Nelly Korda’s Dominance at The Chevron Championship
Nelly Korda has been playing with an impressive level of control, where even her missed shots seem to be exactly where she intends them to be. On Friday, she birdied her last two holes with exquisite iron shots, recording another 7-under 65. This performance has given her a commanding six-shot lead heading into the weekend at The Chevron Championship.
Korda has only one bogey in the first 36 holes at Memorial Park. She missed a 3-foot putt on the sixth hole after a clever chip from below the green. Otherwise, the two-time major champion has been nearly flawless, reaching a score of 14-under 130, which makes it seem like she is playing on a different course altogether.
“I’m comfortable with my game,” Korda said. “I think where I’m the most comfortable is definitely with my mindset of knowing when I mess up I’ll figure it out. Sometimes I think you get stuck in wanting to play well and wanting to be at the top always that you have this tension of not wanting to make a mistake.”
“I think there is a power in knowing it’s OK to make a mistake and just bounce back.”
Patty Tavatanakit had another bogey-free round with a 69. Another shot behind were Ina Yoon (68), Ryan O’Toole (68) and Texas junior Farah O’Keefe (69), one of five amateurs to make the cut.
O’Keefe didn’t get her invitation to The Chevron until after the Augusta National Women’s Amateur three weeks ago, and she’s making the most of it. She played bogey-free in the second round, though she only managed one birdie on the par 5s.
But her scrambling saved her, and the 20-year-old didn’t seem all that fazed by Korda on the verge of running away with this major.
“I compared it to Rory (McIlroy) at the Masters. You never know what can happen in golf,” O’Keefe said, referring to McIlroy losing a six-shot lead on the weekend at the Masters before going on to win for the second straight time.
“There is so much random out there that you can get a bad break and it’s just kind of that thing,” she said. “My dad and I called it that golf is a staring contest and all you have to do is not blink first. So I’m just trying not to blink. Just trying to keep playing my game, and whatever that ends up at the end of the week is where it ends up.”
Korda’s Strong Performance
Korda, however, has hit her stride again. She won the season opener in a weather-shortened event, and has played in the final group in all four of her tournaments.
She looks calm and poised, and there is power.
Korda began her great closing stretch with a 3-wood into the wind from 221 yards that landed in the perfect spot to roll out 15 feet beyond the hole, leaving an eagle putt that grazed the right edge of the cup.
She missed an 8-foot birdie chance on the par-5 16th, and then finished with a flourish — a 7-iron that danced around the cup and settle 10 feet away for birdie, and then a 9-iron that again scared the hole and left her 4 feet for her 15 birdie in 36 holes.
It was the lowest 36-hole score in her career in the majors, and the third-best 36-hole score in LPGA majors behind Jeongeun Lee6 (127), Brooke Henderson (128) and In Gee Chun (129), all at the Evian Championship, the tournament in France the LPGA chose to designate as a major in 2013.
There was disappointment for England’s Mimi Rhodes, though, shooting a six-over round of 78 to miss the cut. Compatriots Charley Hull (-2) and Lottie Woad (+1) did make the weekend.
