KORDA PICKS UP WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
The Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions featured 26 LPGA champions including eight Americans, but on Sunday it was the youngest American in 20-year old Nelly Korda who challenged Eun-Hee Ji and began her third season on the LPGA with a solo third-place finish.
Korda was one of 10 Rolex First-Time Winner’s during the 2018 LPGA season when she picked up a victory at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship in late October. She then posted a T19 finish at the TOTO Japan Classic and a runner-up finish in the season finale CME Group Tour Championship to head into the offseason on a high note.
Korda said she mainly focused on fitness during the offseason and getting her body ready for a full LPGA slate in 2019. “It’s good to know that what I worked on in the offseason with my coach has kind of paid off this week,” she said. “And still we have the whole year to go. So you never know what's going to happen, but I'm just going to take it shot by shot and try to work on consistency this year.”
Korda was all smiles as she finished an even par final round on Sunday, and said her smile was due to the unique nature of the event playing alongside celebrities. “I loved it,” she said. “That's all I have to say. All these people are so down to earth. I had a blast.”
SMOLTZ WINS CELEBRITY COMPETITION
MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz, an exceptional golfer who qualified for the 2018 U.S. Senior Open, captured the celebrity portion of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. Despite struggling with three bogeys and a double-bogey on his inward nine, the Fox TV analyst finished at +149 and took a three-point win over fellow All-Star pitcher Mark Mulder (+146). Two-time celebrity champion Mardy Fish finished third with 140 points.
“The conditions today were brutal and hard, and you had to grind, and I learned a lot from just my past year of qualifying for the Senior Open,” said Smoltz, who won his first major competitive tournament. “That, to me, has prepared me to kind of grind out a game. I'm not even close to where I want to be, but I'm getting closer.”
The celebrity competition was played with a Modified Stableford scoring system. A double eagle earns 10 points, an ace earns eight points, an eagle earns five points, a birdie earns three points, a par earns two points, a bogey earns one points and a double bogey or higher earns zero points.
LEADERS TOP 10 COMPETITION
The LEADERS Top 10 competition awards a $100,000 bonus to the LPGA player with the most top-10 finishes through the completion of the event held immediately prior to the CME Group Tour Championship. In the event of a tie in total top-10 finishes, the award will go to the player with the most official wins, followed by most second-place finishes, third-place finishes, etc., until the tie is broken.With a two-way tie for 10th, 11 players finished in the top 10 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, led by winner Eun-Hee Ji.
CME GROUP CARES CHALLENGE – SCORE 1 FOR ST. JUDE
The CME Group Cares Challenge is a season-long charitable giving program that turns aces into donations. CME Group will donate $20,000 for each hole-in-one made on the LPGA Tour in 2019, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
There were no holes-in-one at the 2019 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions.
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