World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Ireland’s Leona Maguire advanced to the finals of the T-Mobile Match Play with dominant efforts Saturday in the quarterfinals and semifinals at Las Vegas.
Korda dispatched South Korea’s Narin An 4&3 in one semifinal, while Maguire ousted South Korea’s Sei Young Kim 3&2 at Shadow Creek Golf Course.
“(Maguire is) just so consistent,” Korda said. “Such a tough competitor. Really grinds out there. We’ve had a couple battles in Solheim Cups for sure. But I think it’s just going to be a grind tomorrow. I think it’ll be a lot of fun and nothing is going to be easy.”
Korda is attempting to win her fourth consecutive LPGA Tour event.
“Nelly is the best in the world right now,” Maguire said. “She’s on a really hot streak. It’s been incredibly impressive what she’s been doing in the past few weeks.
“It’s going to be a really tough battle tomorrow,” she continued. “I’ve got a big challenge ahead of me. I’m excited. I mean, that’s why you practice. You want to play the best players in the world and that’s what Nelly is.”
Korda built an imposing early lead by playing even on the first three holes — all par-4s — while An struggled with bogeys. Korda birdied Nos. 6 and 7 to go up five holes.
An responded with a birdie while Korda bogeyed the par-4 No. 10, but Korda came right back with a par at No. 11 while An needed an extra stroke. An parred the par-3 No. 13 to gain a hole, but Korda clinched the semifinal by matching her at No. 14 (both bogeyed) and No. 15 (both parred).
“I played really solid at the start,” Korda said. “I think I shot 2-under on the front nine. Was just making a lot of pars and then gave myself two good looks at birdie, so I capitalized on that. … Obviously, the back nine is a little tougher so (I) started to make a little bit more mistakes. Fatigue started setting in it just a little. Happy with the win.”
Maguire was up two on Kim on a par at the first hole and a birdie at No. 3. Kim birdied the par-5 No. 4 to cut her deficit, only to fall further behind when her opponent made pars at the par-5 No. 7 and at No. 10. Kim’s only other birdie came at No. 14, then Maguire parred Nos. 15 and 16 to close out the match.
In the quarterfinals, Maguire won by 4&3 over Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn, who had emerged from a four-player playoff on Friday to get to the weekend.
Korda topped fellow American Angel Yin 3&2 in their quarterfinal match.
Kim had cruised past American Rose Zhang 6&5, and An edged Japan’s Minami Katsu 1Up in the other quarterfinals.
The field was cut to the top 65 players and ties after 36 holes of stroke play on Wednesday and Thursday, then trimmed to the top eight after stroke play on Friday. Saturday morning was single-elimination match-play brackets, with the championship match set for Sunday.
–Field Level Media
