Contemporary off Scottie Scheffler’s gold medal win, 60 of the most effective feminine gamers on this planet will compete within the Girls’s Olympic Golf Competitors this week at Le Golf Nationwide.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who has already had a historic 2024 marketing campaign, arrives in Paris because the overwhelming favourite. Just like Scheffler, Korda’s odds are presently hovering round 4-to-1 on most markets, a testomony to how nicely she has performed this yr.
However Korda has struggled considerably in current weeks, lacking the lower on the U.S. Girls’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership and the KPMG Girls’s Championship at Sahalee. She most not too long ago tied for twenty sixth on the Amundi Evian Championship in France, her worst end of the 9 occasions by which she has made the lower.
And but, she gained 5 straight tournaments, together with the Chevron Championship in mid-April. She then gained her sixth occasion of the yr at Liberty Nationwide by one stroke over Australian Hannah Inexperienced, though Korda didn’t have her finest stuff on that Sunday in New Jersey.
“Hopefully, [my game is] trending in the correct course. I took a while off after Evian, put my golf equipment to the facet for per week, after which grinded for 2 weeks,” Korda stated in regards to the state of her sport.
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“I’ve [my coach] out right here with me this week, and he’s at all times very nice to be round and retains it tremendous mild. You already know, the sport of golf of is a humorous sport. Generally, you’re feeling on prime of the world, and in a matter of a few seconds, you simply really feel such as you’re on the underside of the ocean. So it undoubtedly makes you admire the nice golf that you simply play, however it’s important to have a mixture of all the pieces in there, and all the pieces can’t at all times go nicely.”
Certainly, a golfer’s season is usually a rollercoaster trip full of extra despair than triumph, a testomony to the game’s issue and the truth of being an expert. That actually applies to Korda, who has not been the identical participant since recording a ten on the par-3 twelfth in the course of the first spherical of the U.S. Girls’s Open.
Nevertheless, Korda did win the gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.
So, though Korda has not replicated her success from earlier this season, it could nonetheless shock no one if she took dwelling the gold once more.
Odds:
Listed below are the newest odds for the Girls’s Golf Competitors in Paris, supplied by DraftKings.
Nelly Korda +400
Attaya Thitikul +850
Lilia Vu +900
Jin Younger Ko +1100
Brooke Henderson +1400
Rose Zhang +1600
Linn Grant +1600
Miyu Yamashita +1800
Minjee Lee +1800
Hyo Joo Kim +1800
Celine Boutier +1800
Ruoning Yin +2000
Hannah Inexperienced +2000
Xiu Lin +2200
Charley Hull +2200
Patty Tavatanakit +2500
Leona Maguire +2500
Yuka Saso +3000
Lydia Ko +3000
Georgia Corridor +3500
Carlota Ciganda +3500
Amy Yang +400
Maja Stark +4500
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Predictions:
Bronze: Nelly Korda (United States)
Korda will as soon as once more attain the rostrum, however this time, she’s going to take dwelling the bronze. Le Golf Nationwide, a difficult monitor that may play as a par-72 this week for the ladies, requires size and rewards good ball-striking, two attributes Korda has. Plus, she simply spent just a few weeks at dwelling together with her household, re-charging her batteries and making ready for the Olympics and Girls’s Open. So, she arrives in Paris refreshed, and I like Korda to re-discover her kind and contend however in the end end in third in a detailed competitors.
Silver: Hannah Inexperienced (Australia)
Hannah Inexperienced is the one participant on the LPGA this season to file a number of victories in addition to Korda, profitable the HSBC Girls’s World Championship in March and the JM Eagle Championship in late April. She additionally completed solo second to Korda at Liberty Nationwide and has not missed a lower since The Chevron in mid-April, proof that she is presently among the finest feminine gamers on this planet. The Aussie will depend on her terrific ball-striking to take dwelling silver on Saturday.
Gold: Celine Boutier (France)
The gold medal for girls’s golf will keep in France, as Celine Boutier will emerge victorious at Le Golf Nationwide, a course she has performed tons of of instances. Maybe no participant has a greater really feel for this difficult format than Boutier, which leads me to consider she can have loads of success this week. Plus, she is due. Her final win got here in October 2023, when she gained in Malaysia. Boutier’s finest end got here earlier this yr on the HSBC Girls’s World Championship, the place she misplaced to Hannah Inexperienced. However this time, will probably be Boutier besting Inexperienced on her dwelling turf in Paris.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. Make sure you take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.
