Nelly Korda’s opening spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open acquired off to a disastrous begin Thursday.
After a gap bogey, the world No. 1 got here unraveled on the 161-yard 12th gap, her third gap of the day at Lancaster Nation Membership.
Korda’s tee shot discovered the again bunker, and her shot from the sand carried a contact too far, rode the back-to-front slope and trickled into the water fronting the inexperienced.
Needing to play her fourth shot from the opposite aspect of the hazard, Korda proceeded to dump two extra pictures into the water, together with her ball failing to hold the false entrance. In disbelief, she dropped to her knees and put her head in her palms as she requested her caddie for one more ball.
After lastly getting her eighth shot on the inexperienced, she missed her 10-footer and walked off with a septuple-bogey 10, showing emotional as she walked to the following tee.
Korda added two extra bogeys and went out in 10-over 45, sitting in a tie for final place as she made the flip. (Notice: She completed with a 10-over 80.)
It was a devastating begin to a serious week during which Korda, a winner in six of her final seven begins, was the prohibitive favourite. She additionally captured the yr’s first main, the Chevron Championship, in April.
When Lancaster final hosted the U.S. Ladies’s Open, in 2015, the difficult 12th additionally wreaked havoc on the sector. There have been 31 double bogeys made there in the course of the week, greater than another gap. Throughout the first two hours Thursday, gamers had already recorded 5 doubles and three others there.
Earlier this week, Korda sensed that the outlet – which performs down from an elevated tee to the shallowest inexperienced on the course – could be brutally tough to navigate.
“From the tee field, you may’t see how sloped of a inexperienced that’s, however then when you get onto that inexperienced you’re like, Oh my gosh, you’re coming in with a 6-iron,” Korda stated. “In the event you’re lengthy, in a way, you’re type of screwed. In the event you’re brief, you’re screwed, too.”
Early Thursday, Korda discovered that out the arduous means.
