HOUSTON (AP) — Nelly Korda is playing with so much control even her misses are right where she's aiming. She birdied her last two holes Friday with exquisite irons shots for another 7-under 65, giving her a daunting six-shot lead going into the weekend at The Chevron Championship.
Korda has made only one bogey through 36 holes at Memorial Park, missing a 3-foot putt on the sixth hole after a nifty chip from below the green.
Otherwise, the two-time major champion has been practically flawless in reaching 14-under 130 that makes her appear to be playing a different course.
“I'm comfortable with my game," Korda said. "I think where I’m the most comfortable is definitely with my mindset of knowing when I mess up I’ll figure it out. Sometimes I think you get stuck in wanting to play well and wanting to be at the top always that you have this tension of not wanting to make a mistake.
“I think there is a power in knowing it’s OK to make a mistake and just bounce back.”
Patty Tavatanakit had another bogey-free round with a 69. Another shot behind were Ina Yoon (68), Ryan O'Toole (68) and Texas junior Farah O'Keefe (69), one of five amateurs to make the cut.
O'Keefe didn't get her invitation to The Chevron until after the Augusta National Women's Amateur three weeks ago, and she's making the most of it. She played bogey-free in the second round, though she only managed one birdie on the par 5s.
But her scrambling saved her, and the 20-year-old didn't seem all that fazed by Korda on the verge of running away with this major.
“I compared it to Rory (McIlroy) at the Masters. You never know what can happen in golf,” O'Keefe said, referring to McIlroy losing a six-shot lead on the weekend at the Masters before going on to win for the second straight time.
“There is so much random out there that you can get a bad break and it’s just kind of that thing,” she said. “My dad and I called it that golf is a staring contest and all you have to do is not blink first. So I’m just trying not to blink. Just trying to keep playing my game, and whatever that ends up at the end of the week is where it ends up.”
Korda, however, has hit her stride again. She won the season opener in a weather-shortened event, and has played in the final group in all four of her tournaments.
She looks calm and poised, and there is power.
Korda began her great closing stretch with a 3-wood into the wind from 221 yards that landed in the perfect spot to roll out 15 feet beyond the hole, leaving an eagle putt that grazed the right edge of the cup.
She missed an 8-foot birdie chance on the par-5 16th, and then finished with a flourish — a 7-iron that danced around the cup and settle 10 feet away for birdie, and then a 9-iron that again scared the hole and left her 4 feet for her 15 birdie in 36 holes.
It was the lowest 36-hole score in her career in the majors, and the third-best 36-hole score in LPGA majors behind Jeongeun Lee6 (127), Brooke Henderson (128) and In Gee Chun (129), all at the Evian Championship, the tournament in France the LPGA chose to designate as a major in 2013.
For for all the birdies, some of the pars were the best example of Korda showing great patience and smarts in taking on some deceptively tough pins on the heavily contoured greens.
One example was the par-3 15th, a left pin with a steep slope falling off to the left. Lilia Vu went over the edge, her pitch over the slope was too strong and it rolled 45 feet away. Korda went for the fat of the green, leaving a 30-foot putt she lagged to tap-in range.
“I’m just hitting it in the spots that I want to, missing it into the spots that I want to,” Korda said. “If there is a tucked pin and it’s kind of stupid, I would rather give myself a longer lag putt and give myself the best opportunity for par. That’s kind of the way we been playing the past two days, not taking kind of stupid risks.”
She also played away from the pin on the 13th, tucked to the right with another massive slope. Korda watched defending champion Mao Saigo roll a 45-foot past the cup and down off the green. She lagged hers to 2 feet for a simple par.
“We’re going to go after the ones we can and where we have to play back and miss in the right spots, that’s kind of what I’m doing,” she said. “I think overall everything is really flowing.”
Her shot into the 17th might be an indication of where Korda is going as she tries to reclaim her spot atop the world ranking.
She was waiting in the fairway as Jeeno Thitikul in the group ahead ran a long birdie putt some 12 feet by the hole and missed that coming back for a bogey that led to a 73, meaning the No. 1 player in women's golf missed the cut.
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