Major winners chasing Nelly Korda in Chevron, but they've got a lot of catching up to do

They’ve each gotten to Sunday’s final pairing in such remarkably different ways with a chance to win but it almost feels like they’re playing different courses. The numbers are that striking.

Korda, who was Tavatanakit’s playing partner, was impressed.

“It was pretty incredible,” Korda said. “She was definitely making some insane up and downs and she has this flow to her chipping and to her entire game where it looks super easy. She looks very confident around the greens.”

If Korda wins or ties for second, she’ll snatch the World No. 1 ranking she lost last summer back from Jeeno Thitikul—who missed the cut here. Korda has played in the final group on Sunday in every tournament this season. It will be the 28th final grouping of her LPGA career. That’s five more than the next closest player on tour since Korda’s 2017 rookie season.

“Nelly has proven so much quality of golf the last few weeks, since she started 2026,” said Gaby Lopez, who shot a bogey-free six under 66 and is nine shots back. “It's very inspiring. Actually, on the second day that I saw that Nelly was 13 or 14 under, I told myself, ‘hey, it's out there. Sometimes we just give too much respect to the golf course. Just grip it and rip it. She's been amazing and very, very awesome to watch and inspiring. Hopefully she can slow down a little bit so we can catch her a little bit more.”

The lead ballooned to eight during Korda’s round on Saturday as she played the front nine at three under. Korda was one over on the back nine. She had one bogey on the front and three-putted for bogey on No. 13. She parred the rest of the holes on the back nine.

Korda told Golf Channel she was missing all of her putts right and that she was headed to the practice putting green after her round.

Tavatanakit and Korda have both taken the plunge (a tradition that started at Poppie’s Pond) and raised the trophy at the Chevron Championship. The 26-year-old Tavatanakit won in 2021 when the tournament was the Kraft Nabisco at Rancho Mirage. Korda won in 2024 in Houston, but that was at The Club at Carlton Woods. The 23-year-old Yin has won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2023 and last year she was in the five-woman playoff here that Mao Saigo won.

What a tournament for Tavatanakit, who didn’t make a bogey until the 49th hole of the Chevron Championship.

“You just do what you’ve got to do. It's a major championship. It's playing tough,” Tavatanakit said. “You're not going to always have your best, but you’ve just got figure out what's in front of you.”

Korda was confident with her putter the first two rounds when she shot a pair of 65s, and she still made plenty of putts Friday. She tapped in for par at No. 18 to finish her round.

Players played through sweltering heat—as temperatures reached 88 with sauna-like humidity. Yin thought the heat helped her game, and she’s going to need go low and have some help on Sunday. She wore a short-sleeved sweater over a Dri Fit long-sleeve shirt and she chuckled about that choice in the grueling Texas weather. It wasn’t difficult to have a laugh after her round and position for Sunday.

“This course is long, like really long for me because I'm not a long hitter,” Yin said. “A lot of shots, like all the par 3s I got to use like 6-iron, 5-iron, even 4-iron to hit a shot. You just need to play smart and just don't try to go for the pin every hole and just maybe middle of the green and two-putt and move on. You can make birdies when you have the chance.”

The question is will anyone have the chance to catch Korda.

“I'm just trying to have another day like today,” Yin said. “There is nothing we can control other than the effort and the attitude. I think if I can do those two things well, the result? I don't really care.”

Added Tavatanakit: “I feel like it's been fun so far, and there is nothing to look back to. If anything, I have so much to look forward to. Not necessarily like trying to win tomorrow or anything. I feel like I'm really happy with where I am with myself, with my relationship with golf, with everything. I feel like my life is falling into place. I’m very centered internally.

“Good golf, bad golf, doesn't really do much for me. It's just a day. I'm just really grateful to get to wake up every morning and figure this game out. It's been fun.”