Nelly Korda shoots lowest round of the season to vault into contention at Evian

An up and down major season continued for Nelly Korda Saturday at Evian Resort Golf Club with her lowest round of the season, a bogey-free 7-under 64.

The second-ranked player in the world finished T-64 at the U.S. Women’s Open and missed the cut at the Women’s PGA Championship after a third place finish in the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship.

Full-field scores from the Amundi Evian Championship

After finishing up Saturday, Korda described her third round in France as “relieving.”

“It was super nice to see all the hard work kind of pay off today,” Korda said. “Obviously still have 18 more holes, anything can happen, but I made a push today on moving day, which I’m really happy about.”

Korda appears to be regaining some of the form she had prior to March of 2022, when she announced that she had surgery to address a blood clot in her left arm. She has 7 top 10s in 11 starts thus far in 2023, including a victory two weeks ago on the Ladies European Tour at the Centurion Club in London. The other four results include two missed cuts and nothing better than a T-57 finish.

It’s been boom or bust for the eight-time LPGA winner, who has yet to capture a victory on the LPGA this season.

“I think after the injury, it’s funny, the game is just crazy – the game of golf is just crazy,” Korda said. “It’s like one day you’re just like autoing top-10s and then the next day you don’t know how to make a cut, make a putt. So you can have it and then you can lose it really fast. I think that’s the beauty of it, too. That’s kind of why I appreciate the game so much. Obviously having a week like I had in London after a little bit of a poor start after my injury was really, really nice.”

Korda – who turned 25 yesterday – sits at 6 under par and trails leader, Celine Boutier, by five shots entering the final round.

Boutier, leading by three, will have the pressure of winning her first major championship Sunday in her home country and should she falter, Korda will have as good of a chance as anyone to hoist the trophy tomorrow afternoon.