Nelly Korda says she feels no additional stress heading into the AIG Ladies’s Open, regardless of having didn’t construct on her extraordinary successful streak in the beginning of the LPGA Tour season.
Korda gained the opening main of the yr on the Chevron Championship as a part of a run of 5 consecutive LPGA Tour victories, equalling the file beforehand set by Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, then claimed the Mizuho Americas Open in Could for a sixth win in seven begins.
A dramatic change in fortunes noticed her miss her subsequent three cuts, together with the US Ladies’s Open and KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, with Korda then failing to discover a top-20 end at both the Evian Championship or the Paris Olympics.
Korda stays prime of the world rankings and among the many favourites to assert a 3rd main victory, with the 28-year-old not involved about her dip in type over the previous three months.
“I think that’s just life in general or sports,” Korda mentioned in her pre-tournament press convention. “You are by no means simply going to shoot straight up, you are going to go up and you are going to go down.
“I believe the very best a part of the downs is that you simply be taught a lot about your self – it is at all times a studying alternative and I take pleasure in that. I at all times attempt to consider every part in a optimistic mindset.
“Now in comparison with the beginning of the yr, clearly I’ve had some finishes that weren’t the very best however, on the finish of the day, I am nonetheless studying and I am nonetheless getting higher from it.
“It [winning at St Andrews] would be obviously a dream come true to have my name etched into the history, but at the end of the day, I’m just going to focus that one shot at a time and not think of Sunday.”
Korda performs the primary two rounds alongside England’s Charley Hull and world No 2 Lilia Vu, who can turn into the primary participant since Yani Tseng in 2011 to win back-to-back AIG Ladies’s Open titles.
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Trish Johnson tells the Sky Sports activities Golf Podcast that regardless of feeling Charley Hull has underachieved in her profession to this point, she thinks she is likely one of the favourites to win the AIG Ladies’s Open at St Andrews
“I’m not putting too much pressure on myself to defend a title,” Vu mentioned. “It’s a new week at a new golf course. I’m just going to show up to the tournament the same way I do every single time and try to beat the course every day if it allows with the weather.
“I am simply going to attempt my greatest. Each single time that individuals suppose ‘oh, I am defending one thing’, it looks like you’ve got one thing to lose. While you begin recent in the beginning of the match, you have not gained the match but. So I believe I’ll stick with that type of mindset.”
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Reigning Ladies’s Open champion Lilia Vu has vowed to deal with herself to a different pet cat if she win’s the Ladies’s Open at St Andrews, as she did final yr after her victory at Walton Heath. Image:@AIGWomensOpen
Ko: An excessive amount of concentrate on main wins?
Former world No 1 Lydia Ko secured her spot within the LPGA Corridor of Fame after successful gold on the Paris Olympics earlier this month, though has failed so as to add to her two main victories since her Chevron Championship success – when she was nonetheless a young person – in 2016.
“Our goal is to try and peak at the majors, but it’s easier said than done,” Ko mentioned forward of the AIG Ladies’s Open. “You could do everything correct, and it just could be that time of the month or you could just be tired or get the wrong side of the draw. There’s just so many variables that you can’t control.
“I believe it is loads tougher and I do know that each time Rory [McIlroy] tees it up, everybody asks him. Clearly he performed superb on the US Open however folks at all times simply speak about his end. I imply, the man performed superior, you realize.
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A glance again on the massive misses that price Rory McIlroy a primary main in 10 years on a dramatic last day of the US Open
“I think sometimes we get carried away about who won, like how many years it’s been. Like it’s a drought, this, that, but I think it’s difficult. As players, we’re trying to work to be at the highest level at that time, but sometimes it just doesn’t go that way.
“It doesn’t matter what, I am so proud to be a significant champion and I do know that not all golfers have the chance to even say that. I do wish to hold placing myself in rivalry, and I believe in case you do this, I’ll turn into extra comfy being in that type of place.”
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R&A chief govt Martin Slumbers confirms that if the climate is to worsen in a single day at St. Andrews, there could possibly be delays in play on the Ladies’s Open
Who will win the AIG Ladies’s Open? Watch all 4 rounds stay this week on Sky Sports activities! Stay protection of the opening spherical begins Thursday at noon on Sky Sports activities Golf. Stream the ladies’s majors and extra sport with NOW.
