Nelly Korda motivated, encouraged in first start since U.S. Women’s Open missed cut
When you’ve experienced as much success as has Nelly Korda, any bit of failure can be motivation.
Consider Korda highly motivated.
The world No. 1 is competing this week at the Meijer LPGA Classic, two weeks removed from her unfathomable performance at the U.S. Women’s Open.
“Performance” is more of a generalization; specifically, it was one hole. Playing her third hole of the championship at Lancaster Country Club, Korda hit three balls in the water at the par-3 12th and made a 10. She never recovered and missed the cut.
For just the third time this season (not including the opener), Korda will enter a tournament not coming off a win. Her results this year are numbing: six wins (including five in a row) in nine starts. And, almost as head scratching, this: 80-70=MC.
“I love when golf humbles me. Not to that extent, but I do love when golf humbles me,” Korda said Wednesday at Blythefield Country Club. “Sometimes you ride the highs, but it’s always in a sense nice to know where you can improve, too.”
It’s difficult to imagine Korda getting much better, but she spent her brief break trying to do so.
“Last week was a good week,” she said. “At the beginning of the week I just kind of decompressed, got my mind off golf, and then really worked on all aspects of it.”
Korda is no stranger to success at this event. She won in 2021, doing so ahead of her first major triumph at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Coming up next week: the KPMG Women’s PGA.
And not only is Korda motivated by the unsatisfactory result of her most recent major start; she’s more encouraged now than she has been at any point of this historical season.
“I’m not going to say that I was happy with the way I played. I was happy with the way I fought. I fought really, really hard to make the cut,” Korda said.
“I think that was probably the proudest I was of myself. Actually, throughout all of the events I’ve played in year, is how hard I fought after making that 10 on the par 3.”