ST ANDREWS, Scotland — As the No. 1 player in the world, Nelly Korda has become used to wearing a target on her back. Heavy expectation necessitates a sudden fall and, so, when she followed a run of six wins in seven tournaments with three successive missed cuts, gravity introduced itself without a handshake.
Since that streak — which included victory at the Chevron Championship, her first major since 2021 — ended in May, criticism that Korda is a “dome golfer,” a player who looks in ideal conditions but struggles in the more arduous tests, has returned in some quarters.
St Andrews, with its sidewards rain and howling gails, looked like a course designed to bolster that assertion.
After these first two days at the Old Course, Korda has placed that characterization on notice, posting successive 4-under rounds to start this Women’s Open and give herself a three-shot cushion on her nearest rivals, Lilia Vu and Charley Hull.
The 26-year-old Korda was utterly flawless on Friday. To shoot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 with without even the slightest hint of trouble is no mean feat amid the elements. To do so while feeling mildly frustrated that another five gettable birdies were not converted is a different level of comfort than anyone in the field has been able to find so far.
She had good looks at birdie from inside 20 feet on Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16 but missed by a cup or lipped out each time. It looked like her putting may hold her scoring back but she rolled in a 20-foot birdie at the infamously tricky Road Hole on 17 and sunk another testing putt on 18.
Turning it on 🔥
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
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 23, 2024
Korda’s finishes at the Women’s Open have been respectable placing T9, T14, T13, T41 and T11 since 2019 but links golf was not supposed to be a style of golf that she could conquer with the lower ball flight, right-to-left action off the tee and creative chip shots required all outside of her supposed comfort zone.
Golf is not the only sport that searches for the fabled all-rounder. The tennis world of her brother Sebastian Korda, ranked number 16, also does it.
Completing the grand slam set is viewed as the pinnacle because it displays that a competitor is not just formidable on a certain surface or event, they are the ultimate because their game can answer any challenge thrown at them.
“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.
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“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.”
From tee to green, there was little to separate Korda and her playing partners, Vu and Hull. But her entire round contained not one miscontrol shot.
Vu had to escape a bunker on 10 and Hull found herself wide on a couple of awkward mounds but the divergence that led to a five-shot swing between Korda and overnight leader Hull was all down to the putter.
Korda has not been afraid of a putter change but she mixed things up before this tournament, moving to a TaylorMade Spider for the first time. She said she had previously been using a square-back mallet but felt like she needed something new to look at and is enjoying the roll she is getting from it.
In contrast, Hull three-putted on 2, 10 and 14. Even when Hull got her first birdie of the day on 5 (after smoking her second cigarette of the day), Korda responded immediately by sinking a 12-footer of her own, which felt like a reinstatement of her dominance.
“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 were hoping to increase the profile of women’s golf this week then their creation of a super-group comprised of world number one Korda, top Brit Hull and the defending champion Vu — aiming to become the first player to retain the trophy since Yani Tseng in 2011 — was a smart way of going about it.
By the time the trio had made it to the fifth hole — the 14th of their round — the crowd following them was around 400 strong with lines three and four people deep.
This was the elite of women’s golf all together playing at the home of golf but its exposure was limited given that Sky Sports’ coverage of the event only starts at noon this week. Having teed off at 7:55am, just under 12 hours since they had finished a six-hour-plus round Thursday, they only had three holes remaining.
There is the unusual reprieve that the same trio are one, two and three on the leaderboard so will compete at close quarters again but it does little to help the absence of a superstar in women’s golf.
Korda seems reluctant to step into the silhouette herself but two more machine-like rounds at St Andrews and she may have to wear the suit.
(Top photo: Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)
