Since she arrived on the world stage as a 14-year-old with braces at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica, people have been wondering if anything ever gets Nelly Korda excited. Every step she takes has an air of cool about it – a Clint Eastwood swagger no matter what is going on around her. You almost expect her to answer every question with, ‘Go ahead, make my day.’
Even the East Lothian wind, which had the media center of Muirfield flapping like a mainsail on Tuesday, couldn’t ruffle the 24-year-old Rolex Rankings No.3.
But one thing did get her heart thumping after her practice round at the famous links course.
“You just never know what kind of weather you're going to get out here,” Korda said in her typical calm manner. “We were extremely lucky to see the sun and for it to be calm yesterday. It was honestly a very beautiful day…”
Then, out of nowhere, she shrieked, “Oh, my God, that is a huge spider right here!”
The arachnid in question wasn’t that big, at least not by Brazilian or African or Australian standards. It wasn’t a tarantula. But it was fascinating to finally see what gets an emotional rise out of Korda, who is almost impossible to read inside the ropes.
“I do not like spiders,” she said as she looked around the interview table for Charlotte’s Web. “It's worrying when it disappears. That's when I don't like it, somewhere under the desk. Spiders, I've seen a couple of them this week. A lot of Daddy-Longlegs out here. I was like, okay, this is just not my type of situation I want to be in here.”
The R&A’s Olivia McMillan was sitting next to Nelly during the spider’s cameo. McMillan is a native of Australia where spiders can be the size of your foot. “I think Nelly is safe with an Australian sitting next to her,” McMillan said.
That prompted Korda to say, “The fact that it disappeared is worrying.”
Less worrying to the former world No.1 is the wind and weather on the Firth of Forth. On that front, Korda remains her normal cool self.
“I got to play in a little bit of nicer weather yesterday (Monday),” Korda said. “Played all 18, so touched all of them. It's a really nice golf course. You just never know with the weather up here. It's good to kind of get all of it before you start on Thursday to see how the golf course can play so many different ways.”
In five starts at the AIG Women’s Open, Korda’s best finish was a tie for ninth in 2019. Still, she says she enjoys the challenges and vagaries of links golf.
“Honestly I do enjoy playing it because it's so fun,” she said. “You use so much of like a different type of creativity in (links) golf. I think it's very similar to maybe some of the golf courses I've played in Australia, but I don't have much experience playing links golf. So every single time I do come over, I try to soak it all up.”
Muirfield was site of one of the game’s most significant weather events, a two-hour squall that rolled in off the North Sea on Friday of The Open Championship in 2002. Rain felt like rocks as it blew in sideways. One woman, whose umbrella caught the wind, was actually blown to the ground. A couple of players could not reach the second fairway and aimed for the walking path because the wind was so strong. Caught in the middle of it, Tiger Woods shot 82, his worst score in a major at that time.
As for the weather this week, which will likely give players all four seasons in one week, Korda can’t wait to take on the demanding conditions.
“We get a lot of wind in Florida,” she said. “I'm near the water (in Bradenton), so obviously it's a little warmer there, which I prefer playing in. But I like playing in the wind. Again, I think it's such a great test to your creativity and your golf game, and it's so much fun.
“I definitely would not do it every week, but I do really enjoy playing links golf.”
Korda will certainly be a favorite at Muirfield…especially if the spiders stay away.
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