Nelly Korda – Max Bechtoldt/Women’s Golf Daily News
The No. 2 ranked player in the world, Nelly Korda, is contending in Menlo Park at the Fortinet Founders Cup, seeking her second victory of the LPGA Tour season.
Korda came into the day five strokes back on a crowded leaderboard chasing Hyo Joo Kim. Leaving the day she is still five back of Kim, but with much less competition, sitting in solo second place with only Ruixin Liu and Gaby López within two strokes.
Korda started slow, with just one birdie in the first six holes, and thanks to the blazing fast start from Kim, was in serious danger of falling out of contention. She made her move just before the turn, with birdies on holes seven and eight and then grabbed another on 10 thanks to a terrific fairway wood shot and great eagle putt that left her with a tap in.
Korda collected two more on the way in, on 16 and 18, to finish with her best round of the week, a -6 66.
For the round, Korda hit 10 fairways and 15 greens and had by far her best putting round of the week, only needing 28 strokes with the flat stick. In the early stages of 2026, Korda has looked much better around the greens, chipping to her usual standard and executing much better with the putter.
Kim, of course, is still the story for now, holding a dominant five-stroke lead. If almost any other player was chasing, this would likely be wrapped up, but Korda can come from behind.
Kim did all of her damage on the opening six holes, making four birdies and an eagle on that opening stretch. She did make some mistakes, including a sloppy six on the par 5 seventh and back-to-back bogeys on 11 and 12. She did have some birdies on the back, on 10, 13 and 16, but ultimately left a lot of strokes on the course in her -6 round.
The final round of the Fortinet Founders Cup kicks off on Golf Channel at 6 PM eastern time.
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