Nelly Korda’s roller-coaster season within the majors took extra twists and turns within the third spherical of the AIG Girls’s Open.
The world No. 1 started Saturday on the Previous Course at St. Andrews with a three-shot lead and bogeyed her first two holes. She recovered with birdies on Nos. 3, 5 and 9 to regain a three-shot benefit on the again 9.
The inward half, nonetheless, was a wrestle. Korda dropped photographs on the twelfth and thirteenth holes after which hit her tee shot out of bounds on the par-4 sixteenth. Korda made double bogey there to fall two photographs again of latest solo chief Jiyai Shin.
Korda bogeyed the seventeenth gap as properly to drop three off the tempo however birdied the par-4 18th to complete an unsettling, 3-over 75. At 5 below for the championship, Korda is alone in third place, two again of Shin (67) and one behind Lilia Vu (71).
“Yeah, clearly with the double on 16 and bogey on 17, you need to end on a very good word,” Korda mentioned in a quick TV interview. “I used to be comfortable to see that one roll in. Hopefully I can take that momentum into tomorrow.”
Korda gained the LPGA’s first main of the season, the Chevron Championship, for her fifth consecutive victory on tour.
The early-season domination pale on the U.S. Girls’s Open, the place she made a ten on her second gap of the occasion and missed the minimize.
After a gap 69 on the subsequent main, the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship, Korda carded a stunning 81 (one increased than the 80 she posted at Lancaster Nation Membership) and once more had the weekend off.
She tied for twenty sixth on the Amundi Evian Championship and had an opportunity to medal on the Paris Olympics, however performed poorly down the stretch and dropped right into a tie for twenty sixth once more.
Nonetheless, she’s in place for bookend main titles with 18 holes to play on what ought to be a really making an attempt Sunday at St. Andrews.
“I feel it’s going to be a tricky day. I feel the winds are going to be excessive. There might be rain, as properly. I’m going to maintain a optimistic perspective. Take it one shot at a time,” she mentioned. “I performed very well the primary two days, so I’m going to take that momentum into tomorrow.”
