Sagstrom digs deep to win LPGA Match Play
Sweden's Madelene Sagstrom overcame a mid-round slump to score a 1-up victory over the USA's Lauren Coughlin and win the LPGA Match Play tournament in Las Vegas on Sunday.
The 32-year-old world number 67 dug deep with a gritty display at the Shadow Creek Golf Course to clinch only the second LPGA title of her career.
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Sagstrom had looked to be poised to claim an emphatic victory early in Sunday's final, quickly racing into to a 4-up lead after the opening six holes.
But her smooth early form disintegrated over the next four holes, and a disastrous performance on the 11th, when she twice mis-hit attempted chips onto the green, allowed Coughlin to make it all square.
Coughlin, the 13th seed who had edged Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn in the semi-finals, then sneaked into a 1-up lead on the 12th when Sagstrom's par-putt lipped out.
Sagstrom though hit back on the par-three 13th when Coughlin could only make a bogey to put it back to all-square.
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The next two holes were squared before Sagstrom won what would turn out to be the decisive hole on the 16th, when Coughlin made a double-bogey seven.
A superb chip helped Sagstrom save par on the 17th, and Coughlin missed a birdie putt that would have tied it again before the two players parred the 18th.
Sagstrom, who had beaten Angel Yin in Sunday's semi-finals, blamed tiredness on her mid-round wobble.
"I'm exhausted and I bet Lauren is exhausted," she said after her win. "I'm so tired and I think it really kind of hit my swing there in the middle.
"I said to (caddie) Shane (Codd), I can do this. I just need to find some sort of feeling to hit some good golf shots again.
"I just kind of dug deep and was like, oh, well, hopefully it's not too many holes left. It's just amazing."
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Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
The catfishing scam putting fans and female golfers in danger
Meet Rodney Raclette. Indiana native. 62 years old. Big golfer. A huge fan of the LPGA. On Aug. 4, Rodney opened an Instagram account with the handle @lpgafanatic6512, and he quickly followed some verified accounts for female golfers and a few other accounts that looked official. Within 20 minutes of creating his account and with zero posts to his name, Rodney received a message from what at first glance appeared to be the world's No. 2-ranked female golfer, Nelly Korda. 'Hi, handsomeface, i know this is like a dream to you. Thank you for being a fan,' read a direct message from @nellykordaofficialfanspage2. The real Nelly Korda was certainly not messaging Rodney — and Rodney doesn't actually exist. The Athletic created the Instagram account of the fictitious middle-aged man to test the veracity and speed of an ever-increasing social media scam pervading the LPGA. The gist of the con goes like this: Social media user is a fan of a specific golfer; scam account impersonating that athlete reaches out and quickly moves the conversation to another platform like Telegram or WhatsApp to evade social media moderation tools; scammer offers a desirable object or experience — a private dinner, VIP access to a tournament, an investment opportunity — for a fee; untraceable payments are made via cryptocurrency or gift cards. Then, once the spigot of cash is turned off, the scammer disappears. While this particular con is not limited to golf, player agents, security experts and golfers say it has taken off within the LPGA in the last five years. Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie West, Morgan Pressel, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Gregg and Korda all have publicly posted warnings about the scams to their followers. Golf influencers Paige Spiranac and Hailey Ostrom also have spoken out. 'It's been taken out of my hands being able to communicate freely with fans,' Korda, who has a warning statement pinned to the top of her Instagram profile, told The Athletic. 'Because I don't really know their intentions.' On a handful of occasions, the victims of the scams have continued to blame the golfer for their financial losses even after being confronted with the truth, and some simply refuse to believe they have not been interacting with the real athlete, tipping into fixated behavior that concerns golfers and security officials. 'We've definitely had people show up at tournaments who thought they had sent money to have a private dinner with the person,' said Scott Stewart, who works for TorchStone Global, a security firm used by the LPGA. 'But then also, we've had people show up who were aggrieved because they had been ripped off, there's a tournament nearby, and they wanted to kind of confront the athlete over the theft.' Last May, a Pennsylvania man in his 60s drove four hours to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., for the Mizuho Americas Open. He was there to meet 22-year-old American golfer Rose Zhang. He told tournament staff that she had left a VIP package for him and even booked him a hotel room. He said they had been communicating on social media for over a year, during which he had sent her around $70,000. Zhang's agent confronted the man, breaking the news that he was not communicating with Zhang. Another man traveled from Asia to a tournament in the United States, believing he was married to one of the players. A 68-year-old man from California attended several tournaments to see South Korean golfer In Gee Chun after being duped out of $50,000. England's Charley Hull warned her followers on Instagram about the scam after 'an incident' at a tournament in 2024. And in January, a man showed up at the home of golf influencer Hailey Ostrom after losing $50,000 to an account impersonating her. Spiranac said the reaction from some of the scam victims has forced her to change the way she works and lives. She now has security at every event, has an active restraining order against one of the scammed individuals, and when fan behavior escalates because of a scam — 'flare-ups' as she calls them — she has chosen to skip some events for her safety. 