The No. 1 ranked player in the world, Nelly Korda, made a huge move Friday at the CME Group Tour Championship.
Korda needed a big day to get back into contention, starting Friday off eight strokes back of the lead held by Narin An. She responded to her fairly pedestrian even par first round with a terrific -6 66.
It all really got started on the par 4 third hole, where Korda hit a beautiful iron shot for her approach that trickled right into the hole for an eagle. From there, Korda’s ball striking was in its typical elite form.
She grabbed additional birdies on the par 5 sixth, the par 4 ninth, the par 3 12 and the par 5 17. While it was obviously a fantastic day, it could have been stronger. On the 17 holes Korda putted, she still had 31 total for the round. She had a lot of opportunities missed, with how well her approach game was working.
Korda hit 12/14 fairways and 17 greens. Her proximity was fantastic as well. She said there was a few things in her swing Thursday she needed to fix, well it looks like that worked out here.
While out there, a few times it appeared Korda was favoring her neck, which was injured recently and caused her to miss two events, it is a thing to look out for moving forward as she continues her quest for an eighth win of the season.
Korda still has a bit to climb, but got out in the easier conditions this morning. At the moment she is one back, but with a lot of golf still to play.
