By Rahul Banerji
For my generation, the name Korda will first be associated with a beaky, blonde left-handed tennis player from what was then Czechoslovakia.
Petr Korda won the Australian Open in 1998 beating Chilean hitman Marcelo Rios in straight sets.
A hard-working journeyman, he soon vanished from public gaze following the whiff of a drug scandal.
In recent years, the Korda mantle has been taken over by Petr’s daughters Jessica and Nelly, who are successful professional golfers.
And on Sunday, younger daughter Nelly joined Petr as the family’s second winner of a Major, with victory in the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship.
The long-hitting Korda got the better of fellow-American Lizette Salas by three shots , though it was a lot closer when they had teed off on the final day.
Bragging rights
“To finally join my dad as a Major champion is super nice so now he can’t be the leader at dinner with that little thing of his,” Nelly said later on CNN.
The win gave the 22-year old not only her sixth LPGA title, but also the world number one ranking.
As a bonus, she will join elder sister Jessica is the US golf team at the Tokyo Olympic Games next month.
“That has a lovely ring to it, not going to lie,” Korda was quoted as saying when introduced as a Major champion.
“It’s been amazing, honestly.”
“The past few days, the battle with Lizette, it’s been a lot of fun,” she said.
“It’s been stressful. I think it’s had everything. But I just can’t believe it. I’m still in shock.”
At the end, Nelly had a 68 to 71 from Salas and a three-shot difference in aggregate, 19-under-par 269 to 16-under 272 on the par-72 Atlanta Athletic Club course.
Korda (70-63-68-68) made her task a little easier with two eagles on Sunday against two birdies and a late double bogey on 15 when she went into water.
By that time though, Salas (67-67-67-71) was done, having come close in the opening 11 holes. A bogey on 12 though gave Korda a four-shot cushion that she did not let go of.
English wins play-off marathon
In Connecticut, Harris English sealed victory over Kramer Hickok in the Travellers Championship on the eighth play-off hole with a birdie Sunday.
It was the longest sudden-death finish on the PGA Tour since 1949, when Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff needed 11 holes in the 1949 Motor City Open.
They were eventually declared co-winners by mutual agreement in the growing dark.
The result gave English his second win of the year and a fourth on the PGA Tour overall in 264 starts while his opponent remains winless in 68 outings.
Aggregating 13-under 267s, English and Hickok were one shot ahead of third-placed Aussie Marc Leishman (12-under 268) and two up on Abraham Ancer of Mexico.
Earlier in the season, English won the Sentry Tournament of Champions, also via a playoff.
The 31-year-old is now the fifth multiple winner this season after Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Jason Kokrak and Stewart Cink.
Victory for Hickok would have seen him join Mackenzie Hughes (2016), Adam Hadwin (2017) and Aaron Wise (2018) as a Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour winner.
Also read: Jon Rahm fulfils his karma with maiden US Open victory
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