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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Author
The celebs are aligning on the LPGA Tour, as two-time main championship winner Lilia Vu captured final week’s Meijer LPGA Basic in her first begin again after lacking 11 weeks with a again damage.
World No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda and Vu shall be again on the course collectively once more at this week’s KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, the third main of the season, which tees off Thursday at Sahalee Nation Membership in Sammamish, Washington.
Vu, who was named LPGA Participant of the Yr after profitable 4 occasions final season, together with two majors on the Chevron Championship and AIG Ladies’s Open, has her sights set on returning to No. 1 within the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings. In fact, that spot belongs to Korda, who has already received six occasions on tour this season, together with the primary main on the Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas, on April 21.
Korda received six occasions in seven begins — and an LPGA record-tying 5 occasions in a row — earlier than cooling off in her previous two begins with missed cuts on the U.S. Ladies’s Open and the Meijer LPGA Basic. She’s trying to bounce again after these two disappointments.
“I will undergo these conditions so many occasions the place I really feel like I am taking part in rather well, and I am going to undergo a bit lull the place golf is the toughest factor in my life proper now,” Korda stated Tuesday throughout a information convention on the Ladies’s PGA Championship.
“In order that’s I really feel like what grows myself as an individual and what makes me admire the game a lot and makes me admire the wins and the highs and good photographs, the crowds on the market as effectively.”
Korda, 25, was requested Tuesday whether or not she’d watched tennis star Roger Federer‘s graduation speech at Dartmouth Faculty on June 9. The 20-time Grand Slam champion famous that whereas he received 80% of his matches in his profession, he received solely 54% of the factors he performed.
“That is the identical factor with golf,” Korda stated. “They get second serves. If we mess up and make a giant quantity on a gap, it is a bit bit extra penalizing than in the event that they double fault, for example, relying on the place they’re within the match. It is true. You are going to fail greater than you win, and I feel that is what fuels a participant as effectively extra in sports activities.”
Korda can relate. On Could 30, she carded a ten on the par-3 twelfth gap within the first spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She posted 80-70 and missed the reduce by 2 strokes at 10-over 150.
Final week, she began with double bogey-bogey-bogey en path to a 4-over 76 in windy situations within the first spherical of the Meijer LPGA Basic at Blythefield Nation Membership in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She bounced again with a 5-under 67 within the second spherical however missed the reduce by one.
Like Federer on the tennis courts, there’s an expectation that Korda will win every time she tees it up in a match.
“I really feel like strain is [a] privilege, and that is one thing that you are the just one that may sort of management that,” Korda stated. “You’ll be able to take heed to the surface voices, however on the finish of the day, when you might have strain you may take it in a optimistic manner that you’re doing good and taking part in effectively. However, yeah, I am simply going to remain in my bubble this week and exit and attempt to execute my photographs, be assured in what I’ve.”
Korda and Vu will even compete within the upcoming Olympic ladies’s golf match, scheduled for Aug. 7-10 at Le Golf Nationwide outdoors Paris. They rank Nos. 1 and a pair of within the ladies’s Olympic Golf Rankings and can make the 60-woman subject.
“I’ve by no means been to Paris, and the one factor I am actually wanting ahead to is the croissants in all probability on each nook,” Korda stated. “I like bakeries and baked items, in order that’s one factor I am actually wanting ahead to. And clearly representing my nation and attending to compete within the Olympics is such an unbelievable alternative.
“I am simply tremendous excited to get there and even simply to play that golf course. I received to observe it in [the 2018] Ryder Cup. To have the ability to play such wonderful golf programs like we do these days shall be such a deal with.”
A rustic can have as much as 4 gamers within the subject in the event that they’re ranked within the high 15 of the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings. Together with Korda and Vu, Rose Zhang is No. 9 and can in all probability make the group, whereas Megan Khang (No. 16), Alison Lee (No. 18), Ally Ewing (No. 19) and Allisen Corpuz (No. 23) have work to do that week.
The Olympics subject shall be finalized after Sunday’s last spherical at Sahalee Nation Membership.
Korda has already clinched a spot on the U.S. group for the Solheim Cup, which shall be performed Sept. 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Gainesville, Virginia. It is going to be her fourth Solheim Cup look.
Vu is second in Solheim Cup factors — 911½ behind Korda — and is all however a lock to make the squad. The highest seven golfers on the factors checklist when the qualifying interval ends after the AIG Ladies’s British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland on Aug. 22-25 will robotically qualify for the U.S. group. The following two highest gamers on the planet rankings will even make the group, and Stacy Lewis will make three captain’s picks.
Lewis is completely satisfied Vu, a Solheim Cup rookie eventually 12 months’s occasion in Andalusia, Spain, is wholesome once more.
“Probably the most spectacular [thing] was the period of time that she took off after which simply comes again and wins,” Lewis stated. “That’s actually arduous to do, as a result of [when] you come again, your quick sport is perhaps rusty. I used to be most impressed with that.”
