Flawless Nelly Korda shows at the Women’s Open that she can dominate under all conditions

ST ANDREWS, Scotland — As the world No. 1, Nelly Korda has grown accustomed to carrying a target on her back. Heavy expectations require a sudden fall, and when she followed a run of six wins in seven tournaments with three consecutive missed cuts, gravity introduced itself without a handshake.

Since that run – which included victory at the Chevron Championship, her first major since 2021 – ended in May, criticism has returned in some quarters that Korda is a “dome golfer” – a player who looks the part in ideal conditions but struggles in the tougher tests.

With its sideways rain and howling gusts of wind, St Andrews seemed like a course that would support this claim.

After these first two days on the Old Course, Korda has put those character traits into focus and she has started this Women’s Open with back-to-back rounds of 4-under par, which puts her three strokes ahead of her nearest rivals, Lilia Vu and Charley Hull.

The 26-year-old Korda was completely flawless on Friday. Shooting a bogey-free, 4-under 68 without a hint of trouble is no mean feat in the elements. To do it while feeling mildly frustrated that another five possible birdies went uncaptured is a different level of comfort than anyone in the field has found so far.

She had good birdie chances from inside 20 feet on Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16, but missed each time by a cup or lip. It looked like her putt might have stopped her score, but she rolled in a 20-foot birdie on the notoriously tricky Road Hole on 17 and sank another testing putt on 18.

Turning it on 🔥

A long birdie putt for @NellyKorda on the tricky hole 17 Road and she follows this up with a birdie on hole 18.

She leads the AIG Women’s Open and starts her second 9.

Follow her progress live on AIG Women’s Open Radio photo.twitter.com/duuyLj5yJI

— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 23, 2024

Korda’s results at the Women’s Open since 2019 have been respectable, with finishes of T9, T14, T13, T41 and T11. However, links golf was not intended to be a style she could master with its lower ball flight, right-to-left action off the tee and creative chip shots that were outside her perceived comfort zone.

Golf is not the only sport looking for the legendary all-rounder, as is the tennis world of her brother Sebastian Korda, who is ranked at number 16.

Achieving a Grand Slam is seen as the pinnacle, because it shows that a competitor is not only formidable on a certain surface or in a certain event, but is also the ultimate player because his game can meet any challenge.

“This year I’ve won on so many different types of grass and in so many different conditions that you just have to adapt all the time,” Korda said.

“It’s the same in tennis, the same in life. You always adapt to the situations that you have, and I think that’s the fun of links golf, you literally start 30 yards to the left of your target. I’m not a fader, but I hit huge fades.

“I also like hitting these little low drivers. I have fun and I really like links golf. You have a lot of 30-footers here that feel like 50-footers because you’re hitting into the wind.

“And then the one I had on 8, that was like a 20-footer and I almost hit it like a 40-footer. It’s all about distance control here and getting it in a certain range so you have an easy two-putt.

GALLING DEEPER

‘Just do your best’: Exhaustion is part of the game for the Women’s Open field

“I think I’m more used to the mentality of literally giving it a shot, not thinking ahead and trusting my lines a lot. You’re literally swinging. I mean, I hit a hybrid 150 yards on 2 today and that’s my 200 (yard) club. It’s about trusting the process and trusting what you have in your hand.”

From tee to green, there was little to separate Korda from her playing partners, Vu and Hull. But her entire round did not feature a single miscontrol shot.

Vu had to get out of a bunker on the 10th hole and Hull was on some tricky hills next to the hole. The deviation that led to a five-stroke difference between Korda and the previous day’s leader, Hull, was entirely due to the putter.

Korda hasn’t been afraid of a putter change, but she switched things up a bit for this tournament, switching to a TaylorMade Spider for the first time. She said she’s used a square-back mallet before, but felt like she needed something new to look at and is enjoying the roll it gives her.

Hull, on the other hand, made three putts on the 2nd, 10th and 14th holes. Even when Hull made her first birdie of the day on the 5th hole (after smoking her second cigarette of the day), Korda responded immediately by holed a 12-footer of her own, which felt like an assertion of her dominance.

“I missed a lot of putts,” Hull said.

“Nelly had 30 putts and I had 36 putts. So that’s six strokes I lost to her on the greens.

“Am I three strokes behind Nelly? That’s not for the weekend, especially on this golf course. I feel like I’m hitting just as well, she just holed a few more putts than me today.

“Lilia is also the one to keep an eye on, because when the wind starts blowing, she just hangs in it. She is a good scrambler.”

Hull, left, and Korda made up two-thirds of a supergroup at the Women’s Open. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

If the R&A wanted to raise the profile of women’s golf this week, it was a smart move to create a supergroup of world number one Korda, Britain’s best Hull and reigning champion Vu, with the aim of becoming the first player to retain the trophy since Yani Tseng in 2011.

By the time the trio reached the fifth hole, the 14th of their round, the crowd behind them numbered about 400, with rows three and four deep.

This was the elite of women’s golf all playing together in the home of golf, but the attention was limited as Sky Sports coverage of the event doesn’t start until 12pm this week. They teed off at 7.55am, just under 12 hours after completing a round of more than six hours on Thursday, and they had just three holes left.

While it is an unusual relief that the same trio occupy first, second and third place in the rankings and will therefore once again be in close competition, it does little to change the absence of a superstar in women’s golf.

Korda seems reluctant to wear the suit herself, but after two more machine rounds at St Andrews she may have to wear the suit after all.

(Top photo: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)