Nelly Korda: I’ll have to tame ‘beast’ of a course to win US Women’s Open

Nelly Korda believes she will have to tame a “beast” of a course to maintain her incredible run of form and win the US Women’s Open.

Korda is a massive favourite to secure her third major title at Lancaster Country Club after winning six of her last seven events.

The world number one has beaten a combined total of 883 players in that stretch, losing to just six by finishing seventh in the Cognizant Founders Cup and is 74 under par for her six strokeplay tournaments.

Witnessing history. 💯

With her win at the Mizuho Americas Open, @nellykorda became the fourth LPGA Tour player to win six times before June 1st.

She hit 73% of fairways at Liberty National, and lowered her Tour-leading scoring average to 69.2. #Qi10Driver pic.twitter.com/VRucMGj8KN

— TaylorMade Golf (@TaylorMadeGolf) May 20, 2024

Korda’s dominant run includes her second major victory in the Chevron Championship but she is expecting a tough test in Philadelphia, with the course revised and lengthened to a par-70 of 6,583 yards since it last hosted the US Open in 2015.

“It’s a beast of a golf course,” said Korda, who was not in the field nine years ago.

“Off the tee, if you don’t hit it into the fairways, it sinks down into the rough. These greens are small and very, very undulated.

“It’s going to test every aspect of just your golf game and even your mental game because it’s a major championship.

“You can get ahead of yourself, get lost in the moment. If you make a couple of mistakes here and there, sometimes it can get away from you, but it’s going to test every aspect of your game out there this week.

“Visually it looks so much shorter than it is. There’s bunkers that you see that you think you’re going to carry that you end up maybe 10 yards short of.

The rough is very thick around the greens too. I think they’ve cut the grass around the greens so that, with the false fronts, it comes all the way down to the back where it’s a little thicker.