Nelly Korda started her campaign to defend her Olympic gold medal Wednesday at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The No. 1 golfer in the world finished with an even-par 72 in Wednesday’s opening round at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, France — well off the lead of France’s Celine Boutier, but still within distance to make a run throughout the four-day tournament.
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Whether Korda can win back-to-back gold medals remains to be seen, but a lower score during Round 2 on Thursday would position the 26-year-old golfer in contention for the medal podium heading into Friday.
“It’s never easy when you make four three-putts out there today. Battled back on the back nine and kept myself in it,” Korda said on Golf Channel after finishing her round Wednesday. “It’s playing very different from the two practice days that we had, it was very firm. The greens were a lot slower (today) so that is why I struggled a bit at the beginning of the round. Kind of got a groove for it coming down in the Back 9, but hopefully, I can bring that momentum into the next three days.”
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Here’s how Korda performed in his first round of golf at Le Golf National on Wednesday:
Nelly Korda Round 1 Olympics scorecard
Results are courtesy of the official Olympic leaderboard.
Front 9
Hole (par) 1 (4) 2 (3) 3 (5) 4 (4) 5 (4) 6 (4) 7 (4) 8 (3) 9 (5) F (36)
Score (overall) 5 (+1) 3 (+1) 5 (+1) 5 (+2) 4 (+2) 4 (+2) 5 (+3) 3 (+3) 4 (+2) 38 (+2)
Back 9
Hole (par) 10 (4) 11 (3) 12 (4) 13 (4) 14 (5) 15 (4) 16 (3) 17 (4) 19 (5) F (72)
Score (overall) 4 (+2) 3 (+2) 4 (+2) 3 (+1) 4 (E) 4 (E) 3 (E) 4 (E) 5 (E) 72 (E)
