BELLEAIR, Fla. (AP) — Nelly Korda holed two long birdie putts to start her recovery from a six-shot deficit to Charley Hull, cutting the lead down to one shot Saturday going into the final round of The Annika.
Hull kept the lead by limiting the damage to a bogey on the 18th hole at the Pelican Golf Club after hitting into the water following a lengthy wait that led them to finish in near darkness. That gave her a 2-under 68.
Korda was poised to tie for the lead when she hit the tricky 18th green about 30 feet away. Her birdie putt down the slope and with the grain toward the water still ran out 4 feet, and she missed the par putt and shot 67.
Both are among the quickest players on the LPGA. Neither was happy about how it ended.
“It’s kind of hard when you don’t really see. I think it was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us,” Korda said. “Whenever you’re sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, I mean, it’s never nice. And especially with how slick these greens are and you can’t properly see, I mean, obviously two factors that go into that, too.
“At the end of the day I’m the one that missed it.”
Hull was at 12-under 198, one shot clear of Korda and Zhang Weiwei, who finished much earlier with a 62. Zhang is No. 106 in the Race to CME Globe and needs to finish in the top 100 to keep a full LPGA card for next year.
Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont., shot a 66 to get to 3-under. Hamilton’s Alena Sharp at 2-under turned in a 73.
The weekend looked to be a duel between Korda, the No. 1 player in women’s golf and the LPGA player of the year, and the carefree Hull. That’s how it looks for the final round, though it certainly didn’t start out that way.
Korda, who began Saturday two shots behind, had a pair of bogeys in her opening four holes and failed to birdie the par-5 seventh. Hull had two birdies to stretch her lead over Korda to six shots, and Hull had a four-shot lead at one point.
Korda holed a super slick, 45-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole, and followed that with another smooth stroke to make birdie from about 35 feet on No. 9.
The American star kept inching closer, hitting her approach to 2 feet on the 11th and making a 10-foot birdie putt on the 16th. Korda hit wedge to 4 feet on the 17th, and Hull answered with a wedge to 3 feet for matching birdies.
They also matched bogeys at the end in near darkness because of the pace and the time it took to cope with the fast greens and in some cases to get rulings.
Hull came up short and it rolled down the bank into the water. She chipped about 6 feet by and made the bogey putt, only for Korda to three-putt for bogey.
“My putt, I could barely see the hole,” Hull said. “I couldn’t see the break or anything. So it was pretty dark to finish in.”
Alexa Pano, playing in the final group, never recovered from three straight bogeys early and shot a 72 that not only moved her seven shots behind, it knocked her out of the top 60 in the Race to CME Globe.
The top 60 after this week advance to the CME Group Tour Championship, where the winner of the season finale gets a $4 million prize.
The top 60 and top 100 are the key numbers at the penultimate tournament. Zhang most likely can’t move into the top 60 with a win, but keeping her card is key. She had nine birdies and will be in the final group with Korda and Hull.
“Just felt it’s an amazing day,” Zhang said.
Olivia Cowan of Germany had a 65 and was in sixth place, four shots behind. She is No. 116 in points list and needs to hold her position to narrowly keep her card.
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