Phoenix: Kim Hyo-joo has reached the LPGA winner’s circle for the second consecutive week. Kim won the Ford Championship on Cattail Course at Whirlwind Golf Club in Phoenix with a four-round total of 28-under 260, holding off world No. 2 Nelly Korda by two strokes to cash in US$337,500. Kim, world No. 4, also edged out Korda for the Fortinet Founders Cup title last weekend in California.
According to Yonhap News Agency, after defending her Ford Championship title, Kim now has nine career LPGA victories, and this is the first time she has won twice in the same LPGA season. Kim, who shot a three-under 69 in the final round, is the first player this LPGA season with multiple victories. She is projected to reach a career-high No. 3 in the next edition of the world rankings. She has also won in back-to-back weeks for the first time in her LPGA career and accomplished her first successful title defense.
Kim, 30, is the first South Korean LPGA player since Ko Jin-young in 2023 to win multiple tournaments in a seas
on. A South Korean player has now won three LPGA tournaments in a row, with Lee Mi-hyang having won the Blue Bay LPGA in China on March 8 before Kim went double dipping. Kim entered the final round with a four-shot advantage over Korda at 25-under 191, the lowest 54-hole score in LPGA history. Sunday was their fifth consecutive round together in the same group.
Kim survived a double bogey at the eighth hole that cut her lead to just one, picking up three birdies the rest of the way. Kim couldn’t quite get to the LPGA record of 31-under 257, set by fellow South Korean Kim Sei-young at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic. The final round was set up to be a match play between Kim and Korda, with the next best golfer at the start, Mimi Rhodes of England, sitting five shots behind Korda and nine back of Kim.
Korda’s eagle on the second hole briefly cut Kim’s lead to two. But then Kim birdied the fourth and the fifth to get to 27-under, while Korda birdied the fifth to stay within striking distance at 24-under
. After both players birdied the par-5 seventh, the battle got tighter with Kim’s double bogey at the par-4 eighth, which slashed the South Korean’s lead to just one stroke at 26-under.
Korda wasted her opportunity with a bogey on the ninth hole to drop to 24-under, allowing Kim to take a two-stroke lead into the back nine. Kim then regained her four-stroke lead thanks to a two-shot swing on the par-4 10th, where Kim birdied and Korda bogeyed. Kim cruised to her title from there. After missing a makeable birdie attempt at the 11th, Kim made one on the next hole to move to 28-under and remain up by four.
Leading by four with four holes to go, Kim was now playing against history, as Kim Sei-young’s scoring record remained in sight. But Kim Hyo-joo fell short, after missing a relatively short birdie putt on the 15th and committing a three-putt bogey on the 16th. Her title, though, was hardly in doubt. She moved back to 28-under with a birdie on the 17th and closed with a par on the last hole.
Kim, who won the
Founders Cup in Phoenix in 2015, said she was happy to have won again in an area with fond memories. “I didn’t think a day like this would come. I can’t even describe how great I feel right now,” said Kim, after getting drenched in champagne on the 18th green. When asked what it feels like to win in consecutive weeks, Kim smiled and said: “This is my first time. I almost asked Nelly how it feels.”
Korda, who reeled off five straight victories in 2024, made an eagle on the 17th, but it proved to be too little, too late for the American star. On battling Korda for the title for the second straight week, Kim said: “I learned a lot by playing next to her. I know this is a competition, but she is such a fantastic player that there’s so much to learn from her.” Korda has a victory and back-to-back runner-up finishes in her three starts this season, making her the first player since 2011 to open a year with three straight top-three finishes.