LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Nelly Korda was not even three holes into the U.S. Ladies’s Open when she dropped to a crouch and bowed her head in disbelief after her third straight shot — all of them from inside 70 toes away — tumbled right into a stream.
She walked off the par-3 twelfth gap at Lancaster Nation Membership with a ten.
It didn’t get significantly better from there.
“Making a ten on a par 3 will certainly not do you any good at a U.S. Open,” Korda stated when her nightmare begin to the most important championship in ladies’s golf ended with an 80.
“Only a dangerous day within the workplace.”
Korda got here into the U.S. Ladies’s Open as an awesome favourite, with six victories in her final seven tournaments, together with a significant that tied an LPGA report for 5 wins in a row.
That’s what made probably the most imperfect 10 so stunning.
It didn’t assist that two teams have been on the tee on the 161-yard twelfth gap — Korda had a few 25-minute wait — and she or he watched hassle unfold earlier than she pulled a membership. Within the group forward, Gaby Lopez got here up in need of the water. Ingrid Lindblad’s tee shot rolled into the water.
Korda curiously selected 6-iron — most gamers not so long as her hit 7-iron — and it took a tough hop right into a again bunker. After which the difficulty started.
Korda stated she had a leaf below her golf ball, and the bunker shot got here out just a little sizzling and rolled — and rolled — previous the entrance pin, off the false entrance and disappeared into the stream.
“Couldn’t actually do something about that,” she stated. “Yeah, simply hit some actually dangerous chips, time and again.”
She performed a low pitch up the slope, however the it banged into the hill and rolled again down into the water. She took one other penalty drop, performed one other low pitch that was solely barely higher, nonetheless not almost sufficient to keep away from rolling again into the water.
She acquired it proper the third time, solely to overlook an 8-foot putt and take septuple-bogey 10. Korda walked off the inexperienced, eliminated her visor and positioned her hand over her brow for a number of seconds, then headed to the thirteenth tee.
A video crew saved the digital camera mounted on the strolling scorer as “+1” was modified to a “+8” subsequent to her identify.
She nonetheless had 15 holes forward of her on a course that didn’t current a variety of scoring probabilities. Solely three gamers from the morning wave broke par at 1-under 69. Her goal?
“I simply didn’t actually wish to shoot 80,” Korda stated. “And I simply saved making bogeys.”
It was her second straight spherical of 80 within the U.S. Ladies’s Open, separated by 11 months and a few 3,000 miles — Korda shot 80 within the ultimate spherical at Pebble Seaside final summer season.
The one increased rounds in her profession have been 81 — one on the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship when she was 15, the opposite on the 2013 U.S. Ladies’s Open at age 14.
The twelfth gap was taking part in the hardest for the opening spherical. The tee was moved ahead and the pin was within the entrance of a inexperienced that slopes from again to entrance, with a barely extra extreme pitch that sends balls into the creek.
It was taking part in almost a full stroke over par because the afternoon teams started play. There additionally was some suspect execution on Korda’s half, beginning with the membership choice.
Sei Younger Kim additionally watched the group forward hit into the water, although that helped her understand the wind was stronger than it might need felt. She had 8-iron in her hand after which switched to a 7-iron, which she hit to 18 toes behind the flag.
Korda was between 7-iron and 6-iron, and took the stronger membership, then moved again one size of the membership.
“I simply didn’t actually know what to hit,” she stated. “Generally it’s probably not good seeing the women play in entrance of you due to them — Gaby up in need of the water, and I feel Ingrid went into the water. It was only a robust day.”
She additionally flirted with hassle by taking part in the low pitch as a substitute of a safer shot behind the opening.
Seems that was solely the beginning of her issues. She laid up within the tough on the par-5 thirteenth and needed to two-putt from 55 toes for par. She missed a 3-foot par putt on the fifteenth and a 5-foot par putt on the seventeenth.
Korda didn’t make her first birdie till her twelfth gap, No. 3, when she holed a 12-foot putt and smiled with a mock celebration. Two holes later, nevertheless, she missed a 4-foot par putt after which almost discovered the water on the par-3 sixth, resulting in bogey.
She completed with an method up the hill to the ninth that left her 55 toes away with a quick putt to a entrance pin. She ran that 12 toes by and missed for her sixth bogey, to associate with one septuple bogey on a gap the place she left her mark for all of the improper causes.
“I’m human,” Korda stated. “I’m going to have dangerous days. I performed some actually stable golf up thus far. Right this moment was only a dangerous day. That’s all I can say.”
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
