By: Max Bechtoldt
Two United States players will be among the group challenging for medals on the final day, as both Rose Zhang and Nelly Korda put in good performances Friday.
The third member of Team USA, Lilia Vu, took herself out of the tournament today after having the best first round of the three. Vu had two bogeys, a double and no birdies in route to a +4 score, putting her out of reach of the medal stand.
Rose Zhang was the real story for Team USA, as outside of one shot she played absolutely beautiful golf. The type we are used to seeing out of Rose at her best. She hit fairways, she hit putts and really never put herself in bad positions on the green. As usual, her putting was great.
The one slip-up came on hole 15, an approach shot over water that has caused some issues for a lot of players. Zhang completely mishit her second shot, landing squarely in the water. She did make up for it though on 18, where she very nearly made an albatross, but had to settle for a tap-in eagle. She shot -5 for the day with two eagles, three birdies and just the one double.
Korda had a lot more erratic day, which has been the norm for her this week. Her day got off to a nightmare start, with a ball hit in the water on the first hole. She then bogeyed the par 5 third hole. After a great approach set up an easy birdie on six, Korda hit in from the rough about 100 yards out on hole seven for birdie after nearly hitting her tee shot out of bounds. She closed her front nine with a nice birdie save after a below average chip.
Korda looked in strong form on the back nine, with birdies on 14 and 15. She nearly got a birdie putt to fall on 16, which she quadruple bogeyed on Thursday. The one major slip up came on 17, where she missed a two-foot par putt. On 18, she missed the fairway, thus blocking her for going for the green in two. She still managed to make a tough par though.
Currently, Zhang sits at -7, which is in position for the silver medal. While Korda is a few back, she isn’t a stranger to coming back, as she did most notably in Arizona this season. The game is in the bag for Korda if she can limit some of the silly mistakes.
