THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — Nelly Korda hasn’t really considered her place in history as she prepares to chase her fifth consecutive victory, which would tie the LPGA record, this weekend at the Chevron Championship.
“I’m so in the present that I don’t let myself think about that too much,” she said. “I feel like that just comes with a little bit more added pressure.”
She does, however, appreciate the feedback she gets from her youngest fans.
“Obviously there is nothing better to me than seeing all the little kids come out and saying that I inspire them to pick up a golf club or I’m their favorite golfer,” she said. “There is no better feeling than that. Hopefully I do get to inspire the next generation with the love that I have for the game and hopefully they have it too.”
This tournament is the first of five women’s major championships this season where Korda will try to win her first major since the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2021 and join Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the only women to win five consecutive LPGA events.
She’ll compete against a field which includes last year’s Chevron champion Lilia Vu, who captured her first major with the victory. She was the LPGA player of the year last year after going on to win the Women’s British Open.
The 26-year-old is looking forward to defending her title in a place that she quickly became quite fond of.
“Instantly when I landed in Houston it felt very calming to me,” she said. “I felt almost sort of home. I don’t know, I just kept thinking about it. Even my parents were talking about it last night. Could be a place to consider to move.”
Vu won last year’s tournament in dramatic fashion with a birdie on the first playoff hole to outlast Angel Yin.
Vu likes the increased attention that women’s golf is getting recently because of Korda’s streak and likened it to the surge in popularity of women’s basketball because of superstar Caitlin Clark.
“She is bringing so much to the table, just win after win, just having everything together,” Vu said. “She’s done such a good job. So well liked and loved out here. She brings a big following. She’s a great person. So … she’s kind of our Caitlin Clark out here.”
It’s the second year the tournament will be held at The Club At Carlton Woods in suburban Houston after more than 50 years at Mission Hills in the California desert.
Chevron announced this week that it will remain the tournament’s title sponsor through 2029 and that the purse for this year’s event will increase to $7.9 million.
Following last year’s debut in Texas, the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course underwent renovations that affected all 18 holes. Those renovations included a new irrigation system, sand capped fairways, newly constructed bunkers moved closer to the greens and each green was rebuilt to USGA specifications.
Stacy Lewis, the 2011 Chevron champion, who grew up in The Woodlands, is impressed with the upgrades.
“All in all, I like the changes,” she said. “Made some holes a little bit more difficult ... and it’s in great shape. I think it’s very impressive how the greens have come out being brand new.”
Along with Korda and Vu, the tournament will feature Lydia Ko, who could earn a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame with a win. Ko won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January for her 20th LPGA title.
The tournament will also serve as a farewell to So Yeon Ryu, who is retiring from competitive golf after this event following 13 seasons on the LPGA Tour. She has six titles, highlighted by two majors — the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2017 title at this tournament.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - United States' Lilia Vu plays her tee shot on the 4th hole during her single match at the Solheim Cup golf tournament in Finca Cortesin, near Casares, southern Spain, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023. Europe play the United States in this biannual women's golf tournament, which played alternately in Europe and the United States. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
FILE - Nelly Korda hits off the second tee during the final round of the LPGA T-Mobile Match Play golf tournament Sunday, April 7, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Nelly Korda reacts after winning the LPGA T-Mobile Match Play golf tournament Sunday, April 7, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/John Locher)
GENEVA (AP) — The World Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday defended the “strong reputation” of its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers.
Cottier is “entirely independent” of WADA and international sports, it said, even as scrutiny of him increased over his friendship with a longtime colleague who worked with the agency and his enquiries into German broadcaster ARD’s previous investigation of a separate Olympic sport.
Cottier has been given until a few weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics in July to report on WADA’s acceptance in 2021 — in the months before the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games held in a public health lockdown — of Chinese authorities’ explanation that the swimmers were contaminated by a banned heart medication found in a hotel kitchen.
The positive tests, including for three Chinese swimmers who won gold medals in Tokyo, were eventually detailed April 20 after months-long investigations by ARD and the New York Times.
Montreal-based WADA has since faced widespread skepticism from anti-doping officials, national swim teams and athlete groups about its decisions three years ago and picking Cottier.
For 17 years through 2022, Cottier was the attorney general of Vaud, the home canton (state) of the International Olympic Committee where WADA has its European office in Lausanne.
Choosing a prosecutor on the doorstep of the Olympic movement was “highly problematic,” Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth told The Associated Press on Monday.
During the last 13 years that Cottier was chief public prosecutor, the Vaud police commander was Jacques Antenen, who also worked with WADA from 2018 until last December as supervising auditor of the doping watchdog’s investigations team.
“I think it’s highly problematic and it’s totally unnecessary,” Pieth said of WADA’s selection process. “It shows they don’t have the awareness of possible conflicts of interest.”
When Antenen retired from Vaud police in 2022, the service’s in-house magazine published a photograph from the ceremony of him with Cottier captioned as the prosecutor having come “to greet an old friend.”
“The fact that he (Antenen) might know Mr. Cottier professionally in no way compromises Mr. Cottier’s independence in reviewing WADA’s handling of this case,” the agency said in a statement. It did not address a question asking if Antenen took part in nominating the special prosecutor.
Pieth was contacted by Cottier after speaking with ARD in 2020 for its investigative reporting of financial corruption and cover-ups of doping cases at the International Weightlifting Federation, which had an office in Lausanne.
Though the Vaud prosecution office then led by Cottier inquired about the issues in weightlifting raised by ARD in January 2020, it is unclear if further steps were taken.
The office did not immediately respond to questions sent by email on Tuesday.
Antenen produced annual reports over six years on his oversight and advisory work with the WADA investigations team, which was involved in the Chinese swimming case.
In his 2021 audit, Antenen said the WADA unit “alone cannot bear all of the responsibility for anti-doping investigations,” and called for it to verify the skills of national anti-doping bodies like China’s “to promote the creation of effective, independent and honest structures."
WADA has insisted since the ARD and New York Times reports that its legal, scientific and investigations managers agreed that evidence presented by China was consistent with the contamination theory and that all due process was followed.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Swiss lawyer Eric Cottier speaks in Lausanne, Switzerland, May 15, 2013. OLY--WADA-Special Prosecutor. The World Anti-Doping Agency has defended its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers. WADA says Cottier is “entirely independent” of the agency and international sports. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
Swiss lawyer Eric Cottier looks on in Renens, Switzerland, March 3, 2016. The World Anti-Doping Agency has defended its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers. WADA says Cottier is “entirely independent” of the agency and international sports. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
