Nelly Korda settles for a halve and Hyo Joo Kim rolls on in LPGA Match Play
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Defending champion Nelly Korda became the latest example of anything goes in the T-Mobile Match Play when she settled for a halve Wednesday against Brittany Altomare, No. 828 in the world and still building her game after an 18-month break from having a baby.
Korda was 2 up with four holes to play at Shadow Creek when Altomare won the 15th with a par and the 16th with a birdie. She made a 4-foot bogey putt on the 18th hole to halve the match after Korda was short on her par putt from the fringe.
'It's match play, so anything can happen,' said Altomare, whose only tournament in 2024 was on the Epson Tour. 'To end up in a tie was a win for me. Nelly is a great player.'
The format has returned to round-robin play among the 16 groups of four players, so Korda still has a path to the knockout stage of the weekend.
Hyo Joo Kim, coming off a playoff win last week in Phoenix, made short work of Bailey Tardy with an 8-and-7 victory, and Brooke Henderson also had an easy time, 6 and 5, over Leona Maguire of Ireland.
But it was a typically wild day in this once-a-year format.
Albane Valenzuela was 5 down at the turn to Megan Khang before she stormed back to square the match through 16 holes. Khang had to get up-and-down from behind the 17th green to avoid falling behind, and then the closing hole flipped.
Khang was still in the fairway playing her third shot and judged it perfectly off a backstop, the ball rolling out to 4 feet for a chance at par. Valenzuela went from a bunker to the back of the green, facing a 60-foot putt with a steep ridge halfway to the hole.
Her putt was an inch from catching the ridge. Her par putt had no chance and rolled out 12 feet, and she missed the bogey putt and conceded the match. Khang never had to putt.
'Happy to get the win, but in stressful fashion,' Khang said.
Jenny Shin had a tough loss, and not just because she had a 3-up lead. She was 1 up until A Lim Kim won the 17th with a birdie. On the final hole, Shin had a sharp-breaking putt from about 20 feet for birdie to win the match. She ran that 5 feet by and missed the par putt to lose.
Charley Hull of England was all square with Alexa Pano until winning five straight holes on the back nine for a 5-and-3 victory. Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand, the No. 2 player in the women's world ranking, had a 6-and-5 win over Danielle Kang, who lives in Las Vegas and received a sponsor exemption.
Kang has fallen to No. 375 in the world.
Four of the top eight seeds lost their opening matches, including third-seeded Lydia Ko, 6 and 4, to Hira Naveed, who was first alternate two days ago.
'Having Lydia as the first girl to play, I knew I had the task at hand,' Naveed said. 'Just went out there and played fearless golf and hit some great shots and made putts, so that was good.'
The others to lose were Haeran Ryu, Ruoning Yin and Jin Young Ko.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
10 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Club World Cup: Jack Grealish left out of Man City squad
MIAMI (AP) — Jack Grealish has been left out of Manchester City's squad for the Club World Cup. City manager Pep Guardiola named a 27-man squad for the tournament, which kicks off in Miami on Saturday, with Grealish a notable omission. The England forward was a British record signing when he moved to City from Aston Villa for 100 million pounds ($139 million then) in 2021 and went on to help the club win three Premier League titles, the Champions League and a host of other trophies. But he has become an increasingly peripheral figure and made only seven league starts last season. The 29-year-old Grealish's absence from the Club World Cup will add to the growing expectation that he will leave during the offseason, with Guardiola embarking on a squad rebuild following the team's first trophyless season in eight years. City's squad includes four new players signed in time to take part in the month-long tournament in the United States: Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Marcus Bettinelli. In January, City also spent big to sign Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis as Guardiola began his overhaul of a squad that saw its dominance of English soccer broken by Liverpool last season. If Grealish goes, he is likely to be one of a number of players to move on. Kevin De Bruyne is leaving at the end of his contract this month and Kyle Walker is also likely to go after a loan move to AC Milan in January; as expected, neither player was in the squad. City's first match at the 32-team tournament is against Wydad Casablanca next Wednesday in Philadelphia. The other teams in the group are Juventus and Abu Dhabi's Al Ain. ___ James Robson is at ___
San Francisco Chronicle
10 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
49ers and Bryce Huff hope the pass rusher will be a perfect fit in San Francisco
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Bryce Huff went into the offseason expecting a trade after failing to produce in a new role in his one year in Philadelphia after signing a lucrative contract as a free agent. Ending up in San Francisco seems to be a perfect fit. After being a proverbial square peg in a round hole with the Eagles when he was used as a standup outside linebacker instead of a pass rusher off the edge, Huff has reunited with his former coach Robert Saleh in a scheme that caters to his strength of being able to get off the ball quickly and disrupt opposing quarterbacks. 'I learned a lot about myself throughout that experience,' Huff said Wednesday about his season with the Eagles. 'It just didn't work out at the end of the day. So you live and you learn. All I focus on is what I'm doing right now and that's being a 49er and doing everything I can to help this team win.' The Niners are counting on Huff to be able to do just that, believing that he can be the bookend speed rusher across from star Nick Bosa that the team has been seeking ever since a back injury sidelined Dee Ford after he helped the team reach the Super Bowl in 2019. Ford had 6 1/2 sacks in 11 games that season when Saleh was defensive coordinator but played only seven games the next two seasons because of the injuries, leaving a void in the defense that the 49ers believe Huff can fill. 