Nelly Korda makes a shocking 10, all but ending U.S. Women’s Open hopes early on

Nelly Korda did not get off to a great start at the U.S. Women’s Open, bogeying the first hole—the tough par-4 10th.

She then steadied herself somewhat with a par on the difficult par-4 11th, as she completed the most challenging stretch Lancaster Country Club has to offer.

But she had no idea what would hit her on the downhill, scenic par-3 12th, which measures 161 yards.

The tee shot plays 20 yards downhill, greatly exposing the hole to the winds. Therefore, judging the distance—and selecting the right club—is a challenge.

The green also makes things rather tricky. It slopes severely from back to front, and a creek meanders across the front of the putting surface.

“The par-3 over the water, from the tee box, you can’t see how sloped of a green that is, but then once you get onto that green, you’re like, oh, my gosh, you’re coming in with a 6-iron,” Korda said of the 12th on Tuesday, during her pre-tournament press conference.

Photo by Logan Whitton/USGA

“If you’re long, in a sense, you’re kind of screwed. If you’re short, you’re screwed too.”

When Korda arrived on the 12th tee early Thursday morning, she had plenty of time to decide what to do.

“We waited for like 25 to 30 minutes on that tee, too,” Korda explained after her opening round.

“I was in between a 7-iron and a 6-iron. I just didn’t really know what to hit. Sometimes, it’s not really good seeing the girls play in front of you because two of them went into the water.”

She decided on a 6-iron, which pierced through the wind, took one hop on the back of the green, and settled into the back bunker. She did herself no favors by putting her tee shot in such a precarious position.

With the pin on the front portion of the green, she had to play her second shot gently.

But Korda got too aggressive. Her bunker shot trickled down the slope, finally coming to rest in the creek.

She then had to go back across the bridge and play her fourth shot from the fairway on the other side. But then disaster truly struck.

Korda tried to bump and run her chip into the slope, but she did not put enough on it. That, too, found the water.

Chris Keane/USGA

The top-ranked player in the world then made the same mistake twice, shockingly putting her sixth shot into the stream. An enormous number loomed, and her chances of winning back-to-back majors had completely washed away.

She then placed her eighth shot above the hole, failed to make the putt coming back down the hill, and tapped in for a 10, a jaw-dropping score that would leave an amateur depressed. It also marked the highest score of her career, per golf stat guru Justin Ray.

Her early-round blunder immediately evoked memories of Jordan Spieth’s meltdown on the 12th hole at Augusta National in 2016.

Like Spieth then, Korda walked off the 12th on Thursday looking rattled, and rightfully so. Like that, she began her U.S. Women’s Open at 8-over through three holes, making things rather difficult for her the rest of the way.

“Making a 10 on a par-3 will definitely not do you any good at a U.S. Open,” Korda said.

“I started off really poorly but played pretty well on the back nine. But overall, yeah, just a bad day in the office.”

She would go on to shoot a 10-over 80 on day one, leaving her well out of contention. But Korda was not the only player to struggle at Lancaster. Many other players recorded double-bogies or worse on the par-3 12th while also laboring elsewhere.

For the morning wave, the scoring average hovered around 75, five shots over par.

Nevertheless, Korda has a serious uphill climb just to make the cut, let alone win the golf tournament.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.