Nelly Korda cemented her place as the most dominant player in the women’s game when she secured gold at the Olympic Games, edging Mone Inami and Lydia Ko by one stroke. Korda joined Xander Schauffele in giving the U.S. its second gold medal in golf just six weeks after claiming her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Korda becomes the first American female to win a medal in golf.
“It’s crazy,” said Korda.“It sounds absurd that I’m a gold medal (winner). and I’m an Olympian. I don’t know it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
This marks 23-year-old Korda’s fourth victory of the season and her first since becoming World No. 1 in June. After flirting with a 59 in the second round and settling for 62, Korda looked poised to run away with gold until a sloppy double-bogey on the seventh hole – where the ball rolled back toward her feet twice – dropped her into a tie for first with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and India’s Aditi Ashok.
But Korda didn’t stay down long, showing her mettle by ripping off three consecutive birdies on Nos. 8-10 to build back a three-stroke heading into the back nine as players raced against an approaching storm.
SUMMER OLYMPICS: Leaderboard | Photo gallery
Korda, who led by three strokes heading into the final round over India’s Adidi Ashok, held off hard-charging efforts by Ko, the 2016 silver medalist, who birdied four of her first five holes and Japan’s Inami, who birdied four consecutive holes on Nos. 12-15. Ashok struggled off the tee throughout the final round but kept the heat on with spectacular putting.
The back-nine shootout produced spectacular primetime viewing in the U.S. until play was suspended at 11:27 ET due to dangerous weather conditions with the last two groups on the reachable par-4 17th hole. Korda held a one-shot lead over Inami and a two-shot advantage over Ko and Ashok when the horn blew.
Shortly after play resumed at 12:15 a.m. ET, Inami drained a birdie putt to pull even with Korda heading down the last hole.
After Inami’s approach shot settled on a severe upslope in a greenside bunker, however, she failed to get up and down, opening the door for Korda to clinch the gold medal with par with a 17-under 267 total.
“This is like total like GOAT status for me,” said Jessica Korda of her younger sister after her closing 64. “To win three times in a season, be world No. 1 and now she’s kind of like going for gold, I mean you guys write for a living this is exactly what you would want to write about.”
Ko and Inami went into a sudden-death playoff for the silver and bronze medals. Inami won silver after making par on the first extra hole, giving the host country its first medal in golf. Mone, ranked 28th in the world, has five wins in 20 starts on the Japan LPGA so far this season and now a medal to go with it.
Ashok finished alone in fourth at 15 under, one shot out of the playoff. Still, her strong showing surely introduced a massive number of Indians to the ancient game for the first time.
“I didn’t leave anything out there,” said Ashok. “I think I gave it my hundred percent, but, yeah, fourth at an Olympics where they give out three medals kind of sucks.”
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish