Nelly Korda held a two-shot lead when she stepped as much as the 14th tee, the ultimate par-5 on the long-lasting Outdated Course at St. Andrews.
Sitting at 8-under-par, 5 straight pars possible would have given her a 3rd profession main title. In any case, Lydia Ko gained the Ladies’s Open at 7-under total, making a birdie on 18 to submit that rating.
However after air-mailing the inexperienced together with her third shot on the 14th, Korda made a whole mess of it. She left her fourth shot in need of the inexperienced, chipped onto the placing floor, and three-putted from there, thus carding a woeful, double-bogey seven.
“I had 58-degree [for my third], and it simply shot on me,” Korda mentioned of her double.
“The wedge shot I had over the inexperienced was sitting somewhat bit in a gap with a few of ‘hay’ or no matter you name it behind it. I simply couldn’t catch it cleanly after which clearly didn’t make the putt for bogey.”
At that time, Korda dropped again right into a tie for first alongside Ko and Jiyai Shin. Lilia Vu then joined this trio at 6-under moments later.
However, Korda nonetheless had an opportunity to win the championship outright, however her prospects considerably diminished after her mistake on 14.
Even then, with a sideways rain drenching St. Andrews, Korda fired a dart into the par-4 sixteenth, the opening the place she made a double-bogey the day earlier than. It seemed like she would bounce again proper then and there, however she missed her wonderful search for birdie, thus settling for par to stay at 6-under.
On the following gap, the well-known par-4 seventeenth, Korda missed the golf green left and put her second shot into the well-known ‘Highway Gap’ bunker. She didn’t stand up and down from there, as her ball didn’t trickle down into the flat, because of the precipitation. That pressured her to purpose effectively proper of the flag, however she nonetheless managed to hit a stable third to about 12 ft. However her par putt didn’t drop, as she left it brief.
Korda fell two behind Ko with one gap to play.
“I used to be somewhat too near the again edge the place I’ve had a kind of the place you suppose you will get it, however you swing and miss, and also you hit the highest of the bunker,” Korda defined.
“As a substitute of doing that, I took my medication and went somewhat proper. Hit the putt actually good however simply didn’t have sufficient velocity.”
Outdoors of the 14th and seventeenth holes, Korda put collectively a terrific ultimate spherical. She caught to her recreation plan, made 4 birdies over her first 10 holes, and made a valiant effort on the Outdated Course. She is aware of that in addition to anybody. Therefore, her confidence stays excessive.
“I’m going to mess up, and sadly, I tousled over the weekend twice in two penalizing methods coming down the stretch,” Korda mentioned.
“Theoretically, that’s what value me the event, however I performed effectively. I performed stable. I even fought after that. I’m going to take that into the following coming occasions.”
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. You should definitely try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
