Nelly Korda advances at LPGA Match Play, eyes 4th straight win; Rose Zhang falters

Nelly Korda played well once again, advancing to the semifinals. Rose Zhang, meanwhile, struggled at Shadow Creek.

World number-one Nelly Korda has her sights set on a 4th straight victory on the LPGA Tour, thanks to her victory over Angel Yin in the quarterfinals of the T-Mobile Match Play.

But her match proved to be more of a fight than an easy breeze.

“The weather was very chilly and windy,” Korda said.

“I don’t think that was actually forecasted for today, so started off playing in really tough conditions.”

Korda birdied the 2nd hole to go 1-up, but Yin tied things up with a birdie of her own at the par-5 4th. Then, Korda won the 6th with a par and made a birdie at the par-5 7th to quickly go 2-up.

“Overall, pars go a long way out here, especially in the tough conditions,” Korda added.

Five holes later, Korda won the 12th hole with another par, giving her a commanding 3-up lead with six holes to play.

She and Yin then traded wins at the 15th and 16th holes, but the match ended 3 & 2 with Korda’s birdie at 16.

“She’s so good at match play, so I knew that I had to really dig deep today to get the W,” Korda said of Yin.

“But happy with how I played today, and it’s nice to finish on a birdie, too.”

Korda will face South Korea’s Narin An, who defeated Japan’s Minami Katsu 1-up in the third match of the day. Their semifinal match will begin at 1:55 p.m. local time.

Meanwhile, Irishwoman Leona Maguire got off to a roaring start in her quarterfinal match against Moriya Jutanugarn, winning three of the first five holes to go 2-up early on.

“I knew I was going to have to play some pretty good golf to beat [Jutanugarn] this morning,” Maguire said after her win.

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

“She had a lot of momentum from her 5-under yesterday, which is impressive in these conditions—got off to a nice start. Was 2-up through 3. Holed a really nice putt for birdie on the third, which felt like a bit of a steal. Yeah, just played steady, played solid, kept pressure on her all the way; nice to get it done on 15.”

Maguire’s match was never really in doubt, as she won 4 & 3. The Cavan native will square off against Sei Young Kim this afternoon in the first semifinal match, teeing off at 1:40 p.m. local time.

Kim defeated Rose Zhang 6 & 5. The South Korean won seven of 13 holes to send Zhang home early.

Kim has 12 career LPGA Tour titles, the last one coming at the 2020 Pelican Women's Championship. She also won the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronomik outside of Philadelphia.

“I played with [Maguire] yesterday,” Kim said afterward.

“She’s a very competitive person, looks like it. Yeah, I like playing with her. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but, yeah, I will try my best.”

Live coverage of these two semifinal matches will begin on Golf Channel at 6 p.m. ET.

The winners will play in the finals on Sunday.

If Korda and Maguire win, it would set up a Solheim Cup rematch. These two players squared off against each other twice last year at Finca Cortesín, with the Americans and Europeans each winning a point.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.