World No. 1 Nelly Korda is aiming for her fourth consecutive LPGA Tour title with a win over Angel Inn in the quarterfinals of the T-Mobile Match Play.
However, her match turned out to be more of a battle than a cakewalk.
“The weather was very cold and windy,” Korda said.
“I don’t think that was really expected today, so we started playing in really tough conditions.”
Korda birdied the second hole to go up 1, but Yin tied the score with a birdie of his own on the par-5 fourth. Then Korda made a par on the 6th and birdied the par-5 7th to jump up 2.
“Overall, the pars are a lot better here, especially in the tough conditions,” Korda added.
After five holes, Korda won with another par on the 12th hole, giving him a commanding 3-up lead with six holes remaining.
Later, she and Ying exchanged wins on the 15th and 16th holes, but The match ended at 3&2 with Korda’s birdie. 4pm.
“She’s very good at match play, so I knew I had to dig really deep today to get the W,” Korda said of Yin.
“But I’m happy with how I played today, and I’m happy to finish with birdie.”
In the third match of the day, Korda will face South Korea’s Nalin Ang, who defeated Japan’s Minami Katsu 1-up. The semi-final match will begin at 1:55pm local time.
Meanwhile, Irishman Leona Maguire got off to a strong start in her quarter-final match against Moriya Jutanugarn, winning three of the first five holes to go 2-up early on.
“I knew I had to play some pretty good golf to win.” [Jutanugarn] this morning,” Maguire said after the win.
“She came on really strong from 5 under yesterday, which is great in these conditions. She got off to a great start. She was 2 up going into the third. She made a really great putt on the third for a birdie. But I felt like I kind of stole it. Yeah, just played consistently, played well, kept putting pressure on her the whole time. I’m glad it ended on the 15th.”
There was never any doubt about Maguire’s game as he won 4 & 3. Maguire, from Cavan, will face his next opponent. Kim Sei Young This afternoon, the first semi-final game will tee off at 1:40pm local time.
Kim defeated Rose Chan 6&5. South Korea won seven out of 13 holes, allowing Chan to return home early.
Kim has won 12 titles on the LPGA Tour, her last title coming in 2020 at the Pelican Women’s Championship. She also won the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronomic outside Philadelphia.
“We played together [Maguire] Yesterday,” Kim said afterwards.
“She seems like a very competitive person. Yeah, I like playing with her. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I don’t know what will happen, but I’ll try my best.”
Live coverage of these two semifinal matches will begin at 6pm ET on Golf Channel.
The winner will play the final on Sunday.
If Korda and Maguire win, a Solheim Cup rematch will be scheduled. The two players met twice last year at Finca Cortesin, with the American and European each scoring one point.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
