SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Inside her yardage book, Nelly Korda keeps the markings simple. The No.
1 player in the world denotes the spots she needs to avoid hitting by writing X’s. At Sahalee Country Club, with Douglas fir, red cedar and hemlock trees framing every fairway and making each look like a hallway, there are likely to be a substantial amount of those X marks outside the short grass. “I think every hole looks a little different.
They’re all intimidating and great in their own way,” Korda said. Korda is again the headliner this week as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship tees off Thursday at Sahalee, the third major of the year on the LPGA Tour. But she arrived in the Seattle area in a different place with her game than just a few weeks ago, when she showed up at the U.
S. Women’s Open having won six of her previous seven starts, including a major at the Chevron Championship. At the time, no player in the world was on more of a roll than Korda and adding another major seemed probable, if not likely.
That didn’t happen. Korda missed the cut at Lancaster Country Club after an opening-round 80 that included a 10 on her third hole and watched as Yuka Saso went on to win the championship for a second time. When she returned last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic, Korda struggled to an opening-round 76 before shooting 67 in the second round, but missed out on playing the weekend by one shot.
Advertisement “I’m just going to stay in my bubble this week and go out an.