Nelly Korda stays in the fight on second day of LPGA Tour’s T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas
Nelly Korda avoided a second straight collapse to keep her hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the T-Mobile Match Play alive with victory over Jennifer Kupcho in Las Vegas.
Korda built a lead and held on to finish one-up on Kupcho, who fell to 0-2 in the event. That marked an improvement from Wednesday for Korda, when the defending champion settled for halving her match after losing a late lead to Brittany Altomare.
“Very questionable by me,” Korda said of her play. “Definitely don’t have my best stuff right now. That’s the greatest thing about match play – even if you don’t have your best stuff, you have to grind it out.”
Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn maintained her advantage at the top of Group One after winning 2&1 against Altomare. She faces Korda in the final leg of the round robin Friday, where a win would give either player the group.
The match-play tournament sees the 64-player field split into 16 groups, with round-robin matches played across three days. The 16 group winners then progress to the weekend’s knockout ties, starting with the quarter-finals on Saturday.
England’s Charley Hull and South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai co-lead in Group Six at 1-0-1 after they tied their second-round match.
Overall, 12 golfers are 2-0 through two days of play at Shadow Creek Golf Course, putting each in a strong position to win their group and advance to the knockout stages.
Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul defeated Mexico’s Gaby Lopez to go 2-0 in Group Two, South Korea’s Kim Sei-Young upended Japan’s Yuna Nishimura 4&2 to advance to 2-0 in Group Four, while Group Five features Australia’s Stephanie Kyriacou leading the way at 2-0 after her 4&2 victory over Japan’s Ayaka Furue.
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The only group with a pair of 2-0 golfers is Group Nine as South Korea’s Kim Hyo-Joo and Sweden’s Maja Stark are still perfect and face off Friday.
“I love this format and it’s been a lot of fun,” New Zealand’s Lydia Ko said after winning her Thursday match 6&5 over Australia’s Gabriela Ruffels to get into that four-way tie in Group Three.
“Yesterday I came off the day not feeling defeated. I still had a great time.”
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