World No. 1 Nelly Korda has a lot on the line this week in England at the AIG Women’s Open. A fifth major title overall and third of the season. The career grand slam. A fifth victory in 2026. Effectively clinching the LPGA Player of the Year award. And, oh yeah, the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Day one her odds of achieving all this at once this week seemed to be out of the question. Korda sat at +2 on a day where scoring was generally quite low, and was certainly in danger of missing a second cut in a major in a row. She was nine strokes back and had to have a serious sense of urgency to get back in it. The situation is a bit different heading into the weekend.
Korda shot -3 Friday to get to -1 for the week. She finished safely within the cut line of +4 and is currently in the top 15 with an afternoon tee time ahead of her. She is six back, still well out of contention for the moment, but they don’t call Saturday moving day for nothing.
Korda had a bit of a chaotic day. After a couple pars to start, the round took a pretty scary turn for the newly 28-year-old American. Korda was all over the place on the hole, and had a long putt to save bogey. A double could’ve derailed her entire event. Instead, Korda buried the putt for bogey to stay above water.
The very next hole, Korda nailed a lengthy birdie putt from deep range. That’s where the entire event turned for her. Birdies on back-to-back par 5s six and seven then another on nine had her right back in it.
Korda had a pair of birdies and bogeys to begin the back nine, but successfully navigated the challenging finish with five consecutive pars.
The game plan from Korda was interesting but ultimately successful. She played for more conservatively off the tee than most players, getting it safely in play and still hitting greens with her superb approach game. Now, Saturday, it will be interesting to see if Korda turns the dial up a bit and tries to shoot something super low.
The lead after day one this week was at -7. After day two it didn’t move down at all. While Korda stays way back, much of her chance to win will depend on how those at the top of the leaderboard perform.
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