The LPGA is mixing it up this week at the T Mobile Match Play. Held at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, the tournament started Wednesday, which was the first of five days of competition.
Match play can be fickle and that proved to be the case as only two of the top 10 seeds ‒ Jeeno Thitikul (2) and Angel Yin (10) ‒ advanced to the Round of 16 after three days of group play. Thitikiul, ranked second in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings, is the only top-10 ranked player still alive.
Nelly Korda, the defending champion, suffered the first match-play loss of her career. She went 1-1-1 in group play, falling to Ariya Jutanugarn, 1 up, in the final match of Friday's action. Jutanugarn took a 1 up lead when she birdied the par-5 15th while Korda parred it. Both players then parred the last two holes.
Big names heading home early at T Mobile Match Play
- Nelly Korda (1)
- Lydia Ko (3)
- Ruoning Yin (4)
- Ayaka Furue (5)
- Charley Hull (6)
- Haeran Ryu (7)
- Jin Young Ko (8)
- Hyo Joo Kim (9)
The original field of 64 is now down to the Round of 16, with matches set for Saturday morning, followed by the Elite 8 matches Saturday afternoon. Sunday will be the semifinals followed by the championship match.
What are the Round of 16 matches at the T Mobile Match Play?
- 10:20 a.m. ET: Stephanie Kyriacou (37) vs. A Lim Kim (21)
- 10:30 a.m. ET: Sei Young Kim (29) vs. Lauren Coughlin (13)
- 10:40 a.m. ET: Brooke Henderson (25) vs. Maja Stark (24)
- 10:50 a.m. ET: Ariya Jutanugarn (32) vs. Narin An (48)
- 11 a.m. ET: Ashleigh Buhai (38) vs. Celine Boutier (11)
- 11:10 a.m. ET: Carlota Ciganda (30) vs. Madelene Sagstrom (46)
- 11:20 a.m. ET: Mao Saigo (26) vs. Angel Yin (10)
- 11:30 a.m. ET: Jeeno Thitikul (2) vs. Nataliya Guseva (50)
Which notable players failed to advance to the weekend?
Aside from eight of the top 10, other notables not moving on include Amy Yang (12), Rose Zhang (15), Yuka Saso (17) and Megan Khang (18).
Where is the T Mobile Match Play being played?
Shadow Creek Golf Course is a premier layout in Las Vegas. The course, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1990, is technically a public-access golf course. It is ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the No. 1 public-access course.
Shadow Creek has a reported $1,250 green fee, which makes it the highest in the U.S. You also need to stay at an MGM resort to even begin the conversation to score one of the rare tee times, which are limited to just a few groups of resort guests per day, and not every day of the week. Shadow Creek also doesn’t publish a seasonal fee schedule.
Golfweek's Jason Lusk contribued to this article.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek:
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