LOS ANGELES — World No. 1 Nelly Korda wasn’t striking the ball to her standards in the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open, so she went to the driving range with her sister, Jessica. Together, the Korda sisters made a tweak, and it paid off on Friday.
Korda shot a four-under 67 in the second round at Riviera Country Club and she’s tied for ninth, just two shots behind co-leaders Alison Lee and Ruoning Yin
Jessica Korda, who is pregnant with her second child, was following her younger sister in her gallery at Riviera. They both were pleased with the results of their range session, and Jessica was with Nelly late on the range Friday as well.
“Actually, a big shout out to my sister because she helped me. I just tried to strengthen my grip a little bit,” Nelly Korda said of the reason behind her improvement. “I just keep laying it off at the top, and I’ve been working on it, gosh, grinding on it for five weeks, and I can’t get it. I don’t know what I’m doing in my swing, so I just try to strengthen my grip. It felt super funky today, but I just trusted and went with it.”
Not only did the change work, it propelled Korda to the lowest round of the day. One day earlier, Korda struggled off the tee, switched out her LeBron James-gifted shoes mid-round and was bewildered after her practice rounds Monday through Wednesday went so well. She shot a two-over 73. A day later, Korda was back to playing like the best player in the world. Part of that was her mindset as well.
“Just tried to have a really easygoing attitude [Friday],” Korda said. “I was definitely going to leave it all out there and grind as much as I could, but I was not going to emphasize on my mistakes too much and just kind of play relaxed golf. That’s kind of when I play my best golf.”
Now, the question is if Korda can continue this trend to close out this major. Last year, she had her best-ever U.S. Women’s Open finish by tying for second at Erin Hills. She played well in the Sunday final round but not enough to overcome Maja Stark.
Korda has won three career majors—including the Chevron Championship in April—but she’s never won this one. The 27-year-old has three wins this year and has finished in the top 10 in all seven of her events. She’s in that kind of a zone.
Her putting was excellent as well. Korda needed just 25 putts in her round and her strokes gained on the greens was 2.22. She was most happy with her ball-striking, but her solid putting can’t be ignored. To win a U.S. Women’s Open, a player has to make all those four to six-foot putts, too.
“My putting? Very happy with it. Made some solid par putts or even bogey putts [Thursday] that kept me in it,” Korda said. “Overall, just really happy with the way my game is trending, especially from [Thursday.]”
If she wins, she might have to credit her sister in her victory speech.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
