28 Jun 2021 | Professional golf |
Nelly Korda to be world No. 1
by Martin Blake
Nelly Korda is set to leap to No. 1 in the world rankings after she won her first-ever major, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club today.
Korda, 22, produced stunning golf to win for the second week in a row and the third time this year.
Starting out with a three-shot lead over playing partner Lizette Salas, Korda shot a closing 68 to Salas' 71 to win by three shots, holing a four-metre par putt at the last to put the icing on it.
"I don't even have words, honestly," said Korda, who will likely now join her elder sister Jessica in the American team at the Olympic Games. Their brother, Sebastian, also has a chance to be in Tokyo on the US tennis team.
Korda, whose father Petr won a tennis Australian Open in 1998, has been earmarked for greatness since she won the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open in 2019 in Adelaide. Her path has been inexorably upward.
When the rankings are published tomorrow she will leap from No. 3 ahead of South Korean's Jin Young Ko and In Bee Park to be the first American to take the mantle for seven years.
Gabriela Ruffels was the best of the Australians in the field in a tie for 33rd after she closed with a 75 today.
Meanwhile Sydney's Grace Kim finished tied-10th on her Symetra Tour debut in Cincinatti, Ohio today.
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