NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Angel Yin rammed in a 30-foot par putt on her opening hole, setting the tone for a day of big putts and 3-under 69 that gave her a two-shot lead Friday in the CME Group Tour Championship and the chase for the $4 million prize.
Very clear in her rearview mirror was Nelly Korda.
Korda, coming off her seventh win of the season last week, opened with a 72 and was eight shots behind. She found a simple swing thought after the round and was back to her old self with a 66 that cut the deficit in half with 36 holes left to play.
“Golf is just crazy,” Korda said. “You go from playing so well last week to not being able to find the center of the clubface yesterday. Always humbles you, but what’s that you love so much about it. Went to the range after my round yesterday. Tried to find a different feel. Felt a little better out there today, and hopefully I can keep progressing.”
Yin followed that 30-foot par putt with a 40-foot birdie putt on the next hole. She also holed a birdie putt from about 35 feet on the 11th hole that put her in the lead for good.
She was at 10-under 134. Hye-Jin Choi (68) and Narin An (72) were 8 under.
Korda, who already has captured her first award as player of the year, was tied for fourth at 138 with four other players who are either major champions or have been No. 1 in the women's world ranking — Jeeno Thitikul, Ayaka Furue, Ruoning Yin and Amy Yang, the defending champion at Tiburon Golf Club.
Furue also is in a tight battle for the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average, and she pulled within a fraction of a point of Haeran Ryu.
Yin's round had enough bogeys to slow her momentum, along with a discussion with a rules official over where she took her drop after going in the water on the par-3 fourth hole.
“It looked like I took an improper drop where I went up closer than I should have, where I should have dropped further back,” Yin said, who was asked to review footage. “They thought I didn’t take the drop properly. I explained to them that I believe I did take the drop properly.”
She said it was discussed with everyone in her group. She said a marshal never volunteered any information. The drop stood, she took bogey and was moving on.
“I believe my drop was right,” Yin said.
Korda, meanwhile, grazed the cup with birdie chances and then made it up for it on the third hole when her 8-iron from the rough landed so perfectly that it rolled into the cup for an eagle. That sent her on her way.
The key to getting her game on track was more hinge in taking the club away and taking a shorter swing. It all came together. Korda also said she finally was able to get some rest after a busy week of awards.
Yin won $1 million last year in the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge, a bonus competition all year that measures how players fare on holes that have risk, such as a reachable par 5. That $1 million meant a lot to her, and she said it gave her some financial freedom.
What would $4 million mean?
“Even bigger financial freedom,” she said.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Hadrian Ryu tees off on the first hole during the first round of the LPGA CME Group Tour Championship golf tournament Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Naples, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)
Nelly Korda tees off on the first hole during the first round of the LPGA CME Group Tour Championship golf tournament Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Naples, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Max Verstappen, needing just three points over Lando Norris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix to seal a fourth consecutive Formula 1 championship, is suddenly in jeopardy of being denied the crown Saturday night.
The most jarring sign of trouble came in Thursday night's second practice when the Dutchman was a dismal 17th on the speed chart compared to Norris, who was among the top three fastest drivers in both sessions.
The problem?
Red Bull apparently made an incorrect adjustment to the rear wing of its car at Las Vegas and GPS data showed its two cars to be significantly slower on the straights than both McLaren and Mercedes, which led both practice sessions with Lewis Hamilton. The Red Bull rear wing is adjustable and was set to give the team more straight-line speed. While that worked, it compromised other aspects of the car.
The team believes the issue has been resolved ahead of Friday night practice and qualifying.
Verstappen, however, proved two weeks ago in Brazil that adversity is nothing he can't overcome. He started 17th on a wet and rainy circuit and still managed to win his first race since June by nearly 20 seconds.
Verstappen, whose eight wins this season are his fewest since 2020, has not won back-to-back races since Canada and Spain in June. But the Brazil win widened his lead over Norris in the standings to 62 points and the championship is his barring a complete collapse over the final three races.
He is not sure what to expect Saturday night.
“I just want to focus on the weekend and try to have a good performance. Brazil was a very welcome victory for us after a while, but this is again very different,” said Verstappen, who won the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last year.
Prior to discovering the rear-wing issue, Verstappen felt decent about his chances in Las Vegas.
“Three races left, you’re getting close to the end of the season and it’s looking good in the championship, but we still need to score a lot of points so we’ll just focus on that,” he said. “Once we are doing that then you get closer to the end result.”
Norris was admittedly downtrodden after Brazil, where he started on the pole but finished sixth and lost ground to Verstappen after first cutting the lead to 44 points by winning the sprint race.
“This was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut," Norris said. “For a week, I was pretty down because I had that realization of things pretty much out of my control now, not within reach necessarily. That’s a tough realization when your hopes and belief are so high. For it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralizing.”
Even so, Norris is convinced he will one day be F1 world champion.
“I have what it takes,” Norris said. "I think it’s the first time in the last six years of F1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front. This is our, and my, first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at at the beginning of the year.
“I still need to make tweaks and I still need to improve on things, that’s clear. I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done and I definitely know I need to make improvements," he added. "But, for the first time, I’m confident to say I have what I think I need to fight for a championship.”
Norris has the first three wins of his career this season and has McLaren currently atop the constructor championship standings. He knows he's got more work to do to be champion, especially against Verstappen.
“It doesn’t mean I’m complete, it doesn’t mean I’m perfect. When you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him,” Norris said.
McLaren is still clinging to a 36-point lead over Ferrari in the battle for the constructor championship, a title worth a bonus estimated to be $150 million.
McLaren last won that title in 1998, while Ferrari last won in 2008. Red Bull has won the last two titles. Ferrari could chip away at McLaren's lead at Las Vegas.
“Ferrari have been strong for a long time,” said Norris. “They have two very good drivers, they’re a very good team, they’ve clearly improved their car a good amount and found a better direction to head down. We do know that Vegas is probably a track that will suit the Ferraris a bit more, it suited them well last year, but Qatar we know maybe will be more favorable to us.”
Carlos Sainz Jr., in his final three races for Ferrari before he is replaced by Hamilton and moves to Williams, wants to close his tenure by helping the team win the constructors title.
“I would love to win the championship for Ferrari this year,” Sainz said. “I think it would be a great way to sign off the season."
He predicted that McLaren will be stronger in the final two races of the year, at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. But at Las Vegas? Sainz expects he and teammate Charles Leclerc to be stronger.
“This (track) is more Ferrari than McLaren, but at the same time, the temperature is not, so we’ll see how it pans out,” Sainz said of temperatures expected to be in the 40s Fahrenheit (5-10 degrees Celsius) on Saturday night.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, of Spain, drives past the Sphere during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
McLaren driver Lando Norris, of Britain, drives the course during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Matt York)
McLaren driver Lando Norris, of Britain, makes a pit stop in the garage area during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, of the Netherlands, gets in his car in the garage area during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, of the Netherland, waits in the garage area during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
