We recap the last week on tour where Nelly Korda made it six wins and Xander Schauffele broke his Major duck
Here's a look back on what happened on tour last week. We'll be sharing the winners, shots and moments of the week.
Winner's circle - week ending 19th May
Here's who won:
LPGA Tour - The Mizuho Americas Open should have been a stand-out LPGA Tour event this week. Michelle Wie West played host, Rose Zhang was defending her maiden title coming into the week off a win and Nelly Korda was in search of a sixth victory.
Another great feature of this event was that 24 AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) girls had the opportunity to play an LPGA Tour event, amongst their idols.
Unfortunately, even with all the potential storylines, the event felt a little flat. There were a couple of reasons for this, the clash with the PGA Championship being the main one but Rose Zhang having to pull out with illness after two holes and the lack of global TV coverage just lessened the triumph that had been the inaugural playing last year.
In the end, 10 players had to withdraw from the event and one of the juniors was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. The situation was so unique that the LPGA released a statement:
"A total of 10 players have withdrawn from the field at the Mizuho Americas Open since play began on Thursday. Three of those withdrawls have been due to injury, and others due to various illnesses.
"Medical professionals on site have treated several athletes for symptoms related to a viral infection.
"The LPGA and tournament orgnizers continue to monitor the situation closely, and are working together to advice and assist the LPGA athletes with precautions to try to keep everyone healthy."
Even a final day battle between Nelly Korda and Hannah Green wasn't enough to garner much interest as attentions were turned to Xander Schauffele and the chasing pack at the PGA Championship.
Korda winning for a sixth time in one season is one for the history books... let's just hope that this event gets a better spot in the schedule in 2025, so that it really has a chance to shine.
Read the full final day report here.
There is no action on the LPGA this week as the players prepare for the second Major of the season, the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster Golf Club.
LET - From Korea to Germany and the Amundi German Masters. Maybe going slightly under the radar is Alexandra Försterling who claimed her fourth LET title in a play-off with Emma Spitz. This was the German's second win in a row and her fourth in just 11 starts spanning this and last season.
The final day saw a head-to-head battle between Försterling and Spitz who both shared the lead at the start of the round. In the end they would need a play-off to decide the winner, with Försterling winning on the second play-off hole.
“I am honestly completely speechless,” said the German star. “After I saw the putt drop, I was like oh my god. I would never have expected it.
“It really feels great. It honestly feels like a dream, I just never expected it, and it feels so amazing!”
Read the full report here.
This week, the LET heads to France at the Jabra Ladies Open at the Evian Resort, home of the Amundi Evian Championship.
Epson Tour - Records Fall as Fiona Xu wins the 2024 Copper Rock Championship.
The Epson Tour’s West Coast swing was one for the history books as Fiona Xu set the new 54-hole scoring record for the Epson Tour and Copper Rock Championship at 22-under-par to end the four-week stretch out west.
After tying the course record during her second round, Xu picked up right where she left off, making birdie on four of her first five holes to start her final round. The 19-year-old cooled down slightly, making four pars to make the turn with a four-under-par 32. Xu rattled off three more birdies to start her back nine, before finally making a bogey on 13, her first in 35 holes.
Like a champion does, Xu bounced back, making two birdies in her last five holes, including an impressive birdie on the difficult 18th hole to break the all-time 54-hole scoring record in style.
“It feels pretty great. I didn't really expect to, you know, break the record, but I just played how I wanted to play and just took every opportunity the course gave me,” said Xu on her record-breaking performance. “Everything was going great. I was hitting fairways, and my approach shots were really good this week. A lot of birdies from ten feet or within ten feet. So, my putting and my approach were the biggest things this week.”
Xu has had a remarkable start to her rookie season, not finishing outside the top 25 in any event in 2024. The win pushed the New Zealand native, who has been steadily climbing the rankings, to No. 1 in the Race for the Card standings by a comfortable margin heading into FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in early June.
The Epson Tour will return to action June 7-9 in Battle Creek, Michigan for the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship.
Men's professional tour results
PGA Championship - In what turned out to be one of the most bizarre week's in men's professional golf, the PGA Championship took place at Valhalla Golf Club. At times, you would think that things off the course would completely overshadow the golf itself.
The week started with news that Scottie Scheffler had welcomed a baby boy and that Rory McIlroy had filed for divorce from his wife Erica. By Thursday we were ready to focus on the golf and Xander Scheffele set the season with a sizzling 62.
Unfortunate and tragic circumstances on Friday morning led to Scheffler being arrested and a race against time to see whether he would make his tee time. He did and shot a five-under-par 66. The events of the day caught up with him on Saturday and a 73 followed. A final day 65 put him back on track but this wasn't to be his week.
We thought that McIlroy and defending champion Brooks Koepka would be in the mix but their charges up the leaderboard never really materialised.
In the end, the week belonged to the man who had set the scene on the first day. Dubbed by some the 'nearly man', Schauffele won his maiden Major and first title in nearly two years whilst holding off a final round surge from Bryson DeChambeau.
This week the PGA Tour moves to Texas and the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, whilst the DP World Tour is in Belgium for the Soudal Open at Rinkven International Golf Club.
Shot of the week
The PGA Championship had a lot of stand out shots, holing out from bunkers, Bryson's eagle putt on 18 on Saturday to jump up the leaderboard but a stand-out shot (before the melee on Friday) had to be Scottie Scheffler holing out from eagle from the fairway on the first hole on Thursday. The World Number one already knew that Schauffele had posted a 62 and this showed he meant business...
Moment of the week
We're definitely not playing down Nelly Korda's achievements, winning a sixth victory in only eight starts is quite phenomenal but we are giving the moment of the week to Xander Schauffele. So many fans and media have been critical of his ability to win, maybe rightly so, but it does surely wear you down. With that in mind, it must make a victory like the PGA Championship that much sweeter. Here's his winning birdie putt:
This week is likely to feel like a much quieter week on tour. With no LPGA action, we're getting ourselves ready for the U.S. Women's Open, with Major and Nelly fever continuing.
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