Nelly Korda should have won this golf championship.
Instead, she lost control.
The world No. 1 led by three shots at the halfway point of the AIG Women’s Open and was poised to join Lorena Ochoa and Stacy Lewis as the only women major winners at St. Andrews. But two sloppy back nines over the weekend allowed Lydia Ko to take the trophy. Korda – who for 75% of the tournament looked like the unbeatable player we saw win six of seven events earlier this year – had to qualify two shots back in a four-way tie for second place.
undefined
“Look, it’s golf,” Korda said in the interview area afterward, as Ko hit putts not far away, waiting for the last group to finish. “I’m going to mess it up, and unfortunately I messed it up twice over the weekend, which got me penalized twice in the home stretch. In theory, that cost me the tournament.”
However, this was not theoretical; Korda’s breakdown was very real.
The stormy conditions finally took their toll on Korda for nine holes on Saturday afternoon. She bobbed along in the icy wind with three bogeys and a double bogey, then managed a birdie to finish the third round at 75, but was still two shots behind the new leader Jiyai Shin.
And just as Korda was fighting back with four birdies in a six-hole stretch on Sunday to move two points ahead with six holes to play, she ruined her momentum with a devastating double bogey on the par-5 14th. Her third shot, a 58-degree wedge, flew over the green and then she was too cautious with her chip from a difficult lie, didn’t quite catch the right edge and watched her ball roll back off the green. She chipped again, this time about seven feet wide, and missed the hole with her bogey putt.
After Ko nearly made a birdie on the par-4 17th with a beautiful 3-wood shot in the heaviest rain of the week, and then created a nice birdie opportunity on the par-4 final hole, Korda, who looked dejected (especially compared to Ko, who was laughing with rookie Alexa Pano as she walked down the 18th fairway), found the Road Hole bunker on the 17th hole. Unable to hit the pin directly because of the bunker edge, Korda played out to the right.
With Korda facing a critical par, Ko converted her birdie in front and gave the crowd a fist pump. Korda’s 10-foot putt on the 17th hole stood no chance and fell short – just like her chances of a third major title.
A day after no media exposure other than a post-round television interview, Korda answered some questions from reporters Sunday night. She was pleased with her ball striking and excited to get home, get out of the wind and see a straight ball flight again. She was also encouraged by her new TaylorMade mallet putter, which she threw in the bag for the first time this week, though she still averaged 32 putts over four rounds; not great, but when you do the other stuff as well as Korda, those aren’t bad putting numbers.
“Looking back, I have to say that I played really well this week,” Korda said, “and hopefully things are going in the right direction again now.”
Still, it will hurt for a while.
Korda knows that she – and not Ko – should leave the home of golf with the trophy.
