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Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Nelly Korda surges up the leaderboard at 80th U.S. Women's Open after second-round 67
ERIN, Wisconsin – It's hard to remember to exhale at a place like Erin Hills, where catastrophe lurks around every corner. Player after player delivered the same message on Friday: It's only going to get tougher. For world No. 1 Nelly Korda, a nap might be in order after a stout 5-under 67 put her in solo second midway through the 80th U.S. Women's Open. Mao Saigo, winner of the year's first major, paces the field at 8 under after a second-round 66, three clear of Korda. Three players are in the clubhouse at 4 under, including Linn Grant, Jing Yan and Chiara Tamburlini. Advertisement Korda, who is staying with her parents this week at a nearby house on a lake, posted seven birdies en route to her lowest score in 11 U.S. Women's Open appearances. 'My parents are here,' said Korda of potential late afternoon plans, 'so maybe play some ping-pong with my dad.' More: How hard does the wind need to blow at Erin Hills for a stern U.S. Women's Open test? Erin Hills is a 'unique test' The expansive Erin Hills provides a unique test for the women this week, one that Korda believes requires excellence throughout the bag. 'You never can feel like you can take a deep breath,' she said, 'like you can relax because something is always next. It's a very demanding shot.' Advertisement Korda's longtime caddie, Jason McDede, said he tries not to overdo anything, but that he walked the course at least three times before his boss arrived. There wasn't much difference between the opening 72, he said, and the 67. It's simply that a few more putts dropped. 'I didn't really try to do anything different, tried to roll it over an intermediate target,' echoed Korda. 'My distance control has been really good on the putting green, so hopefully I can keep trending in the right direction heading into the weekend.' McDede believes that driver is the most important club at Erin Hills, where the fairways are more generous than most, but the price of missing runs high. 'If you drive it really good, ' he said, 'I think you'll have opportunities.' Advertisement Korda hit 11 fairways in the second round and currently ranks ninth in strokes gained off the tee. May 30, 2025; Erin, Wisconsin, USA; Nelly Korda lines up a shot at the 18th green during the second round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Nelly Korda switched putters in the spring She switched putters earlier this spring but has stuck with the TaylorMade Spider Tour V since the second round of the Chevron Championship. McDede said Korda is a line-oriented person and this one looks clean. The two-time major champion has never contended in this championship, with her best finish, a share of eighth, coming at Pine Needles three years ago. 'I'm not riding the roller coaster like sometimes I do,' she said of her patience this week. 'I've been just trying to be very level-headed and just know if I make a mistake that I can bounce back.' Advertisement Japan's Saigo survived a wild finish at the Chevron to claim her first major title and then endured an even more eventful champion's leap as it turns out she can't swim. Saigo leads the field in strokes gained putting and ranks fourth in strokes gained approach. 'What I think the most important thing in the major is that I have to make the one stroke, one hit be very valuable' said Saigo through an interpreter, 'and I have to reset my mind and then approach to each stroke.' Japanese players have won three of the last five LPGA majors. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Nelly Korda surges up the leaderboard at 80th U.S. Women's Open
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
U.S. Women's Open 2025 live updates, leaderboard for Sunday's final round
U.S. Women's Open 2025 live updates, leaderboard for Sunday's final round Let's have a Sunday. The 80th U.S. Women's Open is three rounds in and now there are 18 holes (barring a playoff) to determine a champion. The Open is the second of five majors on the LPGA circuit. Mao Saigo, who won the Chevron Championship, is seeking to be the first women's golfer to go back-to-back in the majors in a decade. U.S. Women's Open leaderboard Keep tabs on the USWO and all week with our official hub and leaderboard. You can also find tee times there. Maja Stark will start the final round at 7 under and with a one-shot lead on Julia Ramirez. Where to watch the 2025 U.S. Women's Open Sunday's final round is exclusively on NBC from 2 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET. What is the U.S. Women's Open playoff format? The USGA uses a two-hole aggregate playoff format if there are any ties after 72 holes. If there are still golfers tied after the two holes, the format flips to sudden death until a winner is determined. The USGA went to this format for the Women's Open in 2018. The previous format was a three- or four-hole aggregate, used from 2007 to 2017. From 1953, when the tournament started, until 2006, the Women's Open playoff was 18 holes held the day after the final round. What's the purse for the U.S. Women's Open? The 2025 U.S. Women's Open will have the largest purse in women's golf, with a total of $12 million being distributed among the professionals in the four-round tournament at Erin Hills. With 26 amateur players in the 156-person field and the cut line being the top 60 players and ties, it's impossible to break down a projected payout. The USGA awards $10,000 to professionals who do not make the weekend. -- Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel How good is Erin Hills? Erin Hills in Erin, Wisconsin – site of the 2025 U.S. Women's Open – opened in 2006 with a design by Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten. Erin Hills was also the site of the 2017 U.S. Open won by Brooks Koepka and the 2011 U.S. Amateur won by Kelly Kraft, among other top-tier events. The USGA will return to Erin Hills, about an hour's drive west of Milwaukee, multiple times in the coming years. Drone view of Erin Hills Golf, the site of the 2025 U.S. Women's Open Check out a drone view of Erin Hills Golf Course, the site of the 2025 U.S. Women's Open May 29-June 1 Erin Hills ties for No. 60 on Golfweek's Best ranking of all modern courses in the United States. It also ranks No. 6 among all public-access courses in a staggeringly strong Wisconsin. Erin Hills is listed at 6,835 yards for the Women's Open, but that will change daily depending on course setup. Par is 72. Where is Erin Hills Golf Course? Erin Hills is in Erin, Wisconsin, about 40 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The course opened in 2006.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
How did World No. 1 Nelly Korda fare at the U.S. Women's Open on Day 3?