'I've had people come up to me at events, at outings, and say that they're in a relationship with me, or they come up quite angry because 'fake me' has scammed them out of money or has ghosted them,' Spiranac said. 'Those experiences are quite scary, but it's also very invasive.' Added Stewart: 'There's really two victims. You have the person that's been scammed, but really, the athlete is a victim, too, since they get blamed for it.' Not too long after joining a Nelly Korda fan page on Facebook in June 2024, a 72-year-old man from South Carolina, whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, received an email from someone claiming to be the real Nelly Korda. Email quickly turned to texting, texting morphed into phone calls, and within days, he told his daughter that they were in love. 'He was convinced he was speaking to Nelly Korda, convinced she was going to live with him, and they were going to get married,' his daughter, Shannon, said. 'But it was a cycle of different ways to get money from him.' She estimates he sent over $15,000. Shannon and her brother tried to convince him it was a scam. They also reached out to law enforcement, explored intervention services, attempted to catfish the catfisher, and even sent a plea via a direct message on Instagram to the real Nelly Korda to set the record straight. When the father confronted 'Nelly,' she had an excuse for everything: She had no access to her money due to a controlling manager and family. Her flight got canceled. The scam warning on Korda's verified Instagram account was a note for everyone else, not him. In March, as her father began drafting plans to sell his house at Nelly's request, one of Nelly's made-up excuses finally exposed her. She told him she had broken a bone in a car accident, but there was no evidence of a broken bone on Korda's verified Instagram account. Finally, the man realized he was not in a relationship with Nelly Korda. But his retirement fund was gone. Rodney Raclette, if he really existed, might have been similarly duped. When he commented on a video posted by the verified Nelly Korda Instagram account, people responded to his comments, directing him to other fan pages that the poster claimed were created by Korda to interact with fans. Another person claiming to be Korda sent him an Instagram direct message. After Rodney and that fake Korda exchanged niceties, she insisted the conversation move off of Instagram to email. She urged Rodney not to share her email with anyone, and wrote — in broken English — that he not 'take this opportunity talking to me for granted because not all celebrities come online to talk to their fans like am doing presently.' Next, she said she needed to see Rodney's ID for her 'safety and career,' but when Rodney made excuses as to why he could not provide any identification, the fake Nelly impatiently moved to the next question: 'Do you have a Fan Membership Card?' She told Rodney, 'if you're my biggest fan,' for just $700, he would receive access to all of her 'games,' her autograph, and new, customized golf shirts. Anytime Rodney questioned the price or authenticity of the card, Nelly threatened to leave the conversation. She would only continue if he purchased the card. Rodney became more skeptical and urged Nelly to prove it was really her. Within minutes, he received an AI-altered video of the real Nelly Korda speaking directly to him by name. It's nearly impossible to trace the source of most of these scams, and they're even harder to prosecute. Old accounts disappear and new accounts reappear by the hour. Patrick Chase, a private investigator and former LPGA security consultant, says the majority of catfishers are typically based outside of the U.S. The FBI is overwhelmed with identity theft cases and, according to Chase, it oftentimes won't address incidents unless losses exceed a certain dollar amount. Golf influencer Hannah Gregg has been communicating with several scam victims to collect evidence she can bring to law enforcement but to no avail. 'They won't do anything for me basically until something bad happens to me,' she said. Korda said she once reported about 20 spam accounts per day, but they are now materializing so quickly she can't keep up. 'You're just put into a situation you really don't want to be in. You feel bad, you feel guilty for people going through this. It's the last thing you want,' she said. 'It's not only putting the players in danger, in a sense, but it's putting all the fans in danger.' The day after creating the Rodney account, the fan page that had reached out to him — @nellykordaofficialfanspage21 — had been deleted. Rodney emailed the fake Nelly Korda to ask what happened. She replied: 'I deactivated the account because of imposters, and the FBI are working on catching them.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Golf, Culture, A1: Must-Read Stories, Women's Golf, women's sports 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
