The world number one is always the woman to beat, and halfway through the St. Andrews Women's Open, Nelly Korda is living up to pre-winning expectations. A second round of 68 put the 26-year-old American at eight under par, three strokes back in contention for a third major win.
The field is almost as impressive. A formidable group of challengers includes defending champion Lilia Vu, last year's runner-up Charlie Hull, Olympic gold medallist Lydia Ko and 2022 Muirfield Women's Open winner Ashley Buhai of South Africa. All are within five strokes of the leader.
This is clearly what is expected from top-tier competitors, all with hopes of an ultimate victory, and there's no telling what Korda will come up with next, at least judging by the evidence of the past few months.
Golf's inherent fickleness has rarely been on more clear display than it has been throughout the year Korda has enjoyed, and lately endured. From late January through mid-May, the Florida native played seven events on the LPGA Tour and won six of them, including the Chevron Championship, her second major title. But since then, her form has gone from sublime to low-key.
Consider the evidence: After her last six wins, she'd missed the cut three times in a row. To make matters worse, two of those losses came at majors, and Korda's first break came at the biggest event in women's golf, the U.S. Women's Open. Entering as the overwhelming favorite to win, she shot a stunning and ignoble 80 in the opening round. The next day, the scoreboard read “Didn't Qualify” next to her name.
Perhaps equally odd is that Korda's play after the mini-slump was neither great nor terrible, with periods of mediocrity dominating her up-and-down seasons — she finished tied for 26th at the Evian Championships, another major, and tied for 22nd at the Paris Olympics — so she'll be in tip-top shape in 2024, with her performances fluctuating unsteadily from great to okay to terrible.
Charlie Hull is the local favourite and will be hoping to improve on her runner-up finish in last year's Women's Open. Picture: Steve Welsh/PA
“I think that's true in life in general, or in sport in general,” Korda explained of all of the above before the competition. “You never fly straight up. Sometimes you go up, sometimes you go down. I think the best thing about the descents is you learn a lot about yourself. It's always a learning opportunity and I enjoy it. I always try to look at everything in a positive way. Some of my finishes were obviously not my best compared to the beginning of the year, but at the end of the day I'm still learning and I'm getting better from there.”
That's certainly been the case so far this week: Korda has dropped just one stroke through the first 36 holes, showing an extraordinary level of consistency in conditions that have all the elements of a typical Scottish summer: high winds and driving rain.
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“I'm happy with how consistent I played,” said Korda, who switched to a new Spider putter on the eve of the tournament to “try something different.”
“I've won on different types of grass and different conditions this year. I've had to constantly adapt. I think that's the fun part about links golf. This week I started my shots 30 yards left of the target. I'm not normally a fade player, but I've been hitting big fades. So links golf is a lot of fun. I learn a little bit every year I play.”
