At the height of her powers, Nelly Korda posted a career worst.
Even the nearly unbeatable world No. 1 isn’t immune to bad days.
Korda, looking for her seventh victory in her last eight starts, will have work to do just to make the halfway cut after recording a nightmarish 10-over 80 in the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open.
“Not a lot of positive thoughts,” she said during a three-question interview after the round. “I just didn’t play well today. I didn’t hit it good. I found myself in the rough a lot. Overall, just a bad day in the office.”
The opening 80 at Lancaster Country Club matched Korda’s worst-ever score as a professional – and was her second consecutive 80 in this championship. She also closed with that score in the final round last year at Pebble Beach.
On a beautiful but windy day at a difficult track, Korda came undone on the 161-yard 12th hole, her third hole of the championship.
Having waited more than 20 minutes because of other groups taking penalty drops on the tricky par 3, Korda said she was in between a 6- and 7-iron when she opted for the longer club. Her tee shot penetrated through the wind and found the back bunker, the ball settling atop a leaf in the sand.
Unable to properly spin the shot from the sand, Korda’s blast from the bunker rode the back-to-front slope and ran into the water fronting the green.
“Couldn’t really do anything about that,” she said.
But needing to play her fourth shot from the opposite side of the penalty area, Korda proceeded to put two more balls in the water after she failed to carry the false front, at one point dropping to her hands and putting her head in her hands as she asked her caddie for yet another ball.
“Just hit some really bad chips over and over again,” she said.
Once she finally got her eighth shot on the green, Korda muttered to herself, “Nice,” and then missed the 10-footer.
Korda walked off with a septuple-bogey 10, the worst single-hole score of her career, and appeared to fight back tears.
Korda went out in 45 and then mixed three birdies with three bogeys on her inward nine holes.
The first-round 80 left Korda 12 shots off the first-round lead, and likely in need of a round in the 60s Friday just to make the 36-hole cut.
“I just didn’t really want to shoot 80,” she said, “and I just kept making bogeys. My last two rounds in the U.S. Women’s Open have not been good.”
Statistically dominant this season, Korda lost strokes to the field from tee to green for just the second time all year. During this torrid run, she had been a combined 82 under par.
“I’m human. I’m going to have bad days,” she said. “I played some really solid golf up to this point. Today was just a bad day.”
