By: Max Bechtoldt
At the time of tapping in her final birdie putt on 18 this early afternoon, Nelly Korda held the solo lead at -7 following a -3 second round.
The No. 1 player in the world came to the season’s first major, The Chevron Championship, on a mission to become just the third player ever to win five events in a row and the first in over 20 years.
After her strong -4 Thursday, where she played in the far more difficult conditions, Korda had a bit of a shaky start with her first double bogey of the week on hole one. She followed that up with a long putt on the second hole for birdie that got her back on track.
Korda took advantage of her ball-striking advantage today, going for every par 5 in two and making birdie on them all. She is -7 for the week on the par 5s overall.
The defining moment of her round probably was hole 14, where uncharacteristically, she didn’t have a perfect tee shot. Her drive found knee high grass and she was forced to punch out. She recovered with a nice shot from within 100 yards and nailed the putt to save par.
Korda’s putting stats were misleading, as she had 30 on the day but was burning edges the entire round. If those putts start falling over the weekend, we very well could see her win a major for the second time in her career.
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