TOWN OF ERIN – Following a first round at the U.S. Women’s Open in which she made 16 pars – including a run of 14 straight – with one birdie against one bogey, world No. 1 Nelly Korda admitted she grew a little frustrated as her ball striking would have (should have?) lent to a better opening round score of even par 72.
Patience, she said, was key.
That paid off during her second round at Erin Hills on May 30, as the world’s No. 1 player made seven birdies against two bogeys to card a 5-under 67.
“I’ve been pretty good with it,” she said. “I’m not riding the roller coaster like sometimes I do. I’ve been just trying to be very level-headed and just know if I make a mistake that I can bounce back.”
More: U.S. Women’s Open leader board
It was her lowest career round in a U.S. Women’s Open, an event she said she has had a “complicated” relationship with.
That was good enough to rocket her up the leader board into a tie for second place when she finished her round.
She has never been inside the top 5 of the U.S. Women’s Open leader board after any of her 36 career rounds. She has never contended in any of her previous 10 starts and her best finish was a tie for eighth in 2022.
Korda’s putting was her Achilles heel in the first round, as she needed 33 strokes on the putting surface – which was tied for 103rd after the round. That changed during her second round, as she needed 30, which was tied for 30th on the day.
Those made putts also totaled over 100 feet.
“Honestly, I was hitting really good putts (May 29),” she said. “I was hitting it exactly where I wanted to and they just weren’t falling. It was one of those days. Today I did the same thing; I didn’t really try to do anything different, tried to roll it over an intermediate target. My distance control has been really good on the putting green, so hopefully I can keep trending in the right direction heading into the weekend.”
She remained accurate off the tee (11 of 14 fairways) but hit 15 of 18 greens, setting her up with excellent birdie chances. Even with seven birdies made, she had chances for several more after misses from 2, 9, 10 and 12 feet.
“I feel really good,” she said about her ball striking. “Hopefully I can continue that on into the weekend. It’s golf; sometimes you don’t know what kind of player shows up. But I’m very focused on my process before my shots and my warmups.”
Korda also missed an 18-inch par putt on No. 15 and a 5-footer for par on No. 2 for the only blemishes on her scorecard.
While this weekend presents Korda her first in contention at a U.S. Women’s Open, she has two major championships and 15 LPGA Tour wins on her resume already.
“I would say that it’s very demanding in every part of your game, off the tee, into the greens, on the green, too,” she said of the U.S. Women’s Open. “You never can feel like you can take a deep breath like you can relax because something is always next. It’s a very demanding shot. Same thing with mental. At the end of the day that’s just major championship golf. That’s why we do what we do is to play these types of golf courses in this type of scenery where it just tests every part of your game.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: World No. 1 Nelly Korda surges into second place after her second round at U.S. Women’s Open
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
