LONDON: Nelly Korda has confirmed she is fully fit and eager to enhance her Aramco Team Series record when she tees up at Centurion Club, London, this Friday.
The world No. 2 won the Aramco Team Series Sotogrande last year and finished second and fourth in her two other ATS starts, both in New York. This week sees her initial appearance at Aramco Team Series presented by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in London, and she is hungry for a first success in 2023.
Korda has overcome an injury and believes her best golf is not far away, despite missing the cut in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June and finishing tied-64th in last week’s US Women’s Open.
Korda, 24, said: “I feel very close with my game – the scores may not seem it right now.
“At the start of the year I had a really strong start. I was barely finishing outside the top 10 and then had two missed cuts. Last week at Pebble (Beach) wasn’t the greatest of showings, but I think that’s golf and you just got to take it how it is, and you have to grow from it. I mean, that’s when you appreciate the highs when you go through the lows.”
Korda is an advocate of the innovative format of the Aramco Team Series in which the first two days see 36 teams target the lion’s share of a $500,000 prize pot. Each quartet has a captain who selects one teammate at a players’ draft, while they are also allocated a further professional with an amateur. The last 18 of the tournament are for professionals only when there is a further $500,000 on offer.
Korda said: “I think it’s a super fun event. Especially the team aspect of it, I think it brings in a different kind of energy. It’s fun, it’s light, and it makes golf a lot of fun, having teammates out there with you.”
Korda’s opening look at the Centurion Club came this morning and followed up a visit yesterday to the Wimbledon tennis tournament where she “tried strawberries and cream for the first time – really yummy.”
She said: “I played the back nine – it’s a really nice golf course, in really nice condition. The wind started picking up towards the end and I know high winds are forecast for the week, so I think it’ll be a tricky test.
“Every single time I tee up, I try to play my best. There’s only one goal in mind, and that’s to hopefully hold the trophy at the end of the week. So I’m going to give it my all and see how it goes.”
Bronte Law delivered one of the moments of the 2022 season when she sunk an incredible long-range eagle putt on the 18th green to win the last renewal of Aramco Team Series – London. And this week the Englishwoman has already revisited the scene of one of the most dramatic strokes of her career.
“We actually just recreated the putt on 18, so that was fun,” said Law. “It’s great to be back. I think each victory has kind of a special place just for different reasons. This one being in front of a home crowd, in front of my family – each time I’m in a situation like that, it just feels really nice to share that with them.”
Law finished tied-45th in the US Women’s Open but was encouraged by much of her play over the week.
She said: “I played really nicely last week. I mean, Pebble’s a beast so didn’t have the Sunday that I wanted, but I hit a lot of really good shots. Overall, my golf is in a pretty good place now.”
