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Nelly Korda hopes to regain form and place on Olympic podium

Nelly Korda hopes to regain form and place on Olympic podium

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – The more famous Nelly Korda becomes as a golfer, the more remarkable it becomes that she tries to experience life as something else.

It’s all magnified for her. The tournaments she doesn’t play. The interviews she doesn’t give. The idea that it’s her responsibility, more than any of her peers, to increase the popularity of the LPGA Tour.

She may be a reluctant sports star at times, but she is the greatest in women’s sports. And it’s not that the world’s No. 1 player is burnt out on golf, she explained after the opening round at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday. She doesn’t want to burn out.

“As important as it is to push yourself sometimes,” Korda said, “it’s also important to just put your sticks away and be a regular guy. … It feels good when you’re in a rhythm, but when you’re playing under pressure and you’re in the final group and you’re feeling the emotions that you’re feeling, it affects you mentally.”

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Korda, 26, returned to represent the United States at the Olympics, winning the gold medal in that event. She shot a par-72 in the first round, falling just shy of leader Celine Boutier of France. Boutier shot a 7-under 65 to delight a large home crowd and open up a three-stroke lead over the field.

Lilia Vu of the United States is tied for third at 2 under. Korda and American Rose Zhang (also par) are tied for 13th. Boutier’s round was the story of the first round at Le Golf National.

“It’s been really fun for me,” said Vu, who plays in Boutier’s trio. “They support me, too. So I try to keep up with Celine.”

Korda will also look to continue and extend his country’s dominance in Olympic golf. Counting his victory at the Tokyo Games, Americans have won the last three gold medals in golf, including Xander Schauffele in 2021 and Scottie Scheffler last weekend.

But this week’s tournament, in a strange twist, finds Korda at his lowest point in a stretch of his best performances of the year.

When she won the Mizuho Americas Open in May, she won her sixth tournament title in seven starts. At one point, she won five consecutive titles, becoming only the third player in LPGA history to do so.

But Korda missed the cut at the US Women’s Open. Then she missed two more cuts. In the next six weeks, she played only at the Evian Championship, where she finished tied for 26th place.

“Golf is a fun game,” Korda told reporters this week. “Sometimes you feel like you’re on top of the world and then a few seconds later you feel like you’re at the bottom of the sea. So it definitely makes you appreciate the good golf you’re playing.”

Wednesday’s Olympic debut wasn’t his best. But it wasn’t terrible either. All in all, it was perhaps a step in the right direction. Korda opened the first eight holes with three overs. After making birdie on the ninth, he went into the deep rough on No. 10 and hit his second shot well past the green. “It was like a really thick thing,” he said later. “I could barely see my ball.”

Still, Korda managed to convert a tough up-and-down putt for par, sinking a 15-footer, his longest of the day. It looked like a turning point. Korda played the back nine at 2 under and “got into that rhythm,” an encouraging development heading into Thursday’s second round.

Because we know what Korda can do in that rhythm.

She has game and star potential. Korda has nearly a million followers on Instagram. When the Olympic tournament started, Vogue Magazine did a feature on her.

She has a lineage, too. She is part of a sports family. Her father, Petr Korda, was a professional tennis star in the Czech Republic and won the 1998 Australian Open. Her mother, Regina Kordova, played professional tennis, as did her brother Sebastian. Her older sister, Jessica, played on the LPGA Tour.

Entering this week, Korda has played in 12 LPGA events this year. Compare that to men’s No. 1 Scheffler, who is winning gold in her 17th tournament in 2024.

“This is a choice for his own good,” he said.

“For me,” Korda said, “I realized that everything I did at the beginning of the year, I finally got to enjoy it a little bit more with my family and realized what a huge accomplishment it was. Life and golf and everything is such a roller coaster, it’s good to just step away and appreciate the whole journey.”

He appreciates that in France this week, having an “incredible experience” and attending a tournament with packed galleries.

“The atmosphere was crazy,” Korda said. “I can’t even imagine what it was like in Celine’s group. I heard a few roars. … I saw the crowds for the men, and to see similar crowds for the women is just incomprehensible to me.”

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