Scotland’s St Andrews Nelly Korda, the top player in the world, is accustomed to having a target on her back. Excessive expectations demand an abrupt collapse, and when she experienced three consecutive missed cuts after a run of six victories in seven events, gravity made an unwelcome appearance.
Since that run of results ended in May, some have resurrected the accusation of Korda as a “dome golfer,” a player who performs well in favorable circumstances but finds it difficult in more difficult ones. This critique includes the claim that Korda won the Chevron Championship, her first major triumph since 2021.
With its sideways rain and roaring gales, St Andrews appeared to be a course built to support that claim.
Korda has put that description on notice after these first two days at the Old Course. She began the Women’s Open with consecutive 4-under rounds, giving herself a three-shot advantage over her closest competitors, Lilia Vu and Charley Hull.
On Friday, the 26-year-old Korda was just perfect. It is no small accomplishment in the weather to shoot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 with not even the tiniest hint of difficulty. That is a different degree of comfort than anyone in the field has found thus far, even if it is accompanied by a mild sense of frustration that another five easy birdies were not converted.
On Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, and 16, she had strong looks at birdie from within 20 feet, but each time she lipped out or missed by a cup. It appeared as though her putting may prevent her from making the score, but on holes 17 and 18, she rolled in a 20-foot birdie at the notoriously difficult Road Hole and sank another difficult putt.
Turning it on 🔥
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 23, 2024
A long birdie putt for @NellyKorda on the tough 17th Road hole and she follows it up with a birdie on 18.
She leads the AIG Women's Open as she starts her second 9.
Follow her progress live on AIG Women's Open Radio https://t.co/4PKMDcUsD1 pic.twitter.com/duuyLj5yJI
Although Korda has had some respectable results at the Women’s Open, including T9, T14, T13, T41, and T11 since 2019, links golf was never meant to be a game she could master due to the lower ball flight, right-to-left action off the tee, and need for inventive chip shots, all of which are outside of her purported comfort zone.
There are other sports outside golf that hunt for the legendary all-arounder. Her brother Sebastian Korda, ranked sixteenth in tennis, does the same.
Reaching the grand slam set is considered the greatest achievement since it proves that a contender is not only strong on a particular surface or occasion, but also the best because their skill set allows them to overcome any obstacle.
“This year I’ve won on just so many different types of grasses in different types of conditions that you just kind of always have to adapt,” Korda said.
“That’s the same thing in tennis, same thing in life. You’re always adapting to your situations at hand, and I think that’s what’s so fun about links golf is you’re literally starting it 30 yards left of your target. I’m not a fade player but I’m hitting massive fades.
“I think it’s fun hitting these little low drivers, too. I’m having fun, and I enjoy links golf a lot. You have a lot of 30-footers that feel like 50-footers out here because you’re hitting it into the wind.
“Then also the one that I had on 8, which was like a 20-footer and I hit almost like a 40-footer. It’s all about distance control out here and kind of getting it within a certain range so you have an easy two-putt.
“I think I’m more adapted to the mindset of literally just taking it a shot at a time, not thinking ahead of myself and trusting my lines a lot. You’re literally hitting slingers in. I mean, I hit a hybrid 150 yards today on 2 and that’s my 200 (yards) club. It’s all about just trusting the process and trusting what you have in your hand.”
Little separated Korda from her playing mates, Vu and Hull, from tee to green. But there was not a single miscontrol shot in her entire round.
It was the putter’s fault that caused a five-shot swing between Korda and overnight leader Hull, as Vu had to bail out of a bunker on hole 10 and Hull went wide on a couple of tricky mounds.
Korda has never shied away from switching putters, but she made a change of pace prior to this competition by switching to a TaylorMade Spider for the first time. She stated she was like the roll she is getting from it and that she had been using a square-back mallet previously, but she felt like she wanted something else to look at.
Hull, however, missed three-putts on 2, 10, and 14. Even when Korda promptly answered with a 12-footer of her own, it felt like a reestablishment of her authority, even when Hull made her second cigarette of the day on the fifth hole.
“I left a lot of putts out there,” said Hull.
“Nelly had 30 putts and I had 36 putts. So that’s six shots that I’ve lost to her on the greens.
“Am I three shots behind Nelly? That’s nothing going into the weekend, especially on this golf course. I feel like I’m hitting it equally as good, she just holed a few more putts than me today.
“Lilia is the one to watch, as well, because when it gets windy she kind of just sticks in there. She’s a good scrambler.”
Hull, left, and Korda were two-thirds of a super group at the Women’s Open. (Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)
If the R&A wanted to raise awareness of women’s golf this week, it was a wise move to put world number one Korda, top British player Hull, and the reigning champion Vu in a super-group. Vu is trying to become the first player to win the trophy since Yani Tseng in 2011.
When the group reached the fifth hole, which was the 14th of their round, there were lines of people three and four deep among the crowd that had followed them.
The home of golf hosted the pinnacle of women’s golf, but because Sky Sports will only be showing the event starting at noon this week, its exposure will be restricted. They had only three holes left after teeing off at 7:55 a.m., less than 12 hours after finishing a round that lasted more than six hours on Thursday.
The fact that the top three players will once again compete closely together is an unexpected reprieve, but it does not make up for the loss of a major player in women’s golf.
While Korda seemed hesitant to adopt the silhouette herself, she could have to wear it after two more machine-like rounds at St Andrews.
(Top photo: Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)
