Daily Times

Nelly Korda kept her hopes alive for a fourth consecutive LPGA Tour victory by shooting a 3-under 69 on Friday for a three-day total of 1-under par in the T-Mobile Match Play, putting her into the quarterfinals for the start of match play.

The top-ranked Korda, the sixth seed after three days of stroke play, will face third-seeded Angel Yin on Saturday morning.

Leona Maguire captured the top seed with a 69 for a 6-under total. She she will meet Moriya Jutanugarn, who won a four-way playoff for the final spot. No. 2 Minami Katsu will face No. 7 Narin An and No. 4 Rose Zhang will meet No. 5 Sei Young Kim.

The semifinals are Saturday afternoon, and the final is Sunday.

Of the final eight, five are ranked in the top 40. That includes 2020 LPGA Tour Player in Kim and 20-year-old phenom in Zhang, playing in her adopted hometown as she tries to win her second career title.

“I love match play,” said Zhang, who won two national championships at Stanford. “You get to play on like Solheim Cups, junior teams, amateur events, but you don´t really get to see that a lot out here. I´m really excited to go back into that. It´ll remind me of college days, just grinding it out against an opponent.”

The quarterfinalists overcame 1 1/2 days of dismal weather and a challenging Shadow Creek course that punishes errant shots. The cut line to make the match-play portion was 2 over. “We thought that maybe 1 over to 2 over would get in, so wasn´t focused too much on a score with the tough conditions,” Korda said. “This golf course is already hard enough without any wind, without it dropping in temperature as well.”