Nelly Korda’s Olympic collapse? It started with 1 ill-fated, ‘hesitant’ move

Wedge or 9-iron? Should Nelly Korda hammer the former on Le Golf National’s par-3 16th? Or finesse the latter? Decisions, decisions. She held both clubs on the tee Thursday afternoon. 

Prior to that, the world No. 1 could have gotten away with playing a pole-vault stick during the Olympics second round. She birdied 3. And 5 and 6. And 9. And 11. And 15. She had hit all but one green. 

She then missed another. 

Stunningly, with the 9, missing short and into the water even with the longer club.

From there, she collapsed, going from two back of the lead to a whopping seven down to begin the 18th. Korda birdied that closing hole, but she’ll need more if she’s to defend her Olympic gold, or medal at all. 

So what happened?

Back to the club choice. 

Nothing was wrong with the 9. But she said she played it “hesitant.” The ball came off its heel.

And it fell about a yard in front of the water protecting the green’s front, before bouncing in. 

Said analyst John Wood on the Golf Channel broadcast: “That was a shocker. She had both clubs out — she had wedge and 9, and I think what happened was she went with the 9, maybe feeling it was a lot of club and just took way too much off it and eased into it, did not play an aggressive shot.”

Said Wood later: “So important when you make those last-minute club changes to really commit yourself to it. Get that other one completely out of your head and convince yourself this is the right one.” 

Said analyst Morgan Pressel in response: “… I always say you want to be committed to the wrong club than not committed at all.”

Things snowballed. 

— Korda dropped in the drop zone, then fatted a wedge into the bunker ahead of the green. “Just hit a really poor wedge shot,” Korda said.

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— On her fourth shot, from a plugged lie in the sand, she punched out off the back of the green. “Those bunkers are really firm,” Korda said, “and when I tried to be a little aggressive with it, my ball just shot to the back of the green.”

— She putted her fifth shot, from about 90 feet away, and her ball finished 7 feet short. 

— She missed that, just to the right. She gave the hole a stare. Korda cleaned it up for a quadruple-bogey seven. 

— Finally, she three-putted from 21 feet on the par-4 17th. 

Two holes, five shots lost.

“Just a series of unfortunate events happened in a row,” Korda said. 

Unfortunate, and unfortunately familiar.

In May, during the U.S. Open’s first round, she carded a septuple-bogey 10 on the par-3 12th at Lancaster Country Club to torpedo her chances. A month later, during the Women’s PGA’s second round, she shot a career-worst 81 on her way to missing the cut. Both were big stages. Both were unusually topsy-turvy performances. On the broadcast, though, both Wood and Pressel expressed shock that Korda compounded her mistakes on Thursday. 

For her part, Korda sounded optimistic. She birdied the par-5 18th on a tricky two-putt from 81 feet, which included avoiding a sprinkler head just to the right of her line. She shot under par — a two-under 70. She’s six back and tied for 12th. “I’m going to try and take the positive,” Korda said.

But can she rally?

In her post-round press conference, a reporter asked her if she was playing well enough to make up the deficit. In response, Korda flashed back to last Sunday, when her fellow world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, shot a nine-under 62 on the same course to claim gold. 

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“I’m going to try,” Korda said. “I’m going to always try my hardest and I’m going to — if I’m hitting it well off the tee, which I was today, and I was hitting good shots in and I was giving myself opportunities, yes. If I’m hitting it bad, then no, it’s tough to do that out here.

“It’s all about, you know, if I can get my whole game together for the next two days, and if I would have done this on the last day or let’s say the third day, then I would be extremely heartbroken. But I still have 36 more holes and anything can happen. I’m trying to see the positive in this. You know, Scottie came back, shot nine-under and he won.

“So if you’re hitting your shots, then you’re staying present, and I think anything can happen.”