For two weeks each season, the LPGA Tour completely changes up its typical week-to-week test and serves up a completely different type of challenge – links golf.

For LPGA athletes like Nanna Koertsz Madsen, the two-week stretch is just enough to quench her thirst for the creative demands that come with playing the unique style of golf.

“It's fun. I like to play this golf twice a year, not every week,” Koerstz Madsen joked after her round on Friday. “It's really good to get here and try some of the shots, but it's also when you're in wind for a long time, you tend to move around in your swing.”

For many of the players who make the annual trip to compete in back-to-back weeks at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open and AIG Women’s Open, it’s a chance to connect with the game’s roots by competing in Scotland and other parts of the UK, playing the game like it was played at its origin. And for the women who call the region home, many of whom travel for months at a time, they get a chance to reconnect with their roots, too.

With a week off between The Amundi Evian Championship and this week’s ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open, Koerstz Madsen took a trip to Italy with a friend and then returned to her native Denmark. Having a bit of time away from the game has served the Dane well through the first two days of the Women’s Scottish Open, where she carded opening rounds of 68 and 66 to jump up the leaderboard on Friday at Dundonald Links.

“It was great,” Koerstz Madsen said about her vacation. “It was nice to get a couple of days off golf. We had lovely weather in Denmark as well, so this is a big contrast to that.”

Koerstz Madsen went out in the morning wave early on Friday, where players dealt with the conditions they’ve come to expect from competing in Scotland – wind, rain and cold. But Koerstz Madsen managed the challenges well as she began her day on the back nine and rattled off three birdies in her first five holes to go out in 33. She bookended her second nine with a pair of birdies on the first, second, eighth and ninth holes, offset by a single bogey on the par-3 4th to sit at 10-under through two rounds at Dundonald Links.

“I'm happy how I'm playing these two days,” Koerstz Madsen said after her second round. “It was chilly this morning. A lot more wind today than yesterday. A little bit more tricky.”

Figuring out how to manage a links-style test like the one Koerstz Madsen and the rest of the field are facing this week at Dundonald Links is something that is often learned over time, especially for players who didn’t grow up playing this type of golf. However, for Koerstz Madsen, who played junior golf throughout the region, she has experience gleaned from not only seven prior starts at the Women’s Scottish Open but also playing junior tournaments at Dundonald. That’s not to say it’s the kind of golf that the Dane relishes, but she’s open to the challenge it presents when the Tour tees it up at this event and the AIG Women’s Open in consecutive weeks.

Koerstz Madsen feels like the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open is great preparation for next week’s major championship, and with two top 10s so far this season and a quest to win for a second time on the LPGA Tour, the Dane knows what she needs to do this weekend to give herself a chance at Dundonald Links.

“Stay in play, make a couple of putts and don't go too aggressive to the pins that are close to some of the edges,” Koerstz Madsen said about her plan for the next 36 holes. “Normally, I prefer really fast greens, but they break less than we normally play on, so I tend to putt quite well here. I like them.”

Refreshed Nanna Koerstz Madsen Jumps Up ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open Leaderboard

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