PHOENIX (AP) — Nelly Korda was just as good in the tougher afternoon conditions Friday, posting a 7-under 65 for the lowest 36-hole score of her LPGA Tour career and building a two-shot lead at the halfway point of the Ford Championship.
Korda missed an opportunity late to stretch her lead a little more when she missed a 2-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th.
But this was not a day to complain on the Cattail course at Whirlwind Golf Club. She followed a great opening round — something Lydia Ko failed to do — with a steady diet of birdie chances and a smooth, confident stroke with the putter.
“I have left a couple shots out there at the end,” Korda said. “But I'm playing really solid golf, and when I do make a mistake, I try not go let it faze me too much.”
She was at 16-under 128, two shots ahead of a familiar face. Hyo Joo Kim, the defending champion in Phoenix, won last week at the Founders Cup by holding off Korda in the final hour. Korda missed a short putt on the 17th hole Sunday that thwarted hopes of a second straight win to start the year.
Kim, who opened with a 61, overcame a mistakes early to post a 69. Saturday will be the fourth straight round for Korda and Kim to play in the same group.
“Just getting sick of each other now,” Korda said with a laugh. “Yeah, she’s playing such solid golf. At the end of the day that’s something that motivates me to want to stay with her at that level. We’re just going back and forth, so it’s nice. At the end of the day we’re competitors, but we are very friendly. I’ve always enjoyed playing with her. I’m always mesmerized by her putting.”
Ko shot a 60 in morning conditions of the first round and doesn't feel as though she played that much differently — except the putts turned away at the last second or burned the edge. She made so many putts in her opening round, and only enough on Friday for a 71 that left her three shots behind along with Jenny Bae (65) and Minami Katsu (66).
The final hole summed up her day — a good drive, a good approach, and a 12-foot putt that good all the way until it peeled away to the right.
“I just didn’t really hole many putts today,” Ko said. “It’s obviously harder to get closer to the pins just playing in the afternoon and the greens being a little firmer. I think I struggled with a couple of the short ones. ... But that’s golf, right? I can’t control everything. Yesterday was I think more of the surprise I think just shooting a score like that.”
She still found herself right in the mix and Ko figures everything will balance out.
“I feel like my game is trending in the right direction,” she said.
Asterisk Talley, the 17-year-old amateur, had a 65 and was in the group six shots behind at 10 under. Talley will be going to the home of the Masters next week to compete in the Augusta National Women's Amateur, which she had a chance to win last year.
Scoring has been so good, particularly in the morning on smoother greens, that the cut came at 5-under 135. Among those missing out on the weekend were Women's British Open champion Miyu Yamashita of Japan and Lexi Thompson, making her first start of the season.
Korda won the season opener in Florida, which was cut short to 54 holes because of severe wind and cold. She skipped the Asia swing as she often does, and was runner-up to Kim last week at Sharon Heights in Northern California.
“I'm really happy where my game is at now,” Korda said.
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Nelly Korda, of the United States, hits from the 14th tee during the final round of the LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup golf tournament, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 7 million student loan borrowers who have been enrolled in a Biden-era repayment plan will receive notices beginning Friday with instructions to seek a new plan to repay their debt, the Education Department said.
Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan, which was struck down by a federal court earlier this month, have been in forbearance since July 2024 as a legal battle played out in courts. Starting July 1, loan servicers will begin issuing notices giving borrowers 90 days to select a new repayment plan.
The available repayment plans will mean higher monthly payments for most of those borrowers.
When Alexis Arredondo graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2024 with a degree in microbiology, he struggled to find full-time work in research or public health. Instead, he began working part-time and freelancing for nonprofits in Southern California.
A first-generation college student, he took on roughly $40,000 in student debt and enrolled in the SAVE plan upon graduation. Now, he said, he has to choose between paying more per month, which would be a struggle to afford, or a longer repayment period, which would increase how much he pays in interest.
“It’s very difficult knowing where I’m going to be to able to get this money from,” he said.
The SAVE plan was among several initiatives launched by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to reduce Americans’ student debt burden.
Under President Donald Trump, a Republican, “The days of unlawful loan forgiveness are behind us,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said.
“Let me be clear, the Trump administration’s perspective is that when a student takes out a loan, they are responsible for repaying it,” Kent told The Associated Press.
The SAVE plan provided more lenient terms than other repayment plans, reducing loan payments to as little as 5% of a borrower's discretionary income and offering forgiveness for borrowers who made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less.
While the court challenges played out, borrowers enrolled in the plan have not been required to make payments. But debt balances began accruing interest following a court ruling last summer that blocked implementation of the SAVE plan, meaning some students will see increases in the amount they owe.
Borrowers have felt whiplash as the challenges to the SAVE plan worked their way through court, said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.
“Over and over again, education officials of both parties made promises about fixing the broken student loan system and called student debt a crisis,” he said. “And yet today, these same borrowers are being told it’s time to pay and you have no good options.”
The most forgiving income-based repayment plan now is calculated off at least 10% of an individual’s discretionary income.
Last year, the Trump administration and Congress made several changes to student loan repayment options that will take effect over the next two years. For one, new student loans will no longer have the option of deferment because of unemployment or economic hardship.
“You’re talking about a pressing current affordability crisis, and you took away the most affordable plan option,” said Alexander Lundrigan, policy and advocacy manager at Young Invincibles, an advocacy group.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit struck down the SAVE plan. The Education Department's notices to borrowers beginning Friday will direct them to enroll in a plan and resume making payments as soon as this summer.
Borrowers will be contacted by their loan servicers in stages, with a new group receiving word every two weeks. Those who had been enrolled in the SAVE plan the longest will be the first to receive notices.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE - The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
