U.S. Girls’s Open: Nelly Korda vs. LPGA at historic Lancaster

Nelly Korda arrives in Central Pennsylvania with a large highlight shining brightly on her.

She has gained six of her final seven occasions, and a win on the U.S. Girls’s Open this week would mark her third profession main title and second of the season.

“I’ve undoubtedly performed some actually stable golf,” Korda admitted.

Certainly, she has.

However one other victory would ship shockwaves throughout the golf world, provided that this event stands above all of the others in girls’s golf.

Korda is aware of that.

She can also be nicely conscious that this golf course presents a unique problem, in contrast to many different programs LPGA Tour gamers have seen.

“This golf course is a beast,” Korda added.

Photograph by Sarah Stier/Getty Photos

“Off the tee, for those who don’t hit it into the fairways, it sinks down into the tough. These greens are small and really, very undulated.”

Everybody has known as Lancaster Nation Membership a ‘true main championship check,’ a sentiment that Korda echoed.

“It’s going to check each facet of your golf sport and even your psychological sport as a result of it’s a significant championship,” Korda defined.

“You possibly can’t get forward of your self; get misplaced within the second. When you make a few errors right here and there, typically it may well get away from you, however it can check each facet of your sport on the market this week.”

The course itself requires size, one thing Korda has.

It additionally forces the participant to work the ball in each instructions, as no two holes run in the identical path. Korda can try this, too.

No two holes have the identical form and route, both—a basic attribute of a William Flynn design. Plus, this picturesque format options drastic elevation adjustments and spectacular vistas. Flynn used the pure panorama of the Central Pennsylvania hills and the Conestoga River for the routing, barely transferring any dust to color the masterpiece that’s Lancaster Nation Membership.

Jeff Marsh/USGA

As such, elevation adjustments create uneven lies, that means a participant will need to have the power to hit all kinds of iron pictures.

Sure, Korda can try this, too, as evidenced by her main the LPGA in greens in regulation this season.

However the top-ranked feminine participant on the planet isn’t good. No person is. And if she goes to win at Lancaster this week, she might want to hold the ball in play, one thing she has struggled with at instances this season.

Korda ranks 71st on the LPGA in driving accuracy at a 74.2% clip.

Nonetheless, at Liberty Nationwide, the location of her final victory, Korda had bother off the tee at instances throughout her last spherical. But, she prevailed by one stroke over Hannah Inexperienced, regardless of admitting afterward that she had her “C and D sport” that day.

Talking of Inexperienced, Inexperienced arrives in Lancaster as the one different LPGA participant to win a number of instances this season.

“I feel that is truly essentially the most assured I’ve come into a significant,” Inexperienced admitted.

“It looks like I don’t must work on an excessive amount of coming into a significant, which is good. I don’t know what it’s. I want I might have the sort of feeling each week that I tee it up, however it simply feels actually enjoyable out right here at Lancaster.”

Enjoyable isn’t a phrase many would use to explain this golf course, but when that’s how Inexperienced feels, good for her. Maybe that easy-going angle will assist her win her second profession main championship.

However, loads of others can take residence essentially the most prestigious trophy in girls’s golf.

Rose Zhang lately gained the Cognizant Founders Cup in New Jersey however then withdrew from the Mizuho Americas Open due to an sickness. Regardless of that, she believes her sport is trending in the fitting path, and one could be silly to dismiss the younger 20-year-old this week.

Atthaya Thitikul, Brooke Henderson, and Ayaka Furue have all performed nicely this season, too, as all three of those gamers have seen their names flow into close to the highest of leaderboards. None of those three gamers have damaged via, however a win this week would shock no one.

Photograph by Scott Halleran/Getty Photos

However Henderson is a reputation to be careful for, contemplating she completed within the high 5 on the U.S. Girls’s Open in 2015, the primary time Lancaster Nation Membership hosted this occasion.

“I prefer it when it’s powerful. I really feel like I’ve all the time performed usually nicely at main championships as a result of it’s actually powerful, and you’ve got to have the ability to grind it out,” Henderson defined.

“Notice that pars are good; pars are your folks. If you get birdies, you’ll be able to higher capitalize. And simply attempting to take advantage of out of every day.”

Like Korda, Henderson has two main championships to her identify, along with her most up-to-date triumph coming on the 2022 Evian Championship.

One other participant with two profession majors is Lydia Ko, who claimed her twentieth LPGA title this previous January on the Hilton Grand Holidays Match of Champions.

Minjee Lee, one other two-time main champion, stands out as nicely and has confirmed herself on the most important levels. Lee gained the 2022 U.S. Girls’s Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina.

However a bevy of European Solheim Cup stars have arrived in Lancaster able to steal Korda’s thunder. England’s Charley Hull and Celine Boutier of France can win. So, too, can Madelene Sagstrom and Linn Grant of Sweden.

This championship is loaded with expertise, though Lilia Vu, who gained two majors final season, needed to withdraw as a result of a again damage.

However, regardless of this championship’s deep subject, the most important storyline getting into the 2024 U.S. Girls’s Open is outlined by one query: Nelly Korda or the sector?

It’s a difficult query.

However I’ll take the most important star in girls’s golf to win the most important event on one massive, lovely golf course.

Give me Korda in a thriller.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.