Ryann O'Toole is behind Nelly Korda at the Chevron Championship. Off the course, she has been carrying something far heavier than a leaderboard deficit since January.

On January 16th, her younger brother was involved in a serious accident in Prescott, Arizona. He was airlifted to Phoenix and placed on life support.

O'Toole did not know if he was going to make it. “We didn't know if he was ever going to walk again, was he going to have access to his right side, like movement, and what his brain state was going to be, because he has a really bad brain injury,” she said in a video shared by the LPGA on X on Friday.

"So he's progressing, but I think it really puts life into perspective. Nothing else really mattered," O'Toole said.

She spent every single day of the following month at the hospital. Then came two weeks of inpatient care before he was finally released. He now lives with their parents and continues outpatient treatment.

The progress has been slow, but it has been real. "He was out last week walking, he walked three rounds, talking, he's working out, so he's getting there," O'Toole said.

"The moment he opened his eyes, the moment he was able to stand up, even with assistance, the moment he said his first words, oh my gosh, I just, it was unbelievable," she said. "My family is very grateful. We're very lucky. He's extremely lucky."

That experience changed how O’Toole views her career. Missing a putt or making a bogey no longer feels as important. “Making a bogey out here is nothing in comparison,” she said, a mindset she carried with her to Memorial Park.

Ryann O'Toole's Chevron Championship Performance

Korda holds a commanding lead heading into the weekend, with Patty Tavatanakit in second, while O'Toole, Ina Yoon, and amateur Farah O'Keefe remain in contention just behind.

"I think there will be a fine line between aggressive and patience," she said. "See if [Korda] faults unless she keeps this up. If she's going to run with it, she's going to run with it, and I can't stop that. The only thing I can do is try to post a really good score, try to minimize the mistakes."

That is the plan, and after everything she has been through since January, posting a good score is the easy part.

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav