Nelly Korda experienced a really frustrating week in Texas at The Chevron Championship.
Korda won the event in 2024, but she had nowhere near her best stuff this year, and ended up finishing in tie for 14th at The Chevron Championship.
In fairness to the 26-year-old American, she battled back incredibly well after an opening round of five-over par 77.
Korda was open about her struggles with the putter during her first round, and actually switched to a mallet model immediately after she signed for a 77.
There’s certainly no need to panic. After all, Korda’s last win came only five months ago.
However, there is definitely something amiss with the talented Floridian’s game right now.
Perhaps it’s simply down to a lack of preparation before big events.
Nelly Korda says new LPGA Tour protocol ‘kind of sucked’
Korda has made five out of six cuts so far this season, and has two top-10 finishes to her name.
On paper, that looks like a solid campaign so far, but this is Korda we are talking about.
She set an LPGA Tour record by winning five tournaments in a row last season, and enjoyed a spell of six victories in seven starts.
Two top 10 finishes won’t cut it for the Bradenton-born LPGA Tour pro.
Her performance at the Chevron Championship was symptomatic of her season so far.
Korda has now opened up on one of the reasons why she struggled at The Club at Carlton Woods.
The 26-year-old explained:
“I mean, I didn’t even—I just played the pro-am, the front nine, so didn’t get to chip, putt, see how the greens are releasing, since with this new pro-am protocol where we can’t chip and putt anymore, so not having that kind of sucked.”
“At the end of the day, I mean, I did have the chance to play in the afternoon on Wednesday and I didn’t take it, so it’s on me.”
A protocol was brought into place this year to ‘strictly enforce’ the rule of no practicing during pro-am events on the Wednesday before a tournament begins (Golf Week).
That means that no extra chips or putts are allowed during pro-ams, and because of that, players essentially lose one day’s practice on the course.
It is something that Korda will have to address moving forward by perhaps arriving at an event one day earlier than she usually would.
What club does Nelly Korda think is the hardest to hit in golf?
Korda is arguably the best ball-striker in the game.
So when she says a club is hard to hit, we know how difficult it must be for amateurs!
Korda opened up on why she believes the three wood is the most difficult club in her bag to hit purely:
“I need to like the look of the head. If the head performs then I am putting it in. For me the three wood is the hardest club to hit.
“You hit it with loft off the tee, so you have to like the height off the tee and you have to like the height off the ground, because that is what you are also hitting into greens and par fives.“
There is no doubt about it, the improved technology over the past 10 years or so has made it so much easier to hit sweet strikes with fairway woods.
Imagine how hard Korda would have found it to hit a persimmon three wood! That said, she is so talented that she would have most likely made it look easy!
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