TOWN OF ERIN – A light rain had begun to fall as Nelly Korda pulled up a chair in the press conference tent following her second round of play at the U.S. Women's Open at Erin Hills on May 30, with her 36-hole score of 5-under putting her square in contention for her first national championship heading into the weekend. For two days her ball striking had been superb, and her putting came around on Day 2. Advertisement She hoped some relaxation, maybe some ping-pong, could keep her mind and her game sharp for a nearly 24-hour wait to begin Round 3 on May 31. But ultimately the world's best player, and two-time major champion, knew that each day is its own. 'It's golf,' she said after her second round. 'Sometimes you don't know what kind of player shows up.' For nine holes during the third round, she seemed prescient. Korda missed greens. She missed putts. A three-shot deficit behind 36-hole leader and playing partner Mao Saigo to begin the day drifted to five by the time the pair made the turn. Advertisement Korda bogeyed holes 2, 5, 7 and 9 for a front-nine 40, as she hit hit just five of nine greens. She also needed 18 putts to close out the first half of her round, sending her tumbling from a tie for second to a tie for 14th. But she didn't let the day, or the tournament slip away, even as the deficit swelled to six after 13 holes. Then the top player in the game re-emerged in the closing stretch. "It's just about having the right mindset," she said. "Like this week, it's like, OK, you're going to make kind of stupid mistakes, as well, because it's just a golf course where you may not hit it in the right spot and it'll go down 40 feet and you'll make -- instead of being almost tap-in range, now you have a 40-foot chip where it's running off the back, as well. You just know that your mentality is that you're going to make mistakes, but you can also bounce back here." After rattling off four straight pars to begin the back nine, Korda made consecutive birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 – the latter of which after she had driven the green on the reachable par 4 and needed just two putts to cover about 62 feet. Advertisement "I just needed, honestly, a putt to go in," she said. "I chipped one up close. It wasn't really the longestof putts, but at least some momentum, some positivity to turn it around, and then two-putted on the next hole with it being reachable which was actually not the easiest of putts. "But yeah, I was happy to kind of rally back on the back nine after having such a poor start." Nelly Korda misses a birdie out on the eighth hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open Satruday, May 31, 2025 at Erin Hills in the Town of Erin, Wisconsin. Korda closed with a birdie on the par 5, 18th, enjoying the reward of an 'ice cream swirl' finish of a putt that fell in from six feet. "It's just golf," she said of maintaining an even-keel. "I mean, I've done it enough where it's just – it's all about being patient. There's just so many ups and downs, and you just have to kind of stick with it. As crazy and as many times as I say it, it's literally one shot at a time. Anything can happen. It just takes one shot." Advertisement When the round was over, Korda had ceded position on the leaderboard, claiming the sixth spot at 4-under. She is just three shots off the lead, but five players will begin the day between her and her first U.S. Women's Open title. More: Meet Maja Stark, the leader of the 80th U.S. Women's Open at Erin Hills after three rounds Korda has preached, and practice, patience all week. With the fourth and final round looming and the chase truly on, she'll lean into that and try to avoid pushing the gas. "Well, sometimes actually pressing has the reverse effect," she said. "Sometimes when you press too hard, you start to make more mistakes. So just staying in my own lane, focusing on myself, taking it a shot at a time, being very simple and present." Advertisement More: US Women's Open third-round recap from Erin Hills: Maja Stark leads heading into final round This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How did World No. 1 Nelly Korda fare at the U.S. Women's Open on Day 3
Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Maja Stark avoids mistakes to take 1-shot lead into final round of the U.S. Women's Open
