ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Nelly Korda played her best golf in the worst of the conditions Saturday with an 8-under 64 in the frigid, blustery conditions that eventually led to play being suspended for the day in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.
Korda had the best score of the week at Lake Nona, where the temperatures felt like they were in the 40s with a steady 20 mph wind and gusts nearly twice that strong.
Going after her first win since November 2024, Korda was at 13-under 203, six shots ahead of Brooke Henderson among those who finished. Henderson shot 66.
Amy Yang was at 10 under with two holes to play, including the par-3 17th, one of the most exposed holes on the golf course. Lydia Ko fell back with a double bogey and bogey on consecutive holes on the back nine. She was at 8 under through 16 holes.
Youmin Hwang also was 8 under, and it was her putt that led LPGA officials to stop play. Hwang had an 18-foot birdie putt that she missed to the right, and the strong right-to-left wind sent her golf ball a few more feet to the right until it caught a ridge and rolled off the green.
Hwang called over an official and before long play was suspended. Sue Winter, the LPGA rules official, said it was due to the couple of holes — particularly the 17th — that made it unfair.
Players wore ear muffs and ski caps to try to stay warm, and it's supposed to be even worse on Sunday as temperature plunge to freezing or colder.
Korda got in two holes — both birdies — when the wind began to strengthen. And then she hit a gap wedge that landed a few feet beyond the hole and spun back in for an eagle on the third.
She shot 30 on the front nine, added three birdies against one bogey on the back and had 64 to build a lead.
“I knew the conditions were going to be tough, so getting off to a good start like that really helped,” Korda said. “Overall just stayed really focused and super committed on my lines. It’s really easy to doubt yourself and your lines in winds and conditions like this.”
Korda won seven times in 2024 and then surprisingly went through all of 2025 without winning. Eager to get off to a good start, she seized control with great golf in bad weather, helped by the low, wind-piercing shots that carried her to a 64.
“When you’re out there you’re so focused on being present and focusing in on the shot that it hasn’t really hit me like how well I played,” Korda said. “You're almost in survival mode, especially the last holes.”
Lottie Woad of England, who shared the 36-hole lead with Ko, was 3 over for her round through 16 holes and fell eight shots behind the lead.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Nelly Korda tees off on the ninth hole during the first round of the Tournament of Champions LPGA golf tournament, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Blizzardlike conditions stemming from a “ bomb cyclone ” were starting to bring heavy snow to the Southeast and were ushering in frigid temperatures to much of the East Coast Saturday, as tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power after being hit by a different icy storm last week.
About 240 million people were under cold weather advisories and winter storm warnings, a forecaster said. The frigid cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida. Some areas unaccustomed to snow were bracing for several inches to fall by Sunday.
The powerful winter storm system came after another blast of snow and ice last weekend snarled traffic, knocked down trees, and caused more than 100 deaths.
A low temperature of minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 33 degrees Celsius) was recorded Saturday morning in West Virginia, said Bob Oravec, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Parts of the southern Appalachians, the Carolinas and Georgia could see 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of snow, he said. The Carolinas could see blizzard conditions stemming from the bomb cyclone, a term Oravec used to described an intense, rapidly strengthening storm system off the Southeast coast packing strong winds.
“Anytime you have cold weather advisories or extreme cold warnings, it is dangerous to be outside. Frostbite can occur,” Oravec said. “Especially in areas that have or are experiencing power issues still, prolonged exposure to cold weather is not good for yourself.”
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — whose official seal is the sun, palm trees and a sea gull — 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow was expected. The city has no snow-removal equipment, and authorities planned to “use what we can find,” Mayor Mark Kruea said.
Lee Harrison, an insurance agent living in a town outside of Greenville, North Carolina, said snow has blanketed his neighborhood by Saturday afternoon. He planned to take his three daughters sledding in the backyard.
“We’re not gonna drive anywhere,” Harrison said. “It’s thick enough that I would not feel comfortable driving with our family.”
Subfreezing weather was forecast into February, with heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia over the weekend, including up to a foot (30 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. Snow was also said to be possible from Maryland to Maine.
More than 197,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, mostly in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. That included nearly 48,000 in Nashville as of Saturday morning.
Amanda Linton, a resident of Holly Springs, Mississippi, which sits near the border of Mississippi and Tennessee, said her family tried to keep busy and stay positive during the weeklong outage. The family of five have been stuck in the house for days with their dogs, chickens and ducks as the roads are covered with inches of compacted ice.
Linton said they managed to buy a generator in preparation ahead of the storms.
“Just lots of games and reading and really just trying to keep mine and my husband’s spirits up so that we’re staying positive for our kids,” Linton said Saturday.
Terry Miles, a 59-year-old construction worker whose Nashville home has had no electricity since a previous storm struck Sunday, resorted to using a fish fryer for heat and worried about the danger of carbon monoxide.
“I’m taking a chance of killing myself and killing my wife, because — Why?” Miles said after attending a Nashville Electric Service news conference intended to showcase the utility’s repairs on poles and lines. He then pointed to officials.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he shared “strong concerns” with leadership of Nashville Electric Service. The utility has defended its response, saying the storm that struck last weekend was unprecedented.
Mississippi officials said the massive winter storm was its worst since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened, and National Guard troops delivered supplies by truck and helicopter.
In Georgia, where temperatures dropped below freezing, 65-year-old Dolla Johnson slept in a warming center to stay out of the cold.
“If I hadn’t have been here, I would be sleeping outside,” said Johnson, who is homeless. “There’s nowhere else to go. The bridges are not safe. Everything’s freezing over.”
Experts warned of the growing risks of hypothermia. Frostbite was also a concern in the South, where some people may lack sufficiently warm clothing, said Dr. David Nestler, an emergency medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
More than 100 people have died from Texas to New Jersey, roughly half of them in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. While some deaths have been attributed to hypothermia, others are suspected to be related to carbon monoxide exposure. Officials have not released specific details about some deaths.
In North Carolina, hundreds of National Guard soldiers readied to help and state workers worked to prepare roads.
The city of Wake Forest saw a steady stream of people filling propane tanks Friday at Holding Oil and Gas, including José Rosa, who arrived after striking out at three other places.
“I’m here in this cold weather, and I don’t like it,” Rosa said as he held a 20-pound (9-kilogram) tank.
In Dare County, home to much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, residents worried that more unoccupied houses in communities like Rodanthe and Buxton could collapse into the Atlantic Ocean.
Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina; Sarah Brumfield in Washington; David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale; Devi Shastri in Milwaukee and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
Hunter Steffen, 17, left, hands a hard-to-come by 40-pound bag of ice melt to a customer outside Town & County Hardware in Wake Forest, N.C., on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
Tennessee National Guard Specialist Taylor Osteen, left, holds a chainsaw as he takes a break from cutting trees from a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Ethan Green, 21, left, an apprentice one lineman at the Yazoo Valley Power Association, looks up at a crew member Taylor Arinder on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 in Bentonia, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
Tennessee National Guard members Taylor Osteen, left, and Antuwan Powell walk along an ice covered road as they work to remove trees Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Austin Bradbury uses a chainsaw to remove a tree above a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
