The six-time winner in 2024 carded a 10 on her third hole in the U.S. Women’s Open for an opening 10-over 80 and went out in four over through three in the Meijer LPGA Classic last week on her way to a four-over 76. She couldn’t recover enough to make either cut.
Ahead of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Korda and long-time caddie Jason McDede subtly changed their club-selection process to give the 25-year-old more responsibility on her club choices at Sahalee Country Club.
“Some weeks I get a little too reliant on him, let’s say, where it comes to the decision that I want to make going into the greens,” Korda explained. “This week we decided that he was just going to give me the number, he was going to tell me how far I should land it, and then I’m going to make my decision based off that so I’m a little bit more confident with it. He’s going to disagree or agree, but for the majority it was a lot of agreeing today, so it was good.”
The change turned into a three-under 69, putting Korda near the top of the leaderboard in Sammamish, Wash. Korda started her round with sister Jessica and nephew Greyson watching on the 10th tee. The 4-month-old wore a turtle outfit Aunt Nelly picked out for him. With her family watching, Korda blasted her first tee shot 327 yards then parked her 82-yard second to inside four feet for an opening birdie.
Korda briefly dropped back to even par with a bogey on No. 12 before carding three straight birdies on Nos. 13 through 15. The No. 1 player in the world displayed deft touch with her club selection, hitting it to eight feet on the 154-yard par-3 13th, 16 feet on the 373-yard par-4 14th, and four-and-a-half feet on the 406-yard par-4 15th, the second hardest hole on the course
