World No.2 Shanshan Feng hasn’t yet won on the LPGA Tour in 2018, however, the same thing happened in 2017 before coming to the LPGA Volvik Championship.
And then Feng, who held the No.1 spot in the Rolex Rankings for nearly six months before being toppled by Inbee Park, won last year’s event by a shot. That was her first of three wins on the LPGA Tour a year ago.
Feng comes back into the LPGA Volvik Championship with four top-5 finishes in 2018, including a tie for third at her last event in April, the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship.
Feng also finished tied for third at the LOTTE Championship along with the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic, the first event of the season.
A year ago Feng shot four rounds in the 60’s, including a final round 68 to hold off a hard-charging Minjee Lee and eventual Rookie and Player of the Year Sung Hyun Park (who shot a final-round 65 and 66, respectively) to win by a shot.
Feng holds the 54-hole scoring record (15-under) and the 72-hole scoring record in this championship as well (19-under).
Ariya Jutanugarn riding the wave
It’s been a jive of Jutanugarn’s so far in 2018 on the LPGA Tour.
First it was Moriya Jutanguarn breaking through for her first LPGA Tour win. Then, three weeks later, it was sister Ariya who captured her first title of 2018 at last week’s Kingsmill Championship presented by GEICO.
The younger Jutanugarn, Ariya, is also a past champion at the LPGA Volvik Championship, having won the inaugural title in 2016.
Ariya looks to continue to ride the wave of success and confidence this week prior to next week’s U.S. Women’s Open returning to place she’s had much success at in the past. She was in the hunt a year ago before stalling on Sunday, shooting a 71. Still, she finished tied for 21st.
Ariya fired an opening round 65 in 2016 en route to her victory, just one shot off the tournament-record 64 (Christina Kim, 2016).
Ariya heads into the week up one spot to fifth in the Rolex Rankings, leads the LPGA Tour’s money list at just over $771,000, and the Race to the CME Globe.
Sister Moriya finished tied for sixth a year ago, one of her 11 top-10 finishes in 2017. Other than her win, Moriya has three other top-10’s so far this year.
Can Nelly Korda break through?
A year ago Nelly Korda, younger sister to multi-time LPGA Tour winner Jessica, notched her second top-10 finish of the year at the LPGA Volvik Championship.
With a victory still out of reach, this could be the week that the younger Korda sister breaks through to find the winner’s circle – and become the second set of sisters to pull the trick in 2018.
While Jessica Korda has notched a win already this year and continues to play well despite her recovery efforts from off-season surgery, the younger Korda has had an up-and-down season so far.
She’s notched three top-15 finishes so far, including a tie for second at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March, her career-high finish on the LPGA Tour. She’s missed three cuts as well, however, including last week at the Kingsmill Championship.
That said, Nelly Korda fired two rounds of 68 on the weekend a year ago to nip sister Jessica by a shot. The course fits her game, and with just a week to go prior to the U.S. Women’s Open, there is no time like the present for another sister success story to come along on the LPGA Tour.
Jessica Korda shared a piece of the Kingsmill Championship lead a week ago before fading back over the rain-soaked weekend to eventually finish tied for 19th. She has four top-10 results on the year so far.
Six LPGA Tour tournament winners are in the field this week including both Jutanugarn’s, Jessica Korda, Brittany Lincicome, Eun-Hee Ji, and Sung Hyun Park.
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