Korda has meltdown at KPMG Women's PGA Championship
If a 93-degree temperature, a 106-degree heat index and a wait on nearly every hole weren't enough to make a golfer melt, back-to-back botched holes were.
Jessica Korda had a meltdown.
The 25-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., entered Friday's second round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship in sunny Kildeer 1 shot off the lead after opening with a 5-under-par 67 at Kemper Lakes Golf Club. She headed to the sixth tee box (her 15th hole of the day) still just a stroke back of the leaders.
She then leaked her tee shot on the 179-yard par 3 to the right. When her chunked wedge from a swale rolled back to her, she kicked the grass, switched to her putter and then didn't hit a good putt.
Korda double-bogeyed the hole — and then finally hit a target, tossing her golf ball into to the adjacent lake.
And the frustration wasn't over for the daughter of former international tennis stars Petr Korda and Regina Raichrtova.
After belting her tee shot down the middle of the fairway on the par-5 seventh, which features water down the left side and more of the same water protecting the green, Korda pulled out a long iron and splashed her ball again. She bogeyed the hole, dropping to her to 3 over on the day, and that's where she finished.
She turned down an interview request after her round.
The good news for Korda is, despite giving away 3 shots on Nos. 6 and 7, at 2 under for the tournament, she is tied for 12th and only 4 strokes behind leaders So Yeon Ryu, Brooke Henderson and Sung Hyun Park.
The group at 1 under includes 22-year-old Charley Hull from Kettering, England who has some Bobby Hull power in her swing. Hull played with Korda and the expecting Stacy Lewis, who shot 4 over but, at 2 over, made the cut by a shot. The 5-foot-5 Hull consistently outdrove fellow long hitter Korda, who stands 5-11.
“(The course) was a bit trickier,” Hull said. “I felt like the greens were quite bubbly today. (Putts) were wobbling a lot in the afternoon.”
Hull, Korda and Lewis had to wait to hit on almost every hole, starting on their second of the day, and needed 5 hours and 25 minutes to complete their round. Korda shot 1 over on the back nine (her first nine), despite making a mess of the par-5 15th, twice hitting into bunkers and once under a tree en route to a double bogey.
She did manage a pair of par saves to keep her near the top of the leaderboard, before unraveling briefly down the stretch.
Hull, who shot 4 under on Thursday, also finished 3 over on the day. She bogeyed three of her last four holes, but she's in the thick of it, just 5 shots off the pace.
“I thought I played pretty well,” Hull said. “I just couldn't make any putts. It was trickier because of the wind. I'm not sure what the weather is going to be like, but I feel like I can go low here on the weekend.”