Friday Meijer LPGA Classic News and Notes
Friday News and Notes
By Jeff Babineau
Nelly’s rally falls a little short
After an opening 76, World No. 1 Nelly Korda needed a giant effort to sneak back inside the cutline on Friday, trying to avoid missing two consecutive cuts. She did not fully get there, but saw some positive things in her game in a second-round 67.
Friday, she got off to the start she had to have. Teeing off on 10, she made birdies on four of her first five holes. Her lone bogey came at 17, a par 4, where she three-putted, stopping her momentum.
A day after using 36 putts, Korda had 29. She made some nice putts early to get the round started off, and she liked how she drove the ball. Her next start will be next week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee. The KPMG was played there in 2016 (Brooke Henderson won), but Korda never has seen it.
Korda captured the KPMG, her first major, in 2021, on the heels of winning at Meijer.
“I’m very pleased with the way I struck the ball today off the tee, something I’ve been struggling with this year,” Korda said. “This was by far the best I’ve hit it off the tee, so a little bit of positivity going into KPMG.”
Korda, 25, has won seven times in 2024, winning five straight, and six of seven as she headed into last month’s U.S. Women’s Open. The last time she missed more than two cuts in a season was 2017, when she missed four.
Juli Inkster sighting at Meijer
Juli Inkster stopped by the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, spending a few days in Michigan as a guest of tournament director Cathy Cooper to fulfill a few tournament obligations to help mark the 10th anniversary of the event.
Inkster, 63, is a seven-time major champion winding down a career that already has landed her in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Last week in Dublin, Ohio, she was named 2024 Honoree (with Tom Weiskopf) at the Memorial presented by Workday, named by the Captains Club at Muirfield. The biggest thrill for Inkster this week? It might have been the fact she didn’t have to check golf clubs on the plane when she flew in.
“I did it for so many years, it’s a grind,” Inkster said. “I’m super-happy where I am right now. I play a little bit, got my Inkster Award presented by Workday (given to the year’s top college senior, which this year went to LSU’s Ingrid Lingblad), doing maybe a little announcing, doing some corporate stuff ... It’s been great.”
Inkster still likes to practice when at home in California. She’ll show up at the range, maybe take the family dog with her, plug her earphones in and hit balls for 90 minutes. “It’s my church,” she said.
She does have one tournament, possibly two, on the upcoming summer schedule. Inkster, a former U.S. Women’s Open champion, is scheduled to play in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh Aug. 1-4. Of course, being the competitor she is, she doesn’t want to show up too rusty, so she is considering adding the LPGA’s CPKC Women’s Open in Canada July 25-28.
And as if Inkster doesn’t have enough going on, she has a big life event on the calendar, too: She will become a grandmother this fall. Daughter Haley is expecting a son. That’s right up her alley.
What sort of grandmother will she be? “The ‘fun’ one,” Inkster said, laughing.
Ewing’s pot of gold
On the LPGA – or anywhere in golf, realistically – players are always playing for something, trying to achieve some goal. It might be to get into the top 100, or to make a Solheim Cup team. There are lots of players this summer trying to qualify or the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
Ally Ewing took a while to answer the question before her. What is she playing for this summer?
“I've made a Solheim (in 2023) and definitely don't want to miss one ever again in my career, so I want to be a part of a Solheim and especially winning Solheim team,” said Ewing, the co-leader of the Meijer LPGA at 11-under 133 as the tournament heads to the weekend.
“But I think most of all, you know, I tee it up each week with just a lot of gratitude to be out here playing. I just think you never know what tomorrow has or is going to bring, so I guess I'm just chasing each day to enjoy it and to be my best, and hope that that gives me a chance to make a putt on the last hole to win a golf tournament. Regardless, I'm going to enjoy each day.”
