Mel Reid breaks down the 12th hole from Lancaster Country Club for the Live From broadcast during the U.S. Women's Open.
Golf Channel Thursday was moving day for me last week, but not the golf kind. That morning, as I transitioned from the end of one lease to the beginning of another, I was buried in boxes as my parents navigated the busy streets of Chicago, searching for parking for a pickup truck. All of which is to say, I caught little of the first round of the U.
S. Women’s Open . I did peek at my phone for the occasional Nelly Korda scoring update.
No tally was more important, right? But as the clutter piled up and multiple elevator trips ensued, I missed the digital earthquake that was Korda’s septuple-bogey 10 at the 12th, just the third hole of her championship. Between floor 5 (old apartment) and 34 (new pad), I scrolled Twitter and found one reaction more than any other: total shock. Jokes soon followed about Nelly spotting the field eight shots.
After that came the sad realization that no one was going to see Korda win for a seventh time in eight starts. I was more bummed than I thought I’d be. We were supposed to get a weekend of Nelly Golf, and at the very least some Friday Primetime Nelly Golf.
But more than anything I was just grasping for context. How did this happen? The shot tracer on the USGA’s online leaderboard showed a Ping-Pong path of red dots from where Korda had played (and dropped) strokes. Unhelpful.
I’d just have to wait for more color. T.
