Nelly Korda Stays Patient to Move Up Leaderboard in Round 3

Sometimes, when conditions get tough, even par can be a charge up the leaderboard.

That was the case for No. 1-ranked Nelly Korda on Saturday as she posted 72 at Fields Ranch East on an intensely windy Saturday and stands tied for sixth entering the final round. Among those currently in the top 9, only leader Minjee Lee (69) shot better during a gusty Saturday afternoon at PGA Frisco. Korda’s 72 moved her up ten spots on the leaderboard from a tie for sixteenth to begin Saturday morning.

“I'm very happy with even par,” Korda told the media after the round. The 26-year-old went on to say that the wind was brutal to deal with and that she just told herself early in her round to stay patient because it felt like it would be a round of survival, and in the end that thought proved to be right.

Through the third round, Minjee Lee is alone at 6-under and leads Jeeno Thitikul by four shots after the first and second round leader shot her first round over par for the week (4-over 76).

Though Korda stands eight shots back entering Sunday, she still only has four players in between herself and leader Minjee Lee.

Korda knows it’s a tall ask to have a big day tomorrow, but she’s doing her best to control what’s in front of her.

“(I’m) just going to take a shot at a time and see what the weather is going to bring and what the golf course is going to be set up. I mean, the rough — there is such a big premium on hitting it into the fairway this week because it's not that long but it's so thick. So just making sure that you're dialing in to your targets and just trusting that the wind is going to gust at that time and (that it) doesn’t lay down.”

The wind was so severe on Saturday that late in the front nine Korda decided to remove the KT tape from her neck after injuring it from a shot in the rough earlier this week. The two-time major champ said it was coming off anyway with the gusts out there, so it made sense to clear it off completely.

“Every single day by like the ninth hole I just ripped it off. I'm like, there is just no point,” Korda said.

Back to the task at hand, when Korda grabbed her most recent major win at the 2024 Chevron Championship she was chasing the lead the entire week until the end-when she eventually won by two shots over Maya Stark. It’s important to note that because being the hunter and not the hunted has worked in the past for the 26-year-old, though she was much closer to the lead entering that specific Sunday. She’s eight back now and was only one back after 54 holes then.

Korda is taking a simple and sensible approach with her expectations entering Sunday’s final round. It’s all about the moment she’s in and not getting ahead of herself.

“I know I'm coming from behind, but I never want to have that mentality of trying to chase because then you're pressing too much,” Korda said. “So I literally just focus on what is right in front of me. If that opportunity comes about where I can be a little bit more aggressive (then great). But what other girls are doing or what the course is playing like or what the conditions are like is out of my control. What I can control is being 100 percent prepared on the shot that's in front of me and that's what I'm going to do.”