MUIRFIELD, Scotland – Sporting a Muirfield hat as a result of her sponsored headgear and different clothes was nonetheless sitting in a Zurich airport, for a whereas Jessica Korda appeared unbothered at the AIG Girls’s Open.
Tied for the lead at 5 below on Friday when she birdied the par-4 eighth gap, the 29-year-old appeared comfy in unusual clothes on Murifield’s storied hyperlinks.
That presumption was a mistake and Korda, the older sister of Nelly (2 over at the midway level) made essential mistake after essential mistake throughout 4 consecutive bogeys to drop off the leaderboard. The Round 2 chief is South Korean I.G Chun at 8 below, one shot forward of Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom and South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai.
Usually at this level I’d provide up what occurred to Korda, who shot a 3-over 74, and break down her 4 consecutive bogeys to not solely fall out of the lead, however into a tie for seventeenth.
But Korda declined the interview request posed to her by the R&A and determined to go away you and me guessing.
I can say that after watching Korda she chipped poorly and left herself prolonged putts for par, which she clearly missed.
It’s additionally doable that Korda will not be fully over her again points that compelled her to take two months off after the Chevron and never return till the starting of June to play in the U.S. Girls’s Open.
She talked about on Thursday that along with her luggage nonetheless in Zurich Airport she was lacking heating pads for her again.
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With Thursday’s climate cool and wet early and Friday’s windy, it’s doable that Korda’s again might need tightened up, however none of us know.
Jessica Korda shot a 3-over 74 on Friday at the Women’s Open, then skipped a Media session afterward.
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Oddly sufficient, the R&A and AIG raised the purse this yr for the Girls’ Open from $5.8 million to $7.3 million. And on Thursday HSBC signed on to sponsor each the males’s and girls’s open, creating higher alternatives for purse will increase.
When Martin Slumbers, the Chief Govt of the R&A, introduced the purse enhance in a press convention on Wednesday, he highlighted the want for broader engagement in girls’s golf and outlined three factors: passionate companions, nice venues and broad and in depth protection to create engagement and lift its profile.
On Friday Korda fell in need of supporting the third tenant that Slumbers outlined. There isn’t any free lunch in skilled golf, males’s or girls’s.
Skilled golfers typically reside a charmed life, and what they earn they deserve. But with that charmed life comes obligations, and dealing with the Media is a part of that.
On Thursday, I talked to completely different gamers about a story relating to the potential for Saudi Arabian involvement in girls’s golf. Lizette Salas, after making a bogey at the 18th gap, took time after her spherical to debate the challenge. Stacy Lewis and Laura Davies each had lengthy days however took the time after their rounds to speak about the challenge.
They get it. They perceive the must Help the Media do their job, which in the end advantages all of girls’s golf.
Korda was sad and pissed off. All of us get that, however we needed to know extra. As a substitute we realized one thing about Korda we didn’t count on, and it wasn’t optimistic.