North Las Vegas, Nevada – Defending champion Nelly Korda is the latest example of anything in the T-Mobile game when she ranked No. 828 in the world in Wednesday’s match against Brittany Altomare and is still building her own game after 18 months of having a baby.
Korda had 2 holes and 2 in Shadow Creek when Altomare won the birdie title in 15th and 16th by par. After Korda had no shortage of putts from the edge, she pushed the bogey into the match on the 18th hole.
“It’s a game, so everything will happen,” said Altomari, whose only game in 2024 was on the Epson Tour. “For me, the final draw was a win. Nellie was a great player.”
The format has returned to a round-robin in 16 groups of four players, so Corda still has a path to the weekend knockout stage.
Hyo Joo Kim won a playoff victory at Phoenix last week, completing Bailey Tardy’s brief work with 8 and 7, while Brooke Henderson also had a relaxing 6 and 5 in Leona Maguire in Ireland.
But it’s usually this wild day once a year.
Albane Valenzuela fell 5 at the turn toward Megan Khang and rushed back through 16 holes. Khang had to get up from behind the 17th green green to avoid falling behind and then the closed hole flipped.
Khang still hit her third shot on the fairway and judged the back row perfectly, the ball rolled to 4 feet and had a chance on PAR. Valenzuela goes from a bunker to the green rear, facing a 60-foot putt, a steep ridge halfway through the cave.
Her putter was only an inch from grabbing the ridge. Her par putt didn’t have a chance, pushed out 12 feet, she missed the bogey putt and admitted the game. Khang never pushed it.
“It’s nice to win, but it’s stressful,” Kong said.
Jenny Shin suffered a huge loss, not only because of her lead 3. She only had one, until Lim Kim won 17th with a birdie. In the final hole, Shin’s sharp putt was from about 20 feet to win the game. She ran 5 feet and missed the par putt and lost.
Charley Hull of England and Alexa Pano were both squares until the last nine consecutive wins of 5 holes and 3 wins. Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand, the second-place women’s world ranking, beat Danielle Kang, who lives in Las Vegas and received a waiver from his sponsor.
Kang fell to 375 in the world.
Four of the top eight seeds lost to their opening match, including the third seed Lydia Ko, 6 and 4, who gave Hira Naveed, who had first alternated two days ago.
“Just Lydia was the first girl to play and I knew I had done the task,” Navid said. “Just went there and played fearless golf, played some great shots, made putts, so it was great.”
The other ones to lose are Haeran Ryu, Ewing and Jin Young Ko shocked.
