Nelly Korda’s bid to take care of her unbelievable run of kind unravelled after simply three holes of the opening spherical on the US Ladies’s Open.
Korda was a large favorite to safe her third main title at Lancaster Nation Membership in Philadelphia after profitable six of her final seven occasions.
Nonetheless, having began with a bogey on the tenth, the world No 1 ran up a septuple-bogey 10 on the par-three twelfth after hitting three balls into the water, and ultimately completed 10 over par for her spherical and already struggling simply to make the reduce.
“I just didn’t play well today,” Korda mentioned. “I didn’t hit it good, I found myself in the rough a lot – making a 10 on a par-three will definitely not do you any good at a US Open.
“I began off actually poorly however performed fairly properly on the again 9. However total, only a dangerous day within the workplace.
“My final two rounds within the US Ladies’s Open haven’t been good. I ended Sunday at Pebble [Beach] I feel capturing 81, after which right this moment I shot 80.
“I’m human, I’m going to have bad days. I played some really solid golf up to this point, today was just a bad day.”
The twelfth gap had the markings of an issue. It measures 161 yards down the hill to a inexperienced which slopes from again to entrance and has a stream in entrance of it. The pin was on the entrance, the place the inexperienced pitches extra severely in the direction of the water.
When Korda’s group reached the opening, there have been two different teams on the tee ready to play and when she did ultimately get to tee off, her shot bounced over the inexperienced right into a bunker.
Korda splashed it out of the sand with an excessive amount of tempo, and it rolled previous the pin and saved happening the slope into the water. She took a penalty drop on the opposite aspect of the stream and hit a low pitch that hit the financial institution and rolled again into the water.
One other penalty drop adopted and Korda’s subsequent pitch flew to the entrance of the inexperienced, and rolled again once more into the water, leaving her slumped right into a crouch.
Korda dropped a 3rd time and hit a pitch which flew to the opening and rolled about eight toes previous it. She missed the putt and took a septuple-bogey 10.
Korda started her spherical with a bogey when she didn’t have sufficient membership from 160 yards away. Her ball landed simply wanting the inexperienced and rolled some 35 yards down a steep hill.
The 25-year-old carded an additional 5 bogeys in a first-round complete of 80, with birdies on the twelfth, sixteenth and seventeenth holes offering a modicum of solace for her.
Korda’s dominant run this season consists of her second main victory on the Chevron Championship, however she admitted in her pre-tournament press convention that she was anticipating to face a “beast of a course” this week.
“I’m slightly in shock, actually,” former Ladies’s Open champion Catriona Matthew instructed Sky Sports activities. “It is a tough start, starting just off the back nine, but I think that will be a real body blow for her.
“Ten on a par-three and getting in as a heavy favorite, it may be a physique blow and an actual battle to return again from it.
“It’s been an Annika Sorenstam or Tiger Woods-type season [for Korda], and I think that’s why we’re all so in a state of shock at her start.”
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