adding, “Just knowing that I could pull that off just gives me that momentum to be aggressive.”Despite consistently using longer clubs on her approaches than Korda, who bombs the ball, Salas wielded her putter like a magician to make Korda’s considerable advantage off the tee disappear. She one-putted 11 times to Korda’s five en route to a third consecutive five-under 67 and a 54-hole total of 15-under 201.“Lizette was rolling in some nice ones today,” Korda said, “and I told myself, I’ve got to hit it close to even keep up with her.”Korda chased her second-round 63, which tied the championship record, with a 68. Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand, who won the ANA Inspiration in April, carded a 65 and is at 10-under, five back.Salas, 31, and Korda, 22, who are both looking for their first major title, combined for nine birdies on the front nine.“It was a lot of fun, honestly,” said Korda who added, “I think when you get into that mind-set of kind of egging each other on, it’s fun, but it’s also nerve-racking. Your adrenaline definitely gets up there.”They appeared to be playing a different course than many of the others, including the seven-time major winner Inbee Park, who took 12 more strokes than Salas’s 30 on the front nine on her way to a 77.Nelly Korda and her caddie Jason McDede discussed her shot on No. 15.Adam Hagy/USA Today Sports, via ReutersSalas, who went 45 holes without a bogey, made her first with a 5 at the par-4 10th. She didn’t record a birdie on the back nine — and Korda made only one — as the water hazards on holes 11, 12, 15, 17 and 18 prompted each to put prudence ahead of pluck.“When I made that bogey, I just said, ‘It’s OK, there’s lots of golf left,’” Salas said. “I think before I would have chewed myself up in my head and said a lot of negative things.”On the par-5 18th, Korda had 224 yards to the hole for her second shot. It was a perfect 7-wood, she said, but she decided to lay up and settled for a par. Last week, her caddie, Jason McDede, said he would have advised her to go for the green in two without giving it a second thought.But not this week, with a major title hanging in the balance. “You tell yourself that there’s so much golf left that you can’t win on a Saturday but you can definitely lose it,” Korda said.Not all the hazards were on the course. Hinako Shibuno, the 2019 Women’s British Open winner from Japan, lost the services of her caddie, Keisuke Fujino, after he had a positive coronavirus test. Employing a club caddie who was summoned early Saturday morning, Shibuno carded a 76 that included a 10 on the par-3 17th after she put four balls in the water.Salas has one career L.P.G.A. title, the 2014 Kingsmill Championship. Korda has five career titles, including two this season and, after a victory last week, is bidding to become the first L.P.G.A. player to win a second consecutive major since Lydia Ko in 2016.The fans rallied around Salas, who spoke about her mental health struggles after her first round. They chanted her name as she walked the fairways, and she made a point of greeting some in return.“I was embracing it,” Salas said, adding, “It’s been awhile since I’ve done that.”She added, “Whatever happens tomorrow, I’m just proud of how much I’ve overcome so far.” More

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      At the U.S. Women’s Open, Jessica and Nelly Korda’s First Rounds Diverge

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      SAN FRANCISCO — Jessica and Nelly Korda often play practice rounds together but Thursday at the United States Women’s Open was the first time they had been in the same grouping for the first two rounds of a major tournament. The sisters and their parents were thrilled at the prospect of spending five-and-a-half hours together hiking the sloping labyrinth of a course that is the Olympic Club, the site of five U.S. men’s Opens, in the cool morning murk.It was one of those family gatherings that was a much better idea in theory than in practice.Starting on the ninth hole, Jessica, 28, birdied three of her first seven holes to share the early lead with Britain’s Mel Reid before the San Francisco Bay’s bedeviling winds upended her round.She carded a one-over-par 72, five strokes behind the pace-setting scores by Reid and Megha Ganne, a 17-year-old amateur from New Jersey, who were tied atop the field as other players were finishing their rounds. She spoke afterward as if she had survived a ride on a bucking bronco.Nelly Korda teeing off on the third hole.Michael Owens for The New York Times“I’m sore,” she said.Nelly, 22, the higher-ranked Korda and the top-ranked American at No. 4, seven spots better than her sister, opened with four pars. But three consecutive bogeys, starting at No. 13, were the start of her unraveling. She carded a seven-over-par 78 that was encapsulated by her troubles on her penultimate hole, the seventh.She had to hit her approach shot out of rough thicker than a camel’s eyelash while branches from a sapling fir tickled her face and neck. Her caddie, Jason McDede, asked the onlookers lining the right side of the hole several yards ahead of her to move back because, as he said, “We’re not sure where this is going.”Nelly, left, and Jessica talked while waiting to putt on the 11th.Michael Owens for The New York TimesThe crowd watching the shot after Jessica teed off on the 18th.Michael Owens for The New York TimesWith a compromised swing, Nelly was only able to advance the ball a few yards. Her next shot found a greenside bunker and she walked off the hole with her head down after a seven-shot triple bogey.After making a long putt to save par on her last hole, Nelly signed her scorecard and then left in a rush, stopping only to take selfies with a couple youngsters.“She’ll be fine,” said Jessica, whose heart ached as she watched her sister struggle. She did what she could to help. On the 12th and 14th holes, Jessica held up a hand to stop a man holding a fuzzy microphone who was walking into Nelly’s line of sight while she was standing over par putts.Jessica said: “Obviously I pay attention. It doesn’t matter who I play with, I don’t want anyone to play poorly. It’s tough to watch. You just know how it is. You’ve been in that position yourself. You don’t want anyone struggling with you or around you. So it’s never easy. At the same time, I have to play golf. You have to learn how to be slightly selfish.”Jessica, left, Nelly, and both their caddies sharing a laugh as they walked to their tee shots on the 11th hole.Michael Owens for The New York TimesThe sisters’ parents, Petr and Regina, carved out separate vantage points in the gallery, converging every so often to compare mental notes and commiserate. Pandemic-related restrictions limited the number of fans allowed on the course to less than 5,000. A few hundred of those followed the Kordas and the third player in their group, South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu, the 2011 champion, who posted a 74.Petr yelled encouragement, but as the round continued, his voice became harder to hear over the wind.“I think it’s kind of funny because I heard my dad, you can always hear my dad,” Jessica said. “He was telling Nelly, ‘Come on,’ and then like ‘Good birdie’ to me.”Jessica kept a few tees in her hair while playing.Michael Owens for The New York TimesThe sisters’ parents, Petr and Regina, looked on as Jessica putted.Michael Owens for The New York TimesShe added, “I think they’re just enjoying watching us out here and trying to strike the balance of being supportive and also uplifting.”The sisters’ parents made a beeline for the clubhouse as soon as the round was finished. Jessica and Nelly both have L.P.G.A. victories this year and they came into the week expecting to contend.“You try not to play yourself out of it,” Jessica said. “Obviously it was so frustrating, making some silly mistakes and then the wind switched and it got warmer so we were trying to figure out how everything was going.”She added: “I was throwing up grass and it was going one way and then another way so it was a little annoying. But you expect all of this at a U.S. Open.”Nelly reacted after hitting out of the sand bunker on the seventh hole, where she shot a triple bogey.Michael Owens for The New York Times More