Nelly Korda is one shot back after the first round of the PIF Global Series $4 million Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek. Korda is in familiar terriitory at the legendary course, having won the LPGA Match Play in 2024. At the time, it was her fourth victory in a row.
The event is played April 2-5 at Shadow Creek. For 50% off daily tickets, use the promo code LVInsider50 at this Aramco Championship Shadow Creek ticket link.
After her first round 4-under par 68, Korda is right behind leaders Miyu Yamashita, Nasa Hataoka, and Lauren Coughlin, who each fired rounds of 67. The Aramco Championship is co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, and features a field like a major with each of top 20 players in the world teeing it up.
Following her win in 2024, Korda assessed Shadow Creek and the challenges and beauty that go along with it.
“When you drive into the facility it just doesn’t feel like you’re in Vegas and it’s absolutely breathtaking,” Korda said in 2024. “It is such an amazing golf course. It is brutally though. It was so hard. It has tested every part of my game. I appreciate that. I think golf courses like that are so much fun play. They can be so frustrating where you walk off the hole and you’re just so frustrated there are a couple swear words going through your head. But I would say that it almost played like all the majors combined and tested our games this week. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Leader Yamashita echoed Korda’s words two years later.
“The course is really hard and there are a lot of doglegs so you can’t always hit driver off the tee,” said the 24-year-old Yamashita, speaking through an interpreter. “With the firm conditions, it makes it even tougher … the greens are firm and the fairways are firm, too.”
Coughlin has her own experiences at Shadow Creek, heaving earned a runner-up finish to Madeline Sagstrom at the 2025 LPGA Match Play in Las Vegas.
“I feel like I know this place really well,” Coughlin said. “I have been in a lot of the places that you don’t want to be … I just know the spots that I need to land it to and with a lot of the pins where to miss if you have to. It was nice to not play seven rounds in five days like last year!”
The event is sponsored by PIF and Golf Saudi. About Golf Saudi: The organization facilitates uptake and participation in golf through the delivery of world-class facilities, operational excellence and the implementation of industry best practice to position the Kingdom as an exceptional golfing nation. Combined with grass roots training and education programs that introduce people to the game at the earliest opportunity and with the greatest ease, Golf Saudi is committed to delivering a dynamic national development program that transforms the golfing landscape.