“The greens are very difficult” – Nelly Korda not happy with conditions at LPGA Drive On Championship 2024

Modified Jan 26, 2024 07:47 GMT

LPGA Drive On Championship - Round One — Nelly Korda at the LPGA Drive On Championship

Day 1 of the LPGA Drive On Championship 2024 ended with Nelly Korda in the lead.

The 25-year-old, playing in her hometown, carded six birdies, two bogeys and an eagle in the opening round. She shot a six-under-par 65 to share the top spot with Lydia Ko, who matched the score. The duo leads the field after Thursday.

Korda’s opening round at the Bradenton Country Club impressed many. However, the reigning Olympic champion said that it was difficult playing on the course. The LPGA star noted the 'difficult'' greens, with the gusty conditions, 20 mph winds, making things trickier.

The hometown girl said in the post-round press conference that she's happy with her efforts:

“The greens are very difficult. And obviously when you have kind of gusty 20 mph winds it definitely makes it even a little harder. So sometimes clubbing up two clubs and trying to hit a punch shot for it to stay under the wind was key. And everyone's kind of dealing with it. So, you just got to take it as it goes and try to give yourself as many opportunities as possible.

I actually started with a bogey on the first hole and then made a longer putt. And then gave myself some good opportunities... And majority of my putts came, birdies came on the front nine today. And then kind of hit some loose shots on the back nine but still came in one under par. So overall very happy and pretty tough conditions.”

It's pertinent to note that Korda came to the Drive On Championship off a T16 finish at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions last week. The World No.4 golfer is sharing the lead with last week’s champion Ko.

It will be interesting to see how the duo fares in the coming rounds of the Drive On Championship, which features a stacked field.