Nelly Korda fought arduous all through her Thursday spherical on the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She signed for a 3-under 69 and at present leads the sphere by one stroke with half the sphere left to play.
Korda started her day on the again 9 and went out in 33 strokes. She recorded 4 birdies in her first 5 holes.
Despite carding a 69, the Florida resident needed to scramble all through her first spherical. The Douglass fir, crimson cedar and hemlock timber on the Sahalee Country Club course did their jobs as they made Korda work for her rating.
“If you try to be aggressive whenever you’ve hit it offline, it simply bites you within the butt,” Korda mentioned after her first spherical. “Overall, I believe I performed fairly nicely. I took my probabilities the place I may and I performed secure nearly all of the spherical.”
She made birdies on holes 13-15 earlier than to get to 3-under. Korda moved to 4-under after a birdie on the 4th. However, the 25-year-old coughed up two photographs on the fourth because the 14-time LPGA winner made a double-bogey.
“This whole golf course is so demanding. I needed to make some fairly good up-and-downs,” Korda mentioned.
Korda closed her spherical with a 15-foot birdie putt on the ninth to get again to 3-under on the day, giving her some much-needed momentum.
It is a significantly better begin than her final main championship begin. Three weeks in the past, Korda shot an 80 at Lancaster Country Club within the first spherical of the U.S. Women’s Open. She shot 10 strokes higher on Friday with an even-par 70 however missed her first lower of the 2024 season.
The 2-time main winner additionally missed the lower eventually week’s Meijer LPGA Classic after she shot a 76 and 67. It is the primary time all season that the No. 1 ranked participant on the planet missed consecutive cuts. Prior to that, she received the Mizuho Americas Open for her sixth victory of the yr.
Korda made historical past by successful 5 straight earlier than she settled for a T7 on the Cognizant Founders Cup.
She will tee off with Ruoning Yin and Hannah Green at 1:28 p.m. PT or 4:28 p.m. ET for her second spherical of the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For extra golf protection, comply with us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You may comply with her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
