Korda survives back-nine meltdown to defend title in play-off
Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA report: What happened at Miramar Golf Country Club?
Nelly Korda produced her very best on the first play-off hole to defend her title in Chinese Taipei beating Minjee Lee and Caroline Masson.
Korda was the first of the trio to tee off and couldn’t have placed her tee shot any better. A driver onto the centre of the fairway on the par-5 closer had her immediately in the driving seat.
Lee and Masson followed both leaking their drives into the thick right rough which forced the latter to hack out with an iron.
The Australian was able to get a wood to the ball but came up just short of the green, opening the door for Korda to walk right through.
.@NellyKorda wins @SwingingSkirts in a playoff with Minjee Lee and Caroline Masson to successfully defend her title! pic.twitter.com/cttbKoS36h
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 3, 2019
The 21-year-old who won this title twelve months ago made the most of the opportunity and hit her approach straight at the flag leaving just a short eagle putt.
Masson left herself with an outside chance of birdie when needing to chip-in from over the back of the green, but her effort rolled just by and with it her chances of victory disappeared.
Having looked tentative with the putter all day Korda left her eagle putt short and settled for a birdie, gifting Lee the chance of extending the play-off.
She did not take it however and with Lee’s missed birdie putt, the trophy was heading home with Korda once again.
.@NellyKorda looking for back-to-back titles at the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA 💪👏 pic.twitter.com/HLIyG8qddm
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 3, 2019
The final round was full of twists and turns and in there were several points in which a play-off did not seem possible.
Korda held the outright lead heading into Sunday and all was well through 13 holes as she was three shots ahead of her nearest challenger.
But from there she fell apart bogeying three of her next four holes and surrendering the lead to Caroline Masson.
Germany’s Masson had a putt to win at the last which was agonisingly missed and allowed her two playing partners to force the play-off.
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
