Not that she wanted to draw it up this way – and in fact, through 15 holes she figured to be close to the lead – but Nelly Korda can take some solace from being seven off pace after her first-round 70 Thursday morning in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
It was just a few weeks ago that she also faced a seven-stroke deficit after 18 holes – and she brilliantly rallied from that to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
“It’s definitely a confidence boost, for sure,” said Korda, whose opening 2-under effort was overshadowed by a sizzling 63 by Korean Ina Yoon. At the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera a few weeks ago, Korda opened with 2-over 73 and trailed Jennifer Kupcho by seven.
Knowing she followed up with 67-67-69 to rally to victory, is surely a positive for Korda, as is the fact that she played quite well for 17 of her holes Thursday.
“Every tournament is so different just based off how you’re feeling, how you’re hitting it, the course, whether it suits your eye,” said Korda, who is attempting to win the first three majors of the season. She insists she did nothing to hurt her chances, too.
“I put myself into a good position. I’m really happy with the first day. Overall, happy with the solid start.”
As she should be, because Korda was cruising nicely when she stuck her tee shot to 5 feet at the par-3 13th and wedged it to 8 feet at the par-5 15th. Those birdies put her at 4-under, her enthusiastic gallery was thrilled, and Korda to this point had done nothing wrong.
It came to a crashing halt at the par-4, 378-yard 16th when Korda overcooked a driver into water. Bad mistake, but Korda compounded things when she hit her third shot to 35 feet, then made a sloppy three-putt.
“It’s a pretty intimidating tee shot and I just didn’t really like the way I hit it off the start,” said Korda of the hard left-to-right dogleg hole.
There was an age-old axiom dished out – “you can’t win it on the first day, but you can definitely lose it,” Korda said – but Korda flashed a wide smile when a young girl named Elise entered the interview area, representing the dozens of young girls who carried pro-Korda signs onto Hazeltine National for the early-morning tee time.
Elise stated they were thrilled to watch their hero play and Korda quickly indicated the feeling was mutual. “I was super excited. You guys made my day so much better. Thank you,” said Korda.
