THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Nothing fazes Nelly Korda. Not four straight LPGA Tour victories. Not constant media attention. Not major-championship pressure. Not the public’s expectations.
Not even a double bogey on her first hole of the second round at The Chevron Championship can rattle Korda’s nerves, which is exactly what happened on Friday in The Woodlands, Texas.
It took her two shots to get out of the left fairway bunker on No. 1 after a wayward tee shot, a tough start that would’ve given any other player a bit of pause at a major championship. But Korda put her head down and charged forward despite the early setback, erasing one of those two dropped shots with a birdie on the par-4 2nd hole.
“Sometimes, when you start to make mistakes, you don't really feel confident, or you don't feel that great,” said Korda. “But I just told myself that it's the first hole of the tournament today. There is still so much golf to be played, and there are still a good bit of gettable par 5s. That's usually what I think about, the opportunities that I have ahead.”
She made another birdie on the par-5 4th hole to get back to even par on the round, tripping up again with a bogey on the par-3 7th hole to drop back to 3-under for the tournament. But the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 then picked up a pair of back-to-back birdies on holes eight and nine to get the train back on track, turning in 35 and sitting at 5-under total with nine holes to play.
The back nine was much quieter for the 25-year-old, as Korda made seven pars and two birdies on the par-5 13th and par-5 18th holes en route to posting a 3-under 69, a round that kept her near the top of the leaderboard at 7-under overall. It was an effort with which Korda was pleased despite her slow start, and she was proud that she stayed the course and didn’t deviate from the blueprint she had drawn up when things looked like they might go south.
“I think in a major championship you have to play well,” Korda said when asked how her 3-under effort stacked up to some of the other rounds she has played recently. “Sometimes – like on No. 10 today, that was not a pin that you can attack. That's a major championship par where you hit it into the middle of the green, and you two-putt for par. A lot of positioning definitely with the firmness of these greens and playing smart. Proud of myself for sticking to the game plan.”
Thirty-six holes stand between Korda and a fifth straight LPGA Tour victory, a ton of golf left to play in major championship standards. But the 12-time Tour winner knows that trophies aren’t hoisted on Fridays and is doing her best to block out the noise that has surrounded her since that Sunday in Las Vegas when she earned win number four at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards.
It’s hard, particularly when all eyes are on you as the world’s best player, but Korda seems to have figured out how to do it, something that’s greatly benefited her this week at The Chevron Championship.
“I'm just at the halfway point right now,” Korda said. “The amount of golf that I've played, I still have that to go. There is still a lot of golf left, and anything can happen. Just going to stick to my process and vibe with it is what my coach says.”
And with that in mind, how will Korda prepare for another two rounds of difficult golf at The Club at Carlton Woods as she works to track down her second career major title over the weekend?
Family, coffee and relaxation are on her docket, well-earned after a hard-fought 69 on day two in The Woodlands, Texas.
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