Nelly Korda – Photo by Max Bechtoldt/Women’s Golf Daily News
Despite a major mistake late in her second round, Nelly Korda will head into the weekend in Phoenix with a two-stroke lead over last week’s champion Hyo Joo Kim.
Korda came into the day at -9, three strokes back of Lydia Ko who shot an incredible 60 Thursday, but closed that gap quickly after two early birdies. She had her only dropped shot of the day on the par 3 sixth hole, but made up for it almost immediately with birdies on eight and nine.
12 was a real round changer for the No. 2 ranked player in the world, as she hit a beautiful, long putt for eagle to take firm control of the event. A nice putt on 15 and a near eagle hit-in on 16 and Korda was rolling at -7 for the day.
The 17th hole was brutal for Korda, who had a solid look at eagle after a great approach into the par 5, but had a terrible missed putt from short range, resulting in the rare bad par. She overcame that on 18 though, hitting a similar putt in the center of the cup.
Korda hit 15 greens and had only 28 putts. The flat stick was a real strength for most of the day, really propelling her into the lead. She shot -7 for the day and sits at -16 for the week. It is the lowest 36-hole result for Korda, the 16-time LPGA Tour winner.
For the fourth straight round, looking back to last week in the Bay Area, Korda will be playing with world No. 4 Hyo Joo Kim, looking to defend her title at this event. Kim had a solid -3 round to get to -14 including an eagle and two late birdies on the back nine.
Lydia Ko struggled to get much going Friday after her incredible Thursday, despite hitting 13 fairways and 14 greens.
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