PARIS — Nelly Korda withdrew from the next two tournaments on the LPGA Tour’s Asia swing after hurting her neck during practice, she announced.
The tour is in South Korea for the BMW Ladies Championship, beginning Thursday. Players will head to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur for the Maybank Championship the following week.
Fans in those countries will miss the chance to see Korda, the No. 1-ranked player in the world and a six-time winner this season.
“Unfortunately, I’ve had to withdraw from the LPGA events in Korea and Malaysia due to a minor neck injury I sustained while practicing,” Korda posted on social media.
“I’m disappointed to miss these events and am especially sorry to my fans who were looking forward to seeing me play,” the American professional golfer added according to Reuters.
“I’m currently resting and working with my team to get better. Thank you for all your support — it truly means the world to me!”
Korda, 26, did not say when she plans to return to competition. The Asia swing concludes with the TOTO Japan Classic on Oct. 31-3.
The season ends three weeks later at the CME Group Tour Championship in her home state of Florida.
All six of Korda’s victories this year came before June. She won five consecutive starts, culminating at the Chevron Championship, her second career major title.
Korda currently holds a roughly 1,235-point lead over New Zealand’s Lydia Ko in the season-long Race to the CME Globe standings. Korda has yet to win the season-long championship.
Korda has few weaknesses but she has been prone to health issues. In 2022, she underwent surgery for a blood clot in a subclavian vein in her left arm. In 2023, she missed a stretch of tournaments due to back pain.
In June of this year, she withdrew from an event after a dog bit her leg, but she offered few details about what exactly had happened. “Just had to go through some medical stuff,” she said.
Matt McCarty, meanwhile, wasted no time making the most of his rookie season on the PGA Tour, as the newcomer won the inaugural Black Desert Championship in Utah.
McCarty held the 54-hole lead and was clinging to a one-shot edge when he reached the short par-4 14th hole at Black Desert Resort. An incredible tee shot set up a short eagle putt that tripled his lead.
He wrapped up at 4-under-par 67 that put him at 23-under 261 for the week, three strokes better than Germany’s Stephan Jaeger (68).
McCarty, a lefty-swinging 26-year-old from Arizona, clinched instant promotion to the PGA Tour earlier this year by winning three times on the Korn Ferry Tour. The victory, in just his second start of the fall, gave him a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
Jerry Kelly, also, shot a 5-under-par 67 and held on to win the SAS golf Championship by one stroke at Prestonwood Club in North Carolina.
Kelly made his only bogey of the day at the par-4 18th hole to settle for 13-under 203, and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington moved to 13 under at around the same time with a birdie at the par-5 17th.
But Harrington also proceeded to bogey No 18 after missing both the fairway and the green on his first two shots.
Harrington’s par attempt to force a playoff hit the edge of the cup and lipped out.
It marked Kelly’s 12th win on the PGA Tour Champions and his first since August 2022.
“It’s a long time coming,” Kelly said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “You wonder if you’re even going to do it again when the injuries start piling up.”
Kelly tied for second, three shots off the pace of Harrington, who has won eight times since joining the tour in 2022.
Kelly passed Harrington on the leaderboard with another trio of birdies at Nos. 10, 12 and 13, while the Irishman had just two birdies and a bogey through 12 holes.
Harrington missed birdie chances at the 13th through 16th holes before finally getting one to go at the penultimate hole.