The catfishing scam putting fans and female golfers in danger
Meet Rodney Raclette. Indiana native. 62 years old. Big golfer. A huge fan of the LPGA. On Aug. 4, Rodney opened an Instagram account with the handle @lpgafanatic6512, and he quickly followed some verified accounts for female golfers and a few other accounts that looked official. Within 20 minutes of creating his account and with zero posts to his name, Rodney received a message from what at first glance appeared to be the world's No. 2-ranked female golfer, Nelly Korda. Advertisement 'Hi, handsomeface, i know this is like a dream to you. Thank you for being a fan,' read a direct message from @nellykordaofficialfanspage2. The real Nelly Korda was certainly not messaging Rodney — and Rodney doesn't actually exist. The Athletic created the Instagram account of the fictitious middle-aged man to test the veracity and speed of an ever-increasing social media scam pervading the LPGA. The gist of the con goes like this: Social media user is a fan of a specific golfer; scam account impersonating that athlete reaches out and quickly moves the conversation to another platform like Telegram or WhatsApp to evade social media moderation tools; scammer offers a desirable object or experience — a private dinner, VIP access to a tournament, an investment opportunity — for a fee; untraceable payments are made via cryptocurrency or gift cards. Then, once the spigot of cash is turned off, the scammer disappears. While this particular con is not limited to golf, player agents, security experts and golfers say it has taken off within the LPGA in the last five years. Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie West, Morgan Pressel, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Gregg and Korda all have publicly posted warnings about the scams to their followers. Golf influencers Paige Spiranac and Hailey Ostrom also have spoken out. 'It's been taken out of my hands being able to communicate freely with fans,' Korda, who has a warning statement pinned to the top of her Instagram profile, told The Athletic. 'Because I don't really know their intentions.' On a handful of occasions, the victims of the scams have continued to blame the golfer for their financial losses even after being confronted with the truth, and some simply refuse to believe they have not been interacting with the real athlete, tipping into fixated behavior that concerns golfers and security officials. Advertisement 'We've definitely had people show up at tournaments who thought they had sent money to have a private dinner with the person,' said Scott Stewart, who works for TorchStone Global, a security firm used by the LPGA. 'But then also, we've had people show up who were aggrieved because they had been ripped off, there's a tournament nearby, and they wanted to kind of confront the athlete over the theft.' Last May, a Pennsylvania man in his 60s drove four hours to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., for the Mizuho Americas Open. He was there to meet 22-year-old American golfer Rose Zhang. He told tournament staff that she had left a VIP package for him and even booked him a hotel room. He said they had been communicating on social media for over a year, during which he had sent her around $70,000. Zhang's agent confronted the man, breaking the news that he was not communicating with Zhang. Another man traveled from Asia to a tournament in the United States, believing he was married to one of the players. A 68-year-old man from California attended several tournaments to see South Korean golfer In Gee Chun after being duped out of $50,000. England's Charley Hull warned her followers on Instagram about the scam after 'an incident' at a tournament in 2024. And in January, a man showed up at the home of golf influencer Hailey Ostrom after losing $50,000 to an account impersonating her. Spiranac said the reaction from some of the scam victims has forced her to change the way she works and lives. She now has security at every event, has an active restraining order against one of the scammed individuals, and when fan behavior escalates because of a scam — 'flare-ups' as she calls them — she has chosen to skip some events for her safety. 'I've had people come up to me at events, at outings, and say that they're in a relationship with me, or they come up quite angry because 'fake me' has scammed them out of money or has ghosted them,' Spiranac said. 'Those experiences are quite scary, but it's also very invasive.' Added Stewart: 'There's really two victims. You have the person that's been scammed, but really, the athlete is a victim, too, since they get blamed for it.' Not too long after joining a Nelly Korda fan page on Facebook in June 2024, a 72-year-old man from South Carolina, whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, received an email from someone claiming to be the real Nelly Korda. Email quickly turned to texting, texting morphed into phone calls, and within days, he told his daughter that they were in love. Advertisement 'He was convinced he was speaking to Nelly Korda, convinced she was going to live with him, and they were going to get married,' his daughter, Shannon, said. 