AFP, Kawagoe
World number one Nelly Korda held her nerve during a delay for a lightning storm to win Olympic gold on Saturday and make it an American golf clean sweep at Tokyo 2020.
Korda carded a final-round 69 to finish at 17-under-par 267 and win by one stroke from Lydia Ko of New Zealand and Mone Inami of Japan, days after Xander Schauffele won the men's event.
Inami secured a silver medal for the host nation at the first extra hole when Ko missed a 10-foot putt for a par.It went some way to making up for the agony suffered by golf fans in Japan six days ago when Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama missed out on a bronze medal in a seven-man playoff on the same Kasumigaseki Country Club course.
Korda had to sit out a lightning storm and hold off the charging pair of Inami and Rio 2016 silver medallist Ko, who both carded superb six-under par rounds of 65 to put her under immense pressure. After almost an hour's suspension because of the storm, Inami sank a birdie putt at the 17th green to move into a tie for the lead. But the world number 28 buried her approach into the face of a greenside bunker to drop a crucial shot when a par at the last would have forced a playoff for gold.
