Leona Maguire, Minami Katsu, Angel Yin, Rose Zhang, Sei Young Kim, Nelly Korda, Narin An and Moriya Jutanugarn advance to the weekend at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards at Shadow Creek Golf Course. After three rounds of stroke play, all eight players head to match play and the quarterfinal matches starting tomorrow morning.
Maguire enters the weekend as the No. 1 seed after shooting rounds of 72, 69, and 69, to at six-under par. She finished her third round with two birdies to notch herself three shots ahead of a three-way tie for second. Katsu, Yin and Zhang finished at three-under par (213) to advance as the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds. Battling tough conditions once again, each of these players shot even or better on the third day to qualify as the top seeds for the quarterfinals.
“Today was a big mental win for me. I think going out we knew the conditions were going to be tough. It was going to be windy, it was going to be swirling, the greens were going to get firm in the afternoon,” said Maguire who had just one bogey on the scorecard in round three. “Just really committed to our targets and picked some really nice shots and executed really well. Me and Dermot (her caddy) worked really well out there today and stayed very patient, just stayed really positive as well, embraced the challenge today. That was sort of the mentality, was enjoying sort of putting the pieces of the puzzle together on every shot rather than focusing on how hard it actually was.”
First and second round leader/co-leader Kim shot two-over par on Friday with five bogeys and three birdies, dropping to fifth place and entering the weekend as the No. 5 seed. Rolex Rankings No. 1 Korda came from behind, shooting one of the few under-par rounds on Friday to move from T20 to solo 6th place. Korda comes into Saturday as the No. 6 seed. An is the No. 7 seed after turning in rounds of 76, 68 and 72 over the past three days.
“I think I'm going to be a little bit more aggressive, maybe take a little bit more risk on than I normally would in stroke play just because if you make a double that doesn't -- you may just lose one hole, may go 1-down,” said three-time 2024 LPGA Tour winner Korda. “So maybe take a little bit more risk than stroke play, but overall still play smart and see how it goes.”
There was a four-way tie for eighth place, which led to a playoff to determine the No. 8 seed. Jutanugarn, Haeran Ryu, Brooke Henderson and Yuka Saso started on No. 10 to determine who would clinch the final spot in the quarterfinals. Ryu made a bogey on the first playoff hole to fall out of the playoff. The remaining three players made pars on both the first and second playoff holes. Jutanugarn drained a birdie on the third playoff hole to claim the No. 8 seed.
“I'm pretty like enjoy the day. Like it's just because I, you know, like stay with what I want to do. That's pretty much all I wanted today. And just what I say, like no matter I make it or not, I just felt I already like felt pretty good about the day,” said Jutanugarn in reference to the four-way playoff. “I just like woke up this morning and I just want to do what I've been working on and really commit to the shots. I really felt like it kind of help, you know, to stay playing like one shot at a time today.”
Starting Saturday morning, match play will ensue at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. The quarterfinal matches will be as follows in local time; Maguire (No. 1) vs. Jutanugarn (No. 8) at 7: 40 a.m., Zhang (No. 2) vs. Kim (No. 5) at 7:50 a.m., Katsu (No. 2) vs. An (No. 7) at 8:00 a.m., and Yin (No. 3) vs. Korda (No. 6) at 8:10 a.m.
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