It was a round, as Golf Channel analyst Morgan Pressel said, when everything seemed to go wrong at the same time for Nelly Korda. The World No. 1 began the day in a share of second and ended it packing up her suitcase after a second-round 81 and finished at 6 over for two days.
It was a shocking turn of events for a player who carded an opening 69 at Sahalee Country Club and looked primed to contend for a seventh title of 2024 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Korda agreed to talk outside the scoring area after the round but had to walk away before answering the first question to compose herself.
“It’s just golf recently for me,” she said through tears. “No words for how I’m playing right now. I’m just going to go home and reset.”
Korda bogeyed the first four holes and never recovered at the beautiful but punishing tree-lined stunner, carding a 6-over 42 on the front nine. On the back, it only got worse as she hit her second shot out of bounds from the left rough on the par-4 15th and made double bogey. An emotional Korda looked on in disbelief as she finished up the hole.
This marks the first time Korda has missed three consecutive cuts in her LPGA career. The 81 ties her highest score on the LPGA. In many ways, it was a more shocking day than the 10 she carded on the third hole of her U.S. Women’s Open.
