The celebrities are aligning on the LPGA Tour, as two-time main championship winner Lilia Vu captured final week’s Meijer LPGA Traditional in her first begin again after lacking 11 weeks with a again harm.
World No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda and Vu shall be again on the course collectively once more at this week’s KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, the third main of the season, which tees off Thursday at Sahalee Nation Membership in Sammamish, Washington.
Vu, who was named LPGA Participant of the 12 months after profitable 4 occasions final season, together with two majors on the Chevron Championship and AIG Ladies’s Open, has her sights set on returning to No. 1 within the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings. After all, that spot belongs to Korda, who has already gained six occasions on tour this season, together with the primary main on the Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas, on April 21.
Korda gained six occasions in seven begins — and an LPGA record-tying 5 occasions in a row — earlier than cooling off in her previous two begins with missed cuts on the U.S. Ladies’s Open and the Meijer LPGA Traditional. She’s trying to bounce again after these two disappointments.
“I will undergo these conditions so many occasions the place I really feel like I am enjoying rather well, and I will undergo a little bit lull the place golf is the toughest factor in my life proper now,” Korda stated Tuesday throughout a information convention on the Ladies’s PGA Championship.
“In order that’s I really feel like what grows myself as an individual and what makes me respect the game a lot and makes me respect the wins and the highs and good photographs, the crowds on the market as nicely.”
Korda, 25, was requested Tuesday whether or not she’d watched tennis star Roger Federer‘s graduation speech at Dartmouth School on June 9. The 20-time Grand Slam champion famous that whereas he gained 80% of his matches in his profession, he gained solely 54% of the factors he performed.
“That is the identical factor with golf,” Korda stated. “They get second serves. If we mess up and make an enormous quantity on a gap, it is a little bit bit extra penalizing than in the event that they double fault, to illustrate, relying on the place they’re within the match. It is true. You are going to fail greater than you win, and I feel that is what fuels a participant as nicely extra in sports activities.”
Korda can relate. On Could 30, she carded a ten on the par-3 twelfth gap within the first spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She posted 80-70 and missed the lower by 2 strokes at 10-over 150.
Final week, she began with double bogey-bogey-bogey en path to a 4-over 76 in windy circumstances within the first spherical of the Meijer LPGA Traditional at Blythefield Nation Membership in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She bounced again with a 5-under 67 within the second spherical however missed the lower by one.
Like Federer on the tennis courts, there’s an expectation that Korda will win every time she tees it up in a match.
“I really feel like strain is [a] privilege, and that is one thing that you are the just one that may form of management that,” Korda stated. “You may hearken to the skin voices, however on the finish of the day, when you may have strain you possibly can take it in a optimistic means that you’re doing good and enjoying nicely. However, yeah, I am simply going to remain in my bubble this week and exit and attempt to execute my photographs, be assured in what I’ve.”
Korda and Vu will even compete within the upcoming Olympic ladies’s golf match, scheduled for Aug. 7-10 at Le Golf Nationwide exterior Paris. They rank Nos. 1 and a pair of within the ladies’s Olympic Golf Rankings and can make the 60-woman discipline.
“I’ve by no means been to Paris, and the one factor I am actually trying ahead to is the croissants in all probability on each nook,” Korda stated. “I like bakeries and baked items, in order that’s one factor I am actually trying ahead to. And clearly representing my nation and attending to compete within the Olympics is such an unimaginable alternative.
“I am simply tremendous excited to get there and even simply to play that golf course. I received to observe it in [the 2018] Ryder Cup. To have the ability to play such superb golf programs like we do these days shall be such a deal with.”
A rustic can have as much as 4 gamers within the discipline in the event that they’re ranked within the prime 15 of the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings. Together with Korda and Vu, Rose Zhang is No. 9 and can in all probability make the group, whereas Megan Khang (No. 16), Alison Lee (No. 18), Ally Ewing (No. 19) and Allisen Corpuz (No. 23) have work to do that week.
The Olympics discipline shall be finalized after Sunday’s remaining spherical at Sahalee Nation Membership.
Korda has already clinched a spot on the U.S. group for the Solheim Cup, which shall be performed Sept. 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Gainesville, Virginia. It will likely be her fourth Solheim Cup look.
Vu is second in Solheim Cup factors — 911½ behind Korda — and is all however a lock to make the squad. The highest seven golfers on the factors listing when the qualifying interval ends after the AIG Ladies’s British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland on Aug. 22-25 will robotically qualify for the U.S. group. The following two highest gamers on the planet rankings will even make the group, and Stacy Lewis will make three captain’s picks.
Lewis is blissful Vu, a Solheim Cup rookie ultimately 12 months’s occasion in Andalusia, Spain, is wholesome once more.
“Probably the most spectacular [thing] was the period of time that she took off after which simply comes again and wins,” Lewis stated. “That’s actually onerous to do, as a result of [when] you come again, your quick sport is likely to be rusty. I used to be most impressed with that.”
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