Analysis: Korda is head and shoulders over her peers. She hopes winning is enough to help golf grow

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Analysis: Korda is head and shoulders over her peers. She hopes winning is enough to help golf grow

2024-05-29 04:05 Last Updated At：04:13

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Nelly Korda has won six of her last seven tournaments. She tied a record held by two LPGA greats, Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, by winning five tournaments in a row. So it's safe to say she is head and shoulders over everyone else.

She felt that way outside the ropes, too.

One of her favorite moments this year was when Korda became the first LPGA player — and first golfer since Tiger Woods in 2013 — to attend the Met Gala earlier this month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“For me, it was more shocking how tall I was compared to everyone,” Korda said Tuesday with an easy smile. She is 5-foot-10 — her height contributes to one of the most graceful, athletic swings in golf — and Korda was quick to point out she was in heels.

“We were in a tent, and there was no air conditioning and it was really hot, and everyone was like sweating,” Korda said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, the air’s fine up here, guys.'"

She says the best part of such a cool experience was looking around at who was there. “The ultimate people-watching fest,” is how she described it.

Korda should know the feeling. No one gets more eyeballs in women's golf at the moment. She has become the singular star of the LPGA Tour, the No. 1 player in the women's world ranking by more than twice the margin of No. 2.

Expectations have never been greater, and the stage is the biggest of the year.

The U.S. Women's Open starts Thursday at Lancaster Country Club, a classic tree-lined course with all the trappings of a tough, old-fashioned U.S. Open. The prize money is $12 million, the largest in the world for a standalone women's event, with $2.4 million to the winner.

The last time the U.S. Women's Open came to Lancaster, it set an attendance record of 135,000 spectators. The same is expected this week at the championship that long has been considered the biggest on the LPGA schedule.

It's a big opportunity for Korda, and for women's golf.

It took her five-tournament winning streak, which Rose Zhang ended at the Cognizant Founders Cup, to bring the LPGA attention this year.

Even so, it has lagged behind at a time when women's sports are surging.

Leading the way at the moment is Caitlin Clark, from her record-setting college career at Iowa to her debut in the WNBA that has led to spikes in ticket prices and attendance. Soccer and tennis remain more popular than golf, particularly in America.

Never mind that the LPGA Tour has more history and offers more money. The LPGA Tour dates to 1950 and has never received — nor asked for — help from the PGA Tour. Ty Votaw, the LPGA commissioner from two decades ago, once spoke to the LPGA's independence by saying, “If you take the NBA out of WNBA, you'd have the ABL.”

The American Basketball League launched in the mid-1990s right before the WNBA, and it folded in two years.

LPGA prize money this year tops $100 million. Last year, 28 players earned at least $1 million.

Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the LPGA commissioner, points to increasing consumption metrics from spectators to page views to television. She sees progress, and points to more energy and more volume being critical for that moment when women's golf reaches the forefront of the conversation.

Korda would seem to shoulder the bulk of that burden. She prefers to do that with her clubs.

She has been known to duck media opportunities that could help the greater good of the LPGA. One of those moments was at the Women's British Open in 2021 when she declined a news conference. It was her first appearance since winning the Olympic gold medal.

“I think our responsibility is to go out and play golf, to hopefully put on a show for everyone, and to go out there and perform our best,” Korda said. “Hopefully, that brings in the audience. I know there's expectations from players, and I think that our No. 1 priority should be to go out there, enjoy our time on the golf course, and grow the game playing good golf.”

As for expectations of her role as the LPGA's biggest star, Korda said the lesson was to be honest with herself and those around her, to not try to be someone she isn't.

A 13-year-old youth reporter asked Korda what she would say to her 13-year-old self.

“There's going to be expectations from the people around you, and the best thing you can ever do is stay true to yourself, stay your course,” Korda said.

“I just try to be very, very pure and very, very honest with everyone around me,” she said. “And I hope that they see that I am proud of the person that I am at the end of the day. And that is how I hope that I grow the game.”

Winning never hurts, and Korda has certainly done her share. She already has six wins this year, and it's not even June.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

South and Midwest pounded by rains and floods while still reeling from tornadoes

2025-04-05 06:28 Last Updated At：06:32

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Torrential rains and flash flooding battered parts of the Midwest and South on Friday, killing a boy in Kentucky who was swept away as he walked to catch his school bus. Many communities were left reeling from tornadoes that destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed at least seven people earlier this week.

Round after round of heavy rains have pounded the central U.S. for days, and forecasters warned that it could persist through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

In Frankfort, Kentucky, a 9-year-old boy died in the morning after floodwaters swept him away while he was walking to a school bus stop, Gov. Andy Beshear said on social media. Officials said Gabriel Andrews' body was found about a half-mile from where he went missing.

The downtown area of Hopkinsville, Kentucky — a city of 31,000 residents 72 miles (116 kilometers) northwest of Nashville — was submerged. A dozen people were rescued from homes, and dozens of pets were moved away from rising water, a fire official said.

“The main arteries through Hopkinsville are probably 2 feet under water,” Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam said earlier.

Tony Kirves and some friends used sandbags and a vacuum to try to hold back rising waters that covered the basement and seeped into the ground floor of his photography business in Hopkinsville. Downtown was “like a lake,” he said.

“We’re holding ground,” he said. “We’re trying to maintain and keep it out the best we can."

A corridor from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southeast Missouri, which has a population of about 2.3 million, could see clusters of severe thunderstorms late Friday. The National Weather Service’s Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center warned of the potential for intense tornadoes and large hail.

The seven people killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were “completely wiped out” and it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued.

Heavy rains were expected to continue in parts of Missouri, Kentucky and elsewhere in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods. The weather service said 45 river locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads and other critical infrastructure possible.

In Christian County, which includes Hopkinsville, 6 to 10 inches (15.2 to 25.4 centimeters) fell since Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service said Friday afternoon. The rain caused the Little River to surge over its banks, and 4 to 8 inches (10.2 to 20.3) centimeters more could fall by Sunday, it said.

A pet boarding business was under water, forcing rescuers to move dozens of dogs to a local animal shelter, said Gilliam, the county executive. Crews rescued people from four or five vehicles and multiple homes, mostly by boat, said Randy Graham, the emergency management director in Christian County.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen downtown,” Gilliam said.

Hundreds of Kentucky roads were impassable because of floodwaters, downed trees or mud and rock slides, and the number of closures were likely to increase with more rain late Friday and Saturday, Beshear said.

A landslide blocked a nearly 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) stretch of Mary Ingles Highway in the state's north, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. A landslide closed the same section of road in 2019, and it reopened last year, WLWT-TV reported.

Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural Kentucky where water can rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding in the eastern part of the state.

Extreme flooding across a corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis — which have major cargo hubs — could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. At least 318 tornado warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service since this week’s outbreak began Wednesday.

The outburst comes at a time when nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates after Trump administration job cuts — twice that of just a decade ago.

Homes were ripped to their foundations this week in Selmer, which was hit by a tornado with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), according to the weather service. Advance warning of storms likely saved lives, as hundreds of people sheltered at a courthouse, the governor said.

In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.

Mississippi's governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.

Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia, Obed Lamy in Hopkinsville, and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.