NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Defending champion Nelly Korda grew to become the newest instance of something goes within the T-Cellular Match Play when she settled for a halve Wednesday towards Brittany Altomare, No. 828 on the planet and nonetheless constructing her sport after an 18-month break from having a child.
Korda was 2 up with 4 holes to play at Shadow Creek when Altomare received the fifteenth with a par and the sixteenth with a birdie. She made a 4-foot bogey putt on the 18th gap to halve the match after Korda was quick on her par putt from the perimeter.
“It is match play, so something can occur,” mentioned Altomare, whose solely match in 2024 was on the Epson Tour. “To finish up in a tie was a win for me. Nelly is a superb participant.”
The format has returned to round-robin play among the many 16 teams of 4 gamers, so Korda nonetheless has a path to the knockout stage of the weekend.
Hyo Joo Kim, coming off a playoff win final week in Phoenix, made quick work of Bailey Tardy with an 8-and-7 victory, and Brooke Henderson additionally had a straightforward time, 6 and 5, over Leona Maguire of Eire.
Nevertheless it was a usually wild day on this once-a-year format.
Albane Valenzuela was 5 down on the flip to Megan Khang earlier than she stormed again to sq. the match by means of 16 holes. Khang needed to get up-and-down from behind the seventeenth inexperienced to keep away from falling behind, after which the closing gap flipped.
Khang was nonetheless within the fairway enjoying her third shot and judged it completely off a backstop, the ball rolling out to 4 ft for an opportunity at par. Valenzuela went from a bunker to the again of the inexperienced, dealing with a 60-foot putt with a steep ridge midway to the outlet.
Her putt was an inch from catching the ridge. Her par putt had no probability and rolled out 12 ft, and he or she missed the bogey putt and conceded the match. Khang by no means needed to putt.
“Completely happy to get the win, however in demanding trend,” Khang mentioned.
Jenny Shin had a tricky loss, and never simply because she had a 3-up lead. She was 1 up till A Lim Kim received the seventeenth with a birdie. On the ultimate gap, Shin had a sharp-breaking putt from about 20 ft for birdie to win the match. She ran that 5 ft by and missed the par putt to lose.
Charley Hull of England was all sq. with Alexa Pano till profitable 5 straight holes on the again 9 for a 5-and-3 victory. Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand, the No. 2 participant within the girls’s world rating, had a 6-and-5 win over Danielle Kang, who lives in Las Vegas and acquired a sponsor exemption.
Kang has fallen to No. 375 on the planet.
4 of the highest eight seeds misplaced their opening matches, together with third-seeded Lydia Ko, 6 and 4, to Hira Naveed, who was first alternate two days in the past.
“Having Lydia as the primary woman to play, I knew I had the duty at hand,” Naveed mentioned. “Simply went on the market and performed fearless golf and hit some nice pictures and made putts, in order that was good.”
The others to lose have been Haeran Ryu, Ruoning Yin and Jin Younger Ko.
