Nelly Korda lets 12th hole know how she feels as she misses U.S. Women’s Open cut

Nelly Korda left Lancaster Country Club earlier than expected, but not without letting the par-3 12^th know exactly how she felt.

A 10 on the 12^th hole Thursday – her third hole of the championship – quickly dashed her U.S. Women’s Open hopes and she never recovered, following her opening 80 with a second-round 70 to miss the cut.

Friday, as she was fighting to stick around for the weekend, Korda hit her tee shot on the 155-yard hole short. It rolled back below the hazard line but stayed dry. She pitched to 20 feet and then nonchalantly walked in the par save.

As she exited the green, Korda spread her arms to acknowledge the hole and, with a smile, appeared to say something a little more NSFW than, “thank you.”

“It’s definitely not one of my favorite holes,” she said after her round. “I actually hit my iron shot really bad. I hit it chunky, and thankfully it held up.

“I actually thought I missed the putt, and the golf gods kind of made it go to the left, and I made it. It was nice to make a par. I wanted to make a birdie to get my revenge on that hole, but par will do.”

With the cut line hovering around 7 over, Korda was plus-8 following three consecutive birdies at Nos. 6-8. She then bogeyed the ninth and played the back nine in 1 over. Korda finished at 10 over par, two outside the final cut.

After her round, the world’s No. 1 answered three questions from the media, saying, “I wasn’t hitting my shots well off the tee. I really struggled off the tee this week. Just wasn’t getting it close. The majority of my holes, I was saving pars. It was kind of tough out here trying to get into the cut line.”

The stats told a similar story. Korda hit only 13 of 28 fairways through two rounds and 20 of 36 greens in regulation. She was 132^nd in the 156-player field in strokes gained: off the tee, 128^th in strokes gained: tee to green and 150^th in strokes gained: around the green.

Korda entered the championship having won the season’s first major, the Chevron Championship, as part of six tour titles in eight 2024 starts.

While she’s been above and beyond her peers this year, she had plenty of company in her misery this week. Joining her with a missed cut were: Linn Grant (+9), Leona Maguire (+10), Rose Zhang (+11), Brooke Henderson (+12), defending champion Allisen Corpuz (+12), Lexi Thompson (+13) and Lydia Ko (+13).