Nelly Korda won the LPGA’s season opener despite not hitting a shot on Sunday.
With the LPGA canceling the final round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions amid extreme cold, Korda’s 13 under, which was capped by an 8-under 64 Saturday, was enough for a three-shot victory over Amy Yang and her first LPGA title since November 2024.
Korda, who now has 16 career LPGA wins, called Saturday’s 64, which bested the field average by over nine strokes, a “top-3 round of my career.”
“I mean, Thursday, Friday, were obviously completely different conditions to Saturday,” Korda said, “but overall, I was very happy with my game. Kind of led into it really nicely, where I saved the best for last, I guess.”
Eight of the 39 players in the field, including the final group, were still on the golf course when the LPGA halted third-round play for high wind at 4:19 p.m. ET Saturday. Sub-freezing conditions blew through overnight with feels-like temperatures early Sunday morning in the low teens.
Ricki Lasky, the LPGA’s chief tour business and operations officer, said she saw a feels-like low of 11 degrees as players headed to the range to warmup for their scheduled 10 a.m. restart. But upon talking to several players, Lasky noted that despite the LPGA announcing the course had no frost, the ground was “really hard.”
“It was changing the trajectory of their shots as they were practicing,” Lasky added. “The balls were releasing when they weren’t supposed to be so, so we pushed back [the restart time].”
Mardy Fish, who won the celebrity division, said of the practice green, “Felt like I was walking on concrete.” And yet, Fish and his fellow celebrity competitors restarted as planned, though with their final rounds shortened to just nine holes. Fish shot even-par 36 to win by five points. Jack Wagner, a 66-year-old former actor, shot 34.
“I don’t know why they’re not playing,” Annika Sorenstam, also a celebrity entrant, told Golfweek. “There’s pitch marks. I mean, I hit some crispy shots today and the ball even stopped. I am surprised. It’s difficult, it’s cold, but it’s as fair as anything.”
Added Fish: “It did get a little bit better maybe halfway through the nine holes … so, you know, they maybe could have played, but I don’t know if they would’ve been able to play a whole ‘nother round.”
After delaying the restart for the pros multiple times, the LPGA officially canceled the final round at 12:40 p.m., citing the lack of an “optimal competitive environment.” Pressed by Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers what that meant, the LPGA did not offer an explanation other than to say, per Rogers, “the temperature was affecting the golf course.”
The eight players still with third-round holes to complete, including Yang, returned to the course at 2:15 p.m.
Yang, who was on the 17th hole when the horn blew Saturday and parred each of her final two holes, said the “greens weren’t playable” when she was warming up for the initial 10 a.m. restart but that “it got much better” and the course was “playable” when she resumed action.
“I wish I played final round, you know, give myself a little chance,” Yang said, then later adding, “I knew what kind of weather was coming today, so wish we had a little earlier start yesterday.”
Lasky nor the LPGA really specified why a Monday finish was not attempted, especially since the high temperature is expected to be 53 degrees, about 10 degrees warmer than Sunday, and with little wind. All an LPGA statement said was that “conditions will deteriorate later today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday).”
The LPGA’s next event isn’t until Feb. 19-22 in Pattaya, Thailand.
(Korda, meanwhile, won’t play again until the Fortinet Founder Cup in mid-March, meaning she’ll skip all three Asian events, running her streak to 19 consecutive LPGA events in Asia that she’s missed, whether due to injury or another reason.)
“We really tried to take as much time as we possibly could to get all 72 holes into play,” Lasky added. “We certainly did everything we could. … We really wanted to ensure that the competition was up to championship caliber, and for that to happen, there are shaded areas – those positions could still be frozen – so we really felt like to be fair to the entire field, we had to call it at 54.”
Brooke Henderson carded a third-round 66 and finished solo third at 7 under, a shot ahead of fourth-place Lydia Ko, who told Golfweek, “I’m gutted that we don’t get to play tomorrow.”
“I think the LPGA is always going to do what’s best for the players,” Korda said. “When it comes to the internal decisions, I like to focus on myself and prepare for what’s to come with the information that I have at hand. I know from a bunch of girls that were out there playing and practicing before, probably 110% came back in and were like, ‘What are we doing right now?’
“What we have on the line versus what the celebrities have on the line is a little bit different. I think the LPGA made the decision to look after their players, and at the end of the day, we can’t do anything about that.”