Newly minted Participant of the 12 months Nelly Korda has not performed competitively in practically two months, however based mostly on her opening spherical at The Pelican on Thursday, you can by no means have guessed that was the case.
She opened with a 4-under 66, a spherical highlighted by her closing chip-in birdie on the 18th gap.
“I pulled my 8-iron a little bit bit. It shot via the inexperienced and practiced that chip a superb bit in the course of the two follow rounds I performed on the again 9,” Korda stated of her gap out.
“Simply rolled in completely. Completely happy to not putt.”
After tying for fifth on the Kroger Queen Metropolis Championship in September, Korda introduced that she had suffered a neck harm, forcing her to withdraw from two of the occasions aside of the LPGA’s Asian Swing in Malaysia and South Korea. Her neck harm, come to search out out, stemmed from migraine complications that Korda had earlier than the Solheim Cup.
“That was my first time [having one]. Ever. Yeah,” Korda stated.
“I by no means knew what—I used to be fortunate sufficient to not know what a migraine was earlier than then.”
She additionally feels blessed to be again taking part in, as she made six birdies on Thursday to get off to an important begin. It’s the third time this season Korda has opened with a 66 or decrease, and within the different two cases, she went on to win, per statistician Justin Ray.
However she did endure a troublesome stretch in the course of her spherical, which was the primary time she had walked 18 holes since September. Korda performed holes eight via 13 in 2-over par.
“Firstly of the spherical, I hit quite a lot of actually good pictures. I don’t know what occurred within the center,” Korda stated.
“So perhaps I acquired a little bit drained or misplaced some focus in the course of the spherical. However I introduced it again and talked to [my caddie] Jason about what he was seeing. It’s form of powerful for him to see stuff from the angle he’s standing on. Simply talked via and tried to dial in for the final couple holes to complete off underneath par.”
After making a bogey on the thirteenth gap, which dropped her again to even par for the championship, Korda rattled off 4 birdies over the ultimate 5 holes to publish her 4-under rating. Speak about ending robust.
“Fairly proud of the best way I performed,” Korda stated.
“Hit a few unfastened pictures in the course of the spherical, however apart from that, I imply, that’s one thing I can work on.”
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