'But it was a cycle of different ways to get money from him.' She estimates he sent over $15,000. Shannon and her brother tried to convince him it was a scam. They also reached out to law enforcement, explored intervention services, attempted to catfish the catfisher, and even sent a plea via a direct message on Instagram to the real Nelly Korda to set the record straight. When the father confronted 'Nelly,' she had an excuse for everything: She had no access to her money due to a controlling manager and family. Her flight got canceled. The scam warning on Korda's verified Instagram account was a note for everyone else, not him. In March, as her father began drafting plans to sell his house at Nelly's request, one of Nelly's made-up excuses finally exposed her. She told him she had broken a bone in a car accident, but there was no evidence of a broken bone on Korda's verified Instagram account. Finally, the man realized he was not in a relationship with Nelly Korda. But his retirement fund was gone. Rodney Raclette, if he really existed, might have been similarly duped. When he commented on a video posted by the verified Nelly Korda Instagram account, people responded to his comments, directing him to other fan pages that the poster claimed were created by Korda to interact with fans. Another person claiming to be Korda sent him an Instagram direct message. After Rodney and that fake Korda exchanged niceties, she insisted the conversation move off of Instagram to email. She urged Rodney not to share her email with anyone, and wrote — in broken English — that he not 'take this opportunity talking to me for granted because not all celebrities come online to talk to their fans like am doing presently.' Advertisement Next, she said she needed to see Rodney's ID for her 'safety and career,' but when Rodney made excuses as to why he could not provide any identification, the fake Nelly impatiently moved to the next question: 'Do you have a Fan Membership Card?' She told Rodney, 'if you're my biggest fan,' for just $700, he would receive access to all of her 'games,' her autograph, and new, customized golf shirts. Anytime Rodney questioned the price or authenticity of the card, Nelly threatened to leave the conversation. She would only continue if he purchased the card. Rodney became more skeptical and urged Nelly to prove it was really her. Within minutes, he received an AI-altered video of the real Nelly Korda speaking directly to him by name. It's nearly impossible to trace the source of most of these scams, and they're even harder to prosecute. Old accounts disappear and new accounts reappear by the hour. Patrick Chase, a private investigator and former LPGA security consultant, says the majority of catfishers are typically based outside of the U.S. The FBI is overwhelmed with identity theft cases and, according to Chase, it oftentimes won't address incidents unless losses exceed a certain dollar amount. Golf influencer Hannah Gregg has been communicating with several scam victims to collect evidence she can bring to law enforcement but to no avail. 'They won't do anything for me basically until something bad happens to me,' she said. Korda said she once reported about 20 spam accounts per day, but they are now materializing so quickly she can't keep up. 'You're just put into a situation you really don't want to be in. You feel bad, you feel guilty for people going through this. It's the last thing you want,' she said. 'It's not only putting the players in danger, in a sense, but it's putting all the fans in danger.' Advertisement The day after creating the Rodney account, the fan page that had reached out to him — @nellykordaofficialfanspage21 — had been deleted. Rodney emailed the fake Nelly Korda to ask what happened. She replied: 'I deactivated the account because of imposters, and the FBI are working on catching them.' (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Kate McShane, Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)</p Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
France's Cernousek seizes lead at LPGA Portland Classic
Rising French talent Adela Cernousek conjured an eagle and six birdies in an eight-under-par 64 to break free atop a jammed leaderboard after the first round of the LPGA Portland Classic on Thursday. After teeing off on 10 and making two birdies in her first 10 holes, Cernousek roared up the leaderboard with birdies at four, five and six. The 22-year-old carded an eagle at the par-five seventh and added a birdie at the ninth to cap a sensational 64, admitting she let out "a little scream" when she almost holed out for an eagle at the ninth. "I thought it was going to go in," she said. "I'm super happy to hit the pin because it stayed pretty close and it was cool," she said. "I felt very good with my whole game," added Cernousek, who turned pro in December after winning a US collegiate golf title playing for Texas A&M last year. Cernousek was one stroke in front of a group that included former world number one Park Sung-hyun and South Korean compatriot Lee5 Jeong-eun, two-time major winner Brooke Henderson of Canada, Chinese rookie Miranda Wang and American Gurleen Kaur. Henderson and Wang both nabbed seven birdies without a bogey, Henderson teeing off on 10 and launching her round with four straight birdies before adding three more coming in. Wang had five of her birdies on the back nine, including four in a row at 12, 13, 14 and 15. Lee5 had an eagle and six birdies with one bogey. Park had eight birdies to offset her lone bogey, as did Kaur. Five more players were tied on 66 and another eight on five-under 67. Juli Inkster, the 65-year-old LPGA Hall of Famer making a rare appearance on tour as she preps for the US Women's Senior Open, fired a three-under 69. "I was a little nervous teeing off," the 31-time LPGA winner admitted. "Settled in pretty good. You know, I actually thought I putted really well today. "Hit a lot of good irons and I drove the ball well. I was happy with that." bb/pst
