Nelly Korda has won everywhere this season, but a win at St. Andrews would be her best achievement yet. Here’s why.
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Nelly Korda doesn’t want to think ahead. She’s a graduate of the same school as Scottie Scheffler. Sunday? We’ve got Saturday first. One shot at a time. Results don’t define me. They come from trusting my process.
“I’m just trying to stay very present,” she offered Friday afternoon.
Yes, but … she has a 3-shot lead at halftime of the AIG Women’s Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews. Legacy-defining moments don’t just manifest suddenly on the final hole of a tournament. They percolate, from Tuesday to Thursday to Saturday morning and Sunday night. Korda’s moment is percolating.
That the 26-year-old, undisputed best-golfer-on-the-planet sits atop the leaderboard may not surprise you. That’s been a theme of the entire season. That Korda has ripped around with just a single bogey is impressive. That she’s doing it with a putter she picked up Wednesday is, too. But when it’s happening and where it’s happening and what’s happened before this is important. It’s been a very weird summer for Korda. And it’s blowing a hoolie, as the Scottish say.
Three months ago, Korda won the Mizuho Americas Open for a barely-believable sixth victory in seven events. She played three times in the next five weeks and missed the cut in all three. She failed to break 80 in two different majors. She went on vacation. She contended for a medal at the Olympics before a puzzling ejection down the stretch. Then she spent a week in Prague with her family, “recharging” her batteries and showed up to St. Andrews no longer the betting favorite. The reason for that isn’t so much about recent play as it is the setting. Her best finish in a Women’s Open came five years ago — her only top 10 — when she finished T9 at Woburn Golf Club, an inland, heathland course north of London. It was about 20 degrees warmer. No one talked about the wind.