'He affects the quarterback,' coach Kyle Shanahan said. "When you talk about just getting off the ball and how fast he does it. He will be our best get off the ball guy we've had since Dee Ford. So in terms of that, it's good to beat tackles that way, but also widens tackles to help with the inside pass rush and things like that and he affects the quarterback.' The Niners got Huff on the cheap a year after he signed a $51.1 million, three-year deal with Philadelphia. San Francisco traded a conditional fifth-round pick last month for Huff and are on the hook for only $7.95 million of salary this season. Huff had his best success as a pro under Saleh with the New York Jets, He was initially as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and began to emerge as a key player after Saleh took over as head coach the following year and turned him from a linebacker into a defensive end. Huff put on about 20 pounds of muscle and began to show flashes quickly before breaking through with a 10-sack season in 2023 that led to the big free-agent contract. 'Speed off the edge,' Saleh said of Huff's biggest strength. 'I think highly of him as a pass rusher. Thought he was very productive, obviously, with the Jets. He wins at such a high rate. A lot of times we look at pass rushers, we look as sacks and sacks are important. They end drives. It's what ultimately gets these guys paid. But his disruption rate in getting the quarterback off the spot and the way he can do it now. ... He wins so quickly so often that coordinators have to account for his presence on the field.' Huff had 67 pressures on just 334 pass rush snaps in 2023 for the Jets, according to Pro Football Focus, as he became one of the most efficient pass rushers in the game. The Niners were in need of another pass rusher after cutting Leonard Floyd early in the offseason. They drafted Mykel Williams 11th overall in April but had no other defensive end who had a season with at least five sacks in the NFL. Yetur Gross-Matos is the only other edge rusher on the roster with extensive experience. Gross-Matos had four sacks last season in his first year with San Francisco. 'He's going to bring that speed demon off the edge, that's going require a running back or a chip opposite of Nick,' left tackle Trent Williams said. 'I think he adds that the kind of that Dee Ford effect that they had in '19 that took them to the Super Bowl. One of the reasons we had a really, really good defense for those couple years is having that guy who can actually make that quarterback step up by getting a good jump off the ball and being able to bend the edge.' ___
San Francisco Chronicle
10 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Club World Cup refs to wear eye-level cameras but it's what FIFA won't show that's most telling
MIAMI (AP) — Referees at the Club World Cup will wear eye-level cameras to finally allow fans to see exactly what the officials are looking at during a soccer match. Well... not quite. FIFA has announced the innovation will be implemented at its newly-expanded tournament, which kicks off in Miami on Saturday. But on closer inspection, the technology appears to be more about improving the experience for television viewers than improving the game. For instance, only 'non-controversial' images will be shown during the match. FIFA has not specified what that means, but don't look for goal-scoring incidents and potential red cards to be included. The camera will be attached to the referee's earpiece. 'It is a trial,' Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA referees committee, said Wednesday. "What will be the future? We will see. 'We have said that we want to, let's say, offer a new experience to TV viewers. We want to show something, let's say, entertaining. I don't think that we always need to think of the controversial or potentially controversial incidents on the field of play.' Footage will be checked before being broadcast, rather than shown live. FIFA says the refcam view could be used to show unique angles of goals scored and offer different perspectives of the game that normal cameras cannot see. But if restricted to that, it would appear to be a missed opportunity in a sport that is increasingly using advances in technology to improve the accuracy and transparency of decision-making. Another innovation at the Club World Cup — a month-long tournament staged in the United States and featuring 32 of the best soccer teams in the world — is to show footage being reviewed by VAR for the first time on big screens inside the stadium. In theory, the refcam would make referees more accountable for their decisions by allowing fans to see exactly what the official saw before making a call. But it is not even clear how much it would be used to help VAR. While Collina said all footage would be available to the VAR, he questioned how useful the refcam would be in such circumstances. 'Honestly, can you believe that a camera position just besides the referee's eyes can see something that the referee's eyes cannot see? Honestly, I think it's difficult to believe,' he said. FIFA, itself, has made clear where it believes the footage would be of most use, saying the test was designed to 'explore whether the new camera angle can improve the experience for those watching on television and online by showcasing the referee's perspective.' It added that the tests would be used to make guidelines for future use. 'Step by step' Collina said. "We need to do something new and the simpler the better." Time wasting FIFA also announced a clampdown on time wasting by goalkeepers at the Club World Cup. Previous rules specified keepers can't hold onto the ball for longer than six seconds, but Collina said that was frequently being flouted. The time limit has now been extended to eight seconds, but referees will be much stricter in enforcement. The referee will also count down from five seconds with their hand to indicate the time remaining. If a keeper holds onto the ball for longer than eight seconds, a corner kick will be awarded to the opposition, rather than an indirect free kick, which was the previous punishment. ___
