Contemporary off Scottie Scheffler’s gold medal win, 60 of one of the best feminine gamers on the earth will compete within the Ladies’s Olympic Golf Competitors this week at Le Golf Nationwide.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who has already had a historic 2024 marketing campaign, arrives in Paris because the overwhelming favourite. Just like Scheffler, Korda’s odds are at present hovering round 4-to-1 on most markets, a testomony to how effectively she has performed this 12 months.
However Korda has struggled considerably in current weeks, lacking the reduce on the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership and the KPMG Ladies’s Championship at Sahalee. She most not too long ago tied for twenty sixth on the Amundi Evian Championship in France, her worst end of the 9 occasions wherein she has made the reduce.
And but, she gained 5 straight tournaments, together with the Chevron Championship in mid-April. She then gained her sixth occasion of the 12 months at Liberty Nationwide by one stroke over Australian Hannah Inexperienced, though Korda didn’t have her finest stuff on that Sunday in New Jersey.
“Hopefully, [my game is] trending in the proper course. I took a while off after Evian, put my golf equipment to the aspect for every week, after which grinded for 2 weeks,” Korda stated concerning the state of her sport.
“I’ve [my coach] out right here with me this week, and he’s all the time very nice to be round and retains it tremendous gentle. , the sport of golf of is a humorous sport. Generally, you are feeling on high of the world, and in a matter of a few seconds, you simply really feel such as you’re on the underside of the ocean. So it positively makes you recognize the great golf that you just play, however you need to have a mixture of every part in there, and every part can’t all the time go effectively.”
Certainly, a golfer’s season is often a rollercoaster experience crammed with extra despair than triumph, a testomony to the game’s problem and the fact of being knowledgeable. That definitely applies to Korda, who has not been the identical participant since recording a ten on the par-3 twelfth in the course of the first spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open.
Nonetheless, Korda did win the gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.
So, though Korda has not replicated her success from earlier this season, it could nonetheless shock no person if she took residence the gold once more.
Odds:
Listed below are the newest odds for the Ladies’s Golf Competitors in Paris, offered by DraftKings.
Nelly Korda +400
Attaya Thitikul +850
Lilia Vu +900
Jin Younger Ko +1100
Brooke Henderson +1400
Rose Zhang +1600
Linn Grant +1600
Miyu Yamashita +1800
Minjee Lee +1800
Hyo Joo Kim +1800
Celine Boutier +1800
Ruoning Yin +2000
Hannah Inexperienced +2000
Xiu Lin +2200
Charley Hull +2200
Patty Tavatanakit +2500
Leona Maguire +2500
Yuka Saso +3000
Lydia Ko +3000
Georgia Corridor +3500
Carlota Ciganda +3500
Amy Yang +400
Maja Stark +4500
Predictions:
Bronze: Nelly Korda (United States)
Korda will as soon as once more attain the rostrum, however this time, she’s going to take residence the bronze. Le Golf Nationwide, a difficult observe that can play as a par-72 this week for the ladies, requires size and rewards good ball-striking, two attributes Korda has. Plus, she simply spent a couple of weeks at residence together with her household, re-charging her batteries and making ready for the Olympics and Ladies’s Open. So, she arrives in Paris refreshed, and I like Korda to re-discover her kind and contend however finally end in third in an in depth competitors.
Silver: Hannah Inexperienced (Australia)
Hannah Inexperienced is the one participant on the LPGA this season to document a number of victories in addition to Korda, successful the HSBC Ladies’s World Championship in March and the JM Eagle Championship in late April. She additionally completed solo second to Korda at Liberty Nationwide and has not missed a reduce since The Chevron in mid-April, proof that she is at present top-of-the-line feminine gamers on the earth. The Aussie will depend on her terrific ball-striking to take residence silver on Saturday.
Gold: Celine Boutier (France)
The gold medal for ladies’s golf will keep in France, as Celine Boutier will emerge victorious at Le Golf Nationwide, a course she has performed tons of of occasions. Maybe no participant has a greater really feel for this difficult format than Boutier, which leads me to imagine she could have loads of success this week. Plus, she is due. Her final win got here in October 2023, when she gained in Malaysia. Boutier’s finest end got here earlier this 12 months on the HSBC Ladies’s World Championship, the place she misplaced to Hannah Inexperienced. However this time, it is going to be Boutier besting Inexperienced on her residence turf in Paris.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Remember to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.