ADELAIDE • Nelly Korda added to an amazing family tradition of winning top titles Down Under by claiming the LPGA Australian Open by two shots in Adelaide and celebrating with a scissors kick yesterday.
The 20-year-old American carded a five-under 67 in the final round at the Grange Golf Club for a 17-under 271 total to hold off South Korean challenger Ko Jin-young (64).
With her win, the world No. 16 joined her father, sister and brother in being crowned an Open champion on Australian soil.
Her dad, Petr, got the ball rolling by beating Chile's Marcelo Rios in the 1998 Australian Open men's singles final for his first and only Grand Slam tennis title. He celebrated with his trademark scissors kick.
Nelly's sister, Jessica, then won the Australian Open golf in 2012, duplicating her father's celebration, as did brother Sebastian when he claimed the Australian Open tennis boys' title last year.
Not to be outdone, Nelly also nailed the "Korda Kick" after her victory.
Just minutes after tapping in a par putt at the 18th hole, she was handed a phone and her elder sister was looking at her through Facetime.
Nelly put it in context, saying: "I'm finally a part of the club. She was pretty much screaming, 'Congratulations!', she was so happy for me. I mean this win was really special for my family.
"I think there's something in the air here, we love coming Down Under.
"I just got off the phone with my dad and he said, 'Well, congratulations, you're part of the Korda Slam now'."
Korda was the overnight leader and held her nerve despite a bogey on the 15th to beat Ko by two strokes and Taiwan's Hsu Wei-ling by five. Thailand's world No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn (69) finished 15 adrift.
Korda has been the form player of recent months, and has now scored two wins and two other top three-finishes in her last five events.
She arrived in Adelaide on the back of her first LPGA Tour victory at the Taiwan Championship in October last year, before a second-placed finish at the Tour Championship in Florida.
She started her 2019 campaign in a similar vein, finishing third at the Tournament of Champions last month, also in Florida.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
