Nelly Korda, 17, wins by three at Harder Hall
Nelly Korda (Photo by Tracy Wilcox of Golfweek)
SEBRING, Fla. (Jan. 10, 2015) — Nelly Korda found herself playing in the Harder Hall Women's Invitational for the first time at age 17 on Thursday, surrounded by some of the top talent in women's amateur golf.
Then she incurred a two-shot penalty on the first hole of the first round.
Seventy-one holes later, she was hoisting the trophy with a three-shot win to her name.
Allison Emrey of Wake Forest, who took solo second place, led after the first round with 71 while Korda lurked behind at 74. After the second round, Korda trailed Emrey by four, and again by three before Sunday's final round began.
But Sunday brought Korda the best round of the tournament, a 69, that catapulted her into the lead.
Emrey's final-round 75 gave her second place by a shot over Samantha Wagner of the University of Florida, who posted 71 on the final day to emerge into the top-three.
Defending champion Meghan Stasi tied for 21st place with rounds of 80-80-78-76.
ABOUT THE
Formerly known as the Harder Hall Invitational,
this
is a four-day no cut stroke play
tournament for women amateurs. It was played
at
Harder Hall CC for more than 65
years, but in 2021 it moves to a rotation of
courses
on the Citrus Golf Trail in Sebring,
Florida. The illustrious list of past champions
includes
the current world #1 Nelly Korda; Hall-of-
Famer
Joanne Carner; LPGA stars
Christie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, Morgan
Pressel,
Stacy
Lewis and Charley Hull; amateur legends Carol
Semple
Thompson and Meghan
Stasi; and two members of the winning 2021
Curtis
Cup Team, Emilia Migliaccio and Gina Kim.
It has long drawn an international field and
has two Divisions: the
Championship Division and the Forever 49 Division
(max
index 16.4). It is the first of the
"Orange Blossom" series of Florida winter
tournaments.
View Complete Tournament Information