Jessica Korda last woman standing

BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2012 ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open | Wrap | 12 Feb 2012

In one of the most dramatic finishes to a professional tournament of either gender in Australian professional golf, a six way playoff was required to determine the winner of the 2012 ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open at Royal Melbourne.

Americans Jessica Korda, Brittany Linicome and Stacy Lewis, along with Paraguay’s Julieta Granada and Koreans, So Yeon Ryu and Hee Kyung Seo all finished their 72 holes at 3 under par but it would take only two holes to identify the champion.

18 year old Korda would birdie the second extra hole to win her first LPGA Tour event and in doing so completed a remarkable family double having followed in the footsteps of her father Petr who in 1998 won the Australian Tennis Open.

It is a great story and her victory was not only popular for the family connection but for the manner in which she handled herself in the heat of the battle, bouncing back from a near disaster during the middle of her round to birdie the 17th to be part of the playoff.

Korda was on the phone to her family almost immediately after her round. “I got to speak to everybody except my brother who I think was sleeping. I was surprised that my sister was up. It was awesome. My Dad said he was so proud of me but that we’ll talk about the three-putts after.”

Korda becomes the 6th youngest winner of an LPGA Tour event and betters by some margin her previous best finish in an LPGA Tour event of 16th at the Avnet LPGA Classic last year. She will move a massive 250 positions on the revised Rolex World Rankings to around 30th.

On a day which began with Korda leading by one over Australian Nikki Campbell and Koreans Ryu and Seo. Korda, Ryu and Seo each had chances to win the event outright but, one by one, they saw the leads they held at various stages of the round disappear, allowing four others to join them in extra time.

Lewis and Lincicome, both of whom have a Kraft Nabisco Championship on their playing resumés, and Granada, finished before the others and awaited their fate.

It appeared at the time as if their 72 holes totals of 3 under would not be good enough especially given the quality of the Koreans, who both stood at 4 under with two holes to play. Neither however was able to birdie the 17th and when both would almost inexplicably three putt the 18th, six players were tied on 3 under with Korda the only remaining chance on the golf course to alter the outcome.

Korda hit a fine shot to the 72nd hole but missed from 15 feet. Although she had not won at that point she can take some solace from the fact that she rallied back after struggling through the early stages of her back nine. That she would go on to complete the victory will make her even more comfortable in the situation when she next faces it which is sure to be in the not too distant future

Korda, only just into her second season on the LPGA Tour and playing only her 16th event at that level, appeared as if she might produce a dream result much earlier than she did when she birdied three of her first eight holes in the final round and at 7 under she led by two over Hee Kyung Seo.

Royal Melbourne, though, has a way of not letting anyone get too far ahead of themselves and, just when she appeared to be coasting, disaster struck. A wild drive at the 9th led to a double bogey and was followed by a bogey at the 10th. Korda staged a minor recovery when she birdied the 11th but bogeys at the 14th, 15th and 16th appeared at that stage to destroy any chance she may have had.

“I think I bogeyed three holes in a row,” she said when referring to that mid round stumble. "I thought, You’ve got to be kidding me. I was lipping out and not reading my putts correctly. But I thought, Come on, you can still get it back. I was talking to Damon and Simon (caddies) as I was walking off the tee on 17.

“Simon said, Come on, have a strong finish…I was walking down the fairway like an absolute goof. After I made the birdie I was okay, like, I can do this. I can birdie the last hole. I saw the girls making mistakes on the green. I saw the opportunity but unfortunately I did not read the putt correctly.”

It seemed a little earlier as if it might develop into a repeat of the 2011 playoff between the 2011 US Women’s Open playoff between So Yeon Ryu and Hee Kyung Seo but their bogeys at the last opened the door for four others to join them on a return visit to the 18th tee.

In the playoff Lincicome gave herself the best opportunity of the group at the first extra hole when she hit her approach after her predictably long drive to 8 feet but missed. Lewis was also in good position just 14 feet from the hole but she would miss and all six players headed back to the tee.

Second time around Ryu would take bogey and in the second group of three players it would be Jessica Korda who would end the agony for all when she holed a curling right to left putt from 25 feet for the title.

So what does winning mean to her? “A lot of the hard work I put in in the off season, all the times I was down last year, it is all worth it. It made me grow up. It made me realise that you’ve got to change your life to live out here and this is proof. I know that all the hard hours I put in and will keep putting in are really worth it. Every moment.”

Korda has been in Australia for four weeks now playing events in Canberra, Sydney and on the Gold Coast. “I was working really hard in the off season and taking a lot of money off my friends. I felt good. I got sick in Canberra. I finished my antibiotics two days ago.

“I was not doing well with my health. I was stuffy and coughing and really tired. Missing the cut on the Gold Coast was actually a blessing in disguise. It gave me time to rest. I had been playing well. It was time to take the rust off and get healthy.”

Not only is her health in good shape tonight but so too is her bank balance, the winner’s cheque $US165,000.

Pre tournament favourite Yani Tseng struggled with a stomach complaint and at one stage this morning there was some concern she not even make it to the first tee. She was attended by a doctor prior to her teeing off but her opening few holes suggested she was struggling.

A triple bogey at the 4th and a bogey at the 7th and she appeared to be a lost cause in terms of this event but four birdies in six holes in the middle of her round had her back on the edge of contention. She was unable to finish it off but had done well given the circumstances.

Sarah Kemp and Nikki Campbell would finish as the leading Australians in a share of 12th position, Campbell’s round of 77 proving very costly while for Kemp it is a good start to her LPGA Tour season.

Lydia Ko again starred as the leading amateur finishing in 19th position and ahead of a lot of high quality players.

The event was an undoubted success. Not only was the size of the playoff historic in Australian golfing terms but the manner in which this field of high quality LPGA Tour players and others negotiated their way around one of the world’s great layouts was a joy to witness.

The LPGA Tour now heads to Asia while for the Ladies European and Australian Ladies Professional Tours they travel across the Tasman to Christchurch for the New Zealand Open.

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