{"id":685233,"date":"2026-06-05T04:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685233\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T04:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:27:11","slug":"nelly-kordas-pursuit-of-elusive-u-s-womens-open-title-off-to-uneven-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685233\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelly Korda\u2019s pursuit of elusive U.S. Women\u2019s Open title off to uneven start"},"content":{"rendered":"

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. \u2014 Nelly Korda isn\u2019t shy about it: the U.S. Women\u2019s Open is the one. This is the trophy that Korda wants to add to her collection. This is the title that would shine among the three majors and 18 LPGA Tour victories already amassed on her resume. This is the biggest event in women\u2019s professional golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better place to be than in the hunt on the back nine on Sunday at a major championship, especially at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open,\u201d Korda said on Tuesday, referencing her runner-up finish at the 2025 tournament, her best result thus far in this major. \u201cIt would have been a lifelong dream, but there\u2019s more chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korda\u2019s next shot at winning this tournament began at 7:29 a.m. local time Thursday at Riviera Country Club, where she teed off amid the June gloom in her 12th U.S. Women\u2019s Open. What ensued at the revered venue for the world No. 1 was not the start she was looking for.<\/p>\n

Korda battled a right-miss off the tee and struggled to access the tricky hole locations and smaller-than-average greens at Riviera, which is hosting a women\u2019s major for the first time<\/a>. Korda\u2019s putts burned the edges all day, and as a result, she finished with a 2-over-par 73, seven shots behind first-round leader Jennifer Kupcho. Korda came into the U.S. Women\u2019s Open with three wins this calendar year, having finished outside the top two just once in seven appearances in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like I was grinding to save pars,\u201d Korda said after the round. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great day. I hit it really good Monday through Wednesday, so I honestly have no idea where this came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her sixth hole of the championship, Korda\u2019s trainer, Kim Baughman, handed her a spare pair of golf shoes from outside the ropes. Korda did a quick change on the tee, swapping out the custom pair she put on Thursday morning for her normal Nike kicks. The original shoes were gifted to her by LeBron James \u2014 a newly avid golfer and fan of Korda\u2019s \u2014 but the spacing in them felt roomier than her everyday pair.<\/p>\n

When asked if the gear-switch impacted her play, Korda joked: \u201cApparently not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korda, 27, played in her first U.S. Women\u2019s Open when she was 14 years old. After last year\u2019s T2 finish at Erin Hills, she admitted that the tournament holds a certain emotional weight for her, simply because of her experience playing in it. Her motivation around the U.S. Women\u2019s Open is driven by the way it tests all facets of the game \u2014 Korda says that challenge is welcome because it allows her to take her own temperature. But her desire to win this tournament is also elevated by a developing history: This has long been the tournament that has eluded her.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely have gotten my heart broken a couple times,\u201d she said after the 2025 U.S. Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

Last year marked the first time Korda has truly been in the hunt at this major. The year before that, at Lancaster, the U.S. Women\u2019s Open title didn\u2019t have a chance to escape Korda. She packed her bags before the weekend, thanks to a septuple-bogey 10<\/a>, en route to an opening-round 80. Korda has three missed cuts, three top-10s and five finishes outside the top-45 in her 11 starts at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

Gearing up for this year\u2019s tournament, Korda had two weeks off to practice at her home course in Bradenton, Fla. Looking to fine-tune her swing ahead of Riviera, Korda put her head down. In between events, Korda follows such a strict, regimented practice schedule that her sister, Jessica \u2014 a six-time winner on the LPGA Tour herself \u2014 can\u2019t get ahold of her past 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Korda is out of bed at the crack of dawn, teeing off at The Concession Golf Club, her home course, by 7 a.m. \u2014 often alone. She gets treatment every day from her physiotherapist, hits daily gym sessions and is recharging for the next day while the rest of the world socializes or sprawls on the couch. Korda cherishes her one day off per week. It has been well-documented that Korda\u2019s discipline is ingrained in her by her parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova, both former professional tennis players. The lifestyle of an elite athlete is in Korda\u2019s blood. But she\u2019s happy to operate this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those days, you kind of sacrifice your time at home with your friends or with family, but it\u2019s just so worth it because there\u2019s no better rush of emotions than being in the hunt,\u201d Korda said.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Korda closed out her LPGA season without a win. It was a strange and frustrating year, because Korda felt like she had put in the on-course hours. She posted 10 top-10 finishes without pulling out a victory.<\/p>\n

But the season was also a reflective one. Korda looked back at the close calls and realized she was plaguing herself with overanalysis; she was stuck in a pattern of constant problem-solving, preventing her from playing freely. The solution? Korda let go and leaned into her hunger to be in contention at the game\u2019s biggest events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just motivated to put myself into that position, to grind on off-weeks, to just play the game. It\u2019s really hard to explain, but really, there\u2019s nothing better when you\u2019re a very competitive person than being in the hunt on a back nine at a tournament. There\u2019s a really big rush of emotions,\u201d she said on Tuesday. \u201cEven if it doesn\u2019t work out, you constantly want to put yourself back into that because all that work that you\u2019ve put in in your off weeks, that\u2019s what makes it worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Korda\u2019s new strategy has already paid off, even if her opening round at Riviera didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n

Seven shots back, Korda won\u2019t count herself out of the championship she wants to win the most. She knows she can iron out the wrinkles in her golf swing, and that is exactly what she set off to do after signing her opening-round scorecard of 73.<\/p>\n

Back to the range \u2014 back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. \u2014 Nelly Korda isn\u2019t shy about it: the U.S. Women\u2019s Open is the one. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-685233","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\/685233","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=685233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}