{"id":685015,"date":"2026-06-05T02:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685015\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T02:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:06:13","slug":"u-s-womens-open-2026-nelly-korda-2-over-after-missed-putts-and-shoe-change-in-opening-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685015\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Women’s Open 2026: Nelly Korda 2 over after missed putts and shoe change in opening round"},"content":{"rendered":"

World No. 1 Nelly Korda has put herself in a hole after her opening round at Riviera Country Club<\/a>, carding a 2-over 73.<\/p>\n

The reigning Chevron champion<\/a> teed off for Round 1 of the 2026 U.S. Women\u2019s Open on Thursday morning, paired with world No. 3 Hyo Joo Kim and No. 5 Hannah Green. The trio has combined for seven of 13 possible wins on the LPGA Tour this season (two wins each for Kim and Green, three for Korda).<\/p>\n

Korda had an interesting start to her round with a bit of a wardrobe change. Golf Channel\u2019s Amy Rogers reported that she was gifted shoes by LeBron James that she wore to start her round, but those shoes were a little too loose for her liking. So Korda\u2019s trainer went and grabbed her regular shoes from her locker.<\/p>\n

Keep reading for a recap of Korda\u2019s rollercoaster day at Riviera. <\/p>\n

Korda with gritty saves to escape the back nine only 1 over<\/p>\n

Korda was scrambling for saves early in her round.<\/p>\n

Starting on the par-4 10th, she saved par before her first birdie on the par-5 11th. Nos. 12 and 13 both resulted in bogeys, but things could have been worse. She made a 6-footer on the par-4 12th before really scrambling for the 5 on 13. There, she chipped out of a bunker onto the green but was still more than 72 feet from the hole. She then lagged it to within 8 feet and was able save bogey from there.<\/p>\n

The rest of Korda\u2019s back nine was relatively uneventful. She carded five pars; four were birdie opportunities. Korda\u2019s putter seemed to be running a bit cold. She missed birdies on Nos. 14-17 \u2014 all by inches. But the putter was on when she needed it on the par-4 18th. After nearly hitting her tee shot onto the cart path, she made an almost 13-footer to save par.<\/p>\n

Korda drops another shot on front nine<\/p>\n

The front nine was a similar story to the back for Korda. She started strong with a birdie on the par-5 first and followed that up with a par save on the par-4 second, chipping just off the green to within 5 feet. <\/p>\n

Korda seemed unhappy with her driver on Nos. 2 and 3, with both pulling right. On the par-4 third, she couldn\u2019t make up for the mistake. As was the story on the back nine, she missed her par putt left and had to drop a shot. After the round, Korda said she has been feeling \u201creally stuck\u201d in her swing and not able to release it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sending it out right in Cincinnati, too,\u201d Korda said, dating her driver struggles back to the Queen City Championship in mid-May.<\/a> \u201cI put in a lot of hours on the range, and I can\u2019t seem to really figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The second round of the U.S. Women\u2019s Open is underway at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.<\/p>\n

Birdie opportunities presented themselves at Nos. 5 and 6, but she missed both putts just right of the hole. The par-4 seventh seemed like a repeat of No. 3, also resulting in a bogey.<\/p>\n

Korda brought it home at even-par, including a par save on the par-4 ninth despite her second shot taking a high bounce off the green and into the bunker. She was able to get up and down from there to close her round and stop the bleeding at 2 over on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, just hit it really poorly off the tee,\u201d Korda said when talking through her round. \u201cFound myself in a lot of trouble on the wrong sides of a lot of these pins. I just felt like I was kind of just grinding to make safe pars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great day. I hit it really good Monday through Wednesday, so I have honestly no idea where this came from. So I\u2019m going to go to the range.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Half a million ain\u2019t too shabby. That\u2019s how much the USGA just sweetened the pot at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No. 1 Nelly Korda has put herself in a hole after her opening round at Riviera Country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-685015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}