NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked player, won’t be around this weekend to defend her T-Mobile Match Play championship.
She needed to defeat Ariya Jutanugarn, but lost 1-up Friday on the final day of round-robin play and failed to qualify for the round of 16.
Korda’s struggles typified the week for the world’s top 10 players. Eight played in this tournament at Shadow Creek, but only second-ranked Jeeno Thitikul advanced to the knockout stage. She will play Nataliya Guseva.
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“I don’t think it’s because of the top players not playing well, but I think because it’s not a matter of the ranking here,” Thitikul said. “Maybe the top players are playing well, but other players just play a little better, which is like hold the win.”
The winners of the 16 groups in round-robin play qualified for the beginning of elimination play Saturday morning. The quarterfinals will be in the afternoon, which will narrow the field to four for Sunday for the semifinals and championship.
Korda appeared poised to put herself in that company, taking the lead on the par-3 13th despite missing the green. She got up-and-down and Jutanugarn bogeyed.
The advantage didn’t last long.
The roles reversed on the par-4 15th when Jutanugarn got up and down with a 40-foot putt to within two feet.
“That putt to me is quite hard because of the slope and it’s like downhill and it’s slope left to right pretty good,” said Jutanugarn, who will face Narin An in the next round. “I just told myself I just need to get the speed right, and that’s all I focus on.”
Korda had a similar shot, but delivered an overaggressive chip that went five past the cup and then missed the comebacker. The match was tied, which was the equivalent of a loss for Korda.
Then it became an outright loss when she missed another short putt on No. 16 and failed to make up the difference over the final two holes.
Korda is still searching for his first victory this season, quite a contrast from a year ago when her victory in the Match Play was her fourth start in a row with a win, the first player in 16 years to accomplish that. She extended the streak to five two weeks later at The Chevron Championship to tie the tour record.
Thitikul rolled into the elimination format, defeating Hye-Jin Choi 5 and 3. Thitikul, who is from Thailand, won all three round-robin matches. She will play Guseva, who advanced out of the same group with Rose Zhang, who has been battling a neck injury.
Zhang conceded her match to Meghan Khang a day after doing the same with Albane Valenzuela with three holes left. The decision by Zhang, who lives in Las Vegas, to pull out wound up not affecting that group. Guseva would have advanced anyway, securing the 1-up victory over Valenzuela by making a 55-foot putt on the 18th green.
“I knew that I needed some magic, and that’s when I holed that putt,” Guseva said. “At that moment I thought that I’m going to win this match. I was just fighting until the end. I never gave up.”
Brooke Henderson won first two matches in routs and then advanced when her third-round round opponent, Jin Young Ko, conceded after nine holes. Henderson, who was 2-up at the time, said Ko did not feel well.
Henderson, who along with Sei Young Kim were the only players who never trailed in a match, will face Maja Stark. Kim will go against Lauren Coughlin.
Rounding out the schedule are Stephanie Kyriacou against A Lim Kim, Mao Saigo against Angel Yin, Carlota Ciganda against Madelene Sagstrom ,and Ashleigh Buhai against Celine Boutier.
