Nelly Korda won't be making a sweep of all the LPGA awards this year.
The No. 1 player in the women’s world ranking, Korda had to withdraw from the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea and the Maybank Championship next week in Malaysia. She cited a minor neck injury sustained during practice.
“I’m currently resting and working with my team to get better,” Korda said in a Instagram story.
Korda has won six times this year, including one major and a record-tying streak of five in a row. But she took off early in the year. She missed the cut three times, twice in the majors. Add it up and she has played only 56 rounds.
The LPGA requires players to play 70 rounds to be eligible for the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average. Korda is likely to play only twice more, which would leave her well short of the minimum. She has not played since Sept. 22 outside Cincinnati.
The only way for her to be eligible would be to play all four tournaments left on the schedule after Malaysia. Those are in Japan, Hawaii and two in Florida. That’s unlikely.
Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand posted all four rounds in the 60s last week in Shanghai and moved to 69.891 for a scoring average. That gives her an average that is 0.166 ahead of Ayaka Furue of Japan.
All is not lost for Korda. She still has a 100-point lead over Lydia Ko for LPGA player of the year. Korda also leads the Race to CME Globe over Ko, though that’s irrelevant because the winner of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship also wins the season race.
Southpaws in the spotlight
Matt McCarty's victory in the Black Desert Championship moved him to No. 47 in the world ranking, adding to what is believed to be a record for southpaws.
There are four left-handed players among the top 50 in the world, the most since the ranking began in 1986. The last group of southpaws this talented were Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Mike Weir, but they were never among the top 50 at the same time.
Mickelson was always the constant, part of the top 50 from 1993 until 2019. Watson didn't crack the top 50 until he won the Travelers Championship in 2010 — two months after Weir fell out of the top 50.
Robert MacIntyre, who won the Canadian Open and Scottish Open this year, is low lefty at No. 16. He's followed by 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman (No. 23) and two-time winner Akshay Bhatia (No. 29).
A quarter century of Pro V1
Titleist is introducing the 2025 version of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls this week at the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas, and it's a special occasion. This is the 25-year anniversary of Titleist unveiling a golf ball that reshaped the professional game.
That so many players used it in Las Vegas was not a surprise because a majority of players use Titleist, anyway. But for years, most tour professionals used a wound ball that gave them more spin and control around the greens, even if that meant sacrificing some distance.
This new Pro V1 had a solid core and urethane elastomer cover that allowed for greater distance without losing control.
Titleist was expecting two dozen players to use it in competition and brought 60 dozen golf balls to Las Vegas. Instead, 47 players made the switch, which Titleist says is biggest pluralist change to new equipment in PGA Tour history.
Billy Andrade switched and won in Las Vegas. Phil Mickelson switched and was runner-up. Mickelson ended the year beating Tiger Woods at the Tour Championship and said of the ball, “I feel I am a whole different player.”
As much attention as Titleist gets with the golf ball, Mark O'Meara actually was the first player to use a modern solid-core golf ball to win a major. He used a Top-Flight manufactured Strata Tour ball when he won the Masters and British Open in 1998.
Woods was using the wound Titleist Professional until switching to a Nike solid-core golf ball in May 2000, right before he won the U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach to start his unprecedented run of four straight majors.
Titleist introduced the Pro V1 about five months later. Its first major champions using the new ball were Karrie Webb in the 2001 U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needles and Retief Goosen in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills two weeks later.
The legend of Stankowski
Matt McCarty this year and Jason Gore in 2005 are the only players to win three times on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour to earn an instant promotion to the PGA Tour, and then win on the PGA Tour in the same season.
It’s easy to overlook Paul Stankowski, who had a feat even more remarkable. He won on the Nike Tour one week and on the PGA Tour the following week.
Stankowski had to go back to Q-school to get his card for the 1996 season. After playing in New Orleans, and realizing he wouldn’t be in The Players Championship, he stayed for the Nike Louisiana Open and won.
He was the sixth alternate for the following week in Atlanta at the BellSouth Classic, and he decided to drive over and, if nothing else, visit with friends. He was the last player in on the eve of the tournament, and he wound up beating Brandel Chamblee in a playoff.
That was quite the stretch — winning on the Nike Tour one week, the PGA Tour the next week and then off to Augusta National for his Masters debut.
Divots
Pelican Golf Club, which hosts an LPGA event on Nov. 14-17, said it sustained heavy rain, wind and extreme flooding from Hurricane Milton. It said it handled the conditions well and has made “tremendous” progress in getting the course ready to go. ... Matt McCarty is the fourth PGA Tour rookie to win this season, joining Nick Dunlap, Jake Knapp and Matthieu Pavon. ... Golf Digest reports there were a total of 201 penalties caused by the black lava or lost-ball circumstances during the Black Desert Championship in Utah. ... Matti Schmid made one of the biggest and most important moves last week in Utah. He birdied the 18th on Friday to make the cut on the number. He shot 62 on Sunday and finished fifth. Schmid went from No. 120 to No. 105 in the FedEx Cup and should be safe to keep his PGA Tour card.
Stat of the week
Of the 132 players in the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas, only 11 are already exempt for the Masters next year.
Final word
“I think learning how to win is just playing better golf.” — Black Desert Championship winner Matt McCarty.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