ERIN, Wis. (AP) — Maja Stark shot a 2-under 70 and avoided the mistakes that befell other contenders Saturday to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the U.S. Women's Open at Erin Hills. The 25-year-old from Sweden had a 7-under 209 total. Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain was second after a 68, the best score of the day. The Japanese trio of Rio Takeda (70), Hinako Shinobu (72) and second-round leader Mao Saigo (75) followed at 5 under. Top-ranked Nelly Korda was 4 under after a 73. Saigo took a three-shot lead into the day but slumped as Erin Hills proved much tougher for the entire field than it had seemed the last couple of days. Saigo made three straight bogeys at Nos. 4- 6 to drop into a tie for first. She made an 8 1/2-foot birdie putt on No. 12 to move back into sole possession of the lead, but Stark tied her with a 21 1/2-foot birdie on the par-3 16th. Saigo then bogeyed the last two to fall two back. Speedier greens and tricker pin placements wreaked havoc with just about everyone on the course, leading to plenty of double bogeys and triple bogeys. The most notable example of this came on the par-4 15th, when Esther Henseleit's eagle putt from 55 feet away rolled 90 feet beyond the hole and went into the rough. Henseleit ended up with a double bogey. Plenty of other contenders faced similar misfortune. A Lim Kim, who entered Saturday in a six-way tie for second place, birdied No. 1 to get to 6 under, then went 7 over for the next four holes. Kim bogeyed No. 2, double-bogeyed No. 3, triple-bogeyed No. 4 and bogeyed No. 5. She ended up with a 77. Jinhee Im and Yealimi Noh also had been part of that six-way tie for second at the start of the day. Im birdied two of her first three holes to get to 6 under before she triple-bogeyed the par-4 fourth. Noh also was at 6 under before a double bogey on No. 3. Im ended up with a 79, and Noh shot 75. Korda also struggled early before coming on strong late. Korda had a 40 on the front nine with four bogeys and no birdies, but rallied with three birdies on her last five holes. This U.S. Women's Open won't have a repeat champion. Yuka Saso, who won this event in 2021 and 2024, missed the cut. ___ AP golf:
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Can Mao Saigo, 36-hole leader of the 80th U.S. Women's Open, win another major?
Can Mao Saigo, 36-hole leader of the 80th U.S. Women's Open, win another major? Show Caption Hide Caption Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko speak on playing Erin Hills for 2025 U.S. Women's Open World No. 1 player Nelly Korda and world No. 3 Lydia Ko speak on the challenge of playing Erin Hills for 2025 U.S. Women's Open. ERIN, Wisconsin – Mao Saigo, who earned her first LPGA Tour victory in the most recent major, stormed to the lead early in the second round of the 80th U.S. Women's Open and held on May 30 at Erin Hills. Mao Saigo's 66 was the best round of the tournament and left her 8-under heading into the third round May 31 with a three-stroke lead over a group of six players. Click here for complete coverage of the third round of play. Meet Mao Saigo Age: 23 Nationality: Japanese. How many professional wins does Mao Saigo have? Mao Saigo has seven professional victories, one victory on the LPGA Tour and six on the LPGA Tour of Japan. Has Mao Saigo won a women's golf major? Mao Saigo's only LPGA Tour victory is a major, the 2025 Chevron Championship. This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy. More: Mao Saigo's victory plunge at the LPGA Chevron turned scary because she can't swim How has Mao Saigo finished in previous U.S. Women's Opens? Mao Saigo has played in three U.S. Women's Opens with a top finish of T-33 in 2023 at Pebble Beach. What is Mao Saigo's best finish on the LPGA Tour in 2025? Mao Saigo won for the first time on the LPGA Tour in April in a five-way playoff at the Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, Texas. What was Mao Saigo's score in the 2025 U.S. Women's Open second round? Mao Saigo, who started on the 10th tee early in the day, strung together birdies on 18 ,1 and 2 on her way to a 66, the best round of the tournament. She shot a 70 in the U.S. Women's Open first round May 29. When is Mao Saigo teeing off in third round of the 2025 U.S. Open? Saigo will tee off at 11:40 a.m. with a group that includes Nelly Korda and Hinako Shibuno.
