Johnathan Walker:Golf's No. 1 Nelly Korda looking to regain her form – and her spot on the Olympic podium

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES,Johnathan Walker France – The more celebrated Nelly Korda becomes as a golfer, the more noticeable it is when she seeks to experience life as something else.

It’s all amplified for her. The tournaments in which she doesn’t play. The interviews she doesn’t give. This idea that it’s her responsibility, more than any peer, to expand the LPGA Tour’s popularity.

She may be a reluctant sports star at times, but she's the biggest one going in the women's game. And it’s not that the world’s No. 1 player is burned out on golf, she explained after Wednesday’s opening round at the Paris Olympics. It’s that she doesn’t want to become burned out.

“As important as it is to sometimes grind it out,” Korda said, “it's also important to just put your clubs away and just be a regular human being. ... It feels nice when you're in a groove, but when you play under pressure and you're in the final group and you feel the emotions that you do, it takes a toll on you mentally.”

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The 26-year-old Korda is back representing the United States at the Olympics, an event where she’s the reigning gold medalist. She shot an ever-par 72 in the first round, leaving her well behind leader Celine Boutier of France, who delighted a large home crowd with a 7 under 65 to jump to a three-shot lead on the field.

Lilia Vu of the U.S. is tied for third at 2 under. Korda and fellow American Rose Zhang (also at even par) are tied for 13th, while Boutier's round was the story of the first round at Le Golf National.

“Really fun for me,” said Vu, who played in Boutier’s threesome. “They're cheering for me, too. So I’m trying to keep up with Celine.”

Korda, too, will be trying to keep up and extend her country’s dominance in Olympic golf. Counting her victory at the Tokyo Games, Americans have won the last three gold medals in golf, including Xander Schauffele in 2021 and Scottie Scheffler this past weekend.

This week’s tournament, however, oddly finds Korda at a low point in a year full of remarkable highs.

When she won the Mizuho Americas Open in May, it was her sixth tournament title in seven starts. She won five in a row at one point, becoming only the third LPGA player in history to achieve that.

But then Korda missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open. Then she missed two more cuts. In the six weeks since, she played in only the Evian Championship, finishing tied for 26th.

“Golf is a funny game,” Korda told reporters this week. “Sometimes you feel on top of the world, and in a matter of a couple seconds, you just feel like you're on the bottom of the sea. So it definitely makes you appreciate the good golf that you play.”

Wednesday’s first round at the Olympics wasn’t her best. But it wasn’t terrible. If anything, perhaps a step in the right direction. Korda opened 3 over on the first eight holes. After a birdie on the ninth hole, she drove into the deep rough on No. 10 and chunked her second shot well short of the green. “In like the really thick stuff,” she said later. “I could barely see my ball.”

Nonetheless, Korda was able to convert a difficult up-and-down for par, sinking a 15-foot putt that was her longest of the day. It seemed a turning point. Korda played the back nine in 2 under and “got into that groove,” an encouraging development heading into Thursday’s second round.

Because we know what Korda can do in that groove.

She has the game, and she has the star potential. Korda has nearly a million followers on Instagram. As the Olympics tournament started, an article about her was published by Vogue Magazine.

She has the pedigree, too. She's part of a sporting family. Her father, Petr Korda, was a pro tennis star for the Czech Republic, winning the 1998 Australian Open. Her mother, Regina Kordova, played pro tennis, as does her brother Sebastian. Her older sister Jessica has played on the LPGA Tour.

Entering this week, Korda has played in 12 LPGA events this year. Compare that to men’s No. 1 Scheffler, whose gold medal came in his 17th tournament in 2024.

It's a choice for her well-being, she said.

“For me,” Korda said, “it was like I finally realized that everything that I did at the start of the year, I kind of enjoyed it a little bit more with my family and realized how big of an accomplishment that is. That life and golf and everything is such a roller coaster, it's good to just step away and appreciate the whole journey.”

She’s appreciating it this week in France, enjoying an “amazing experience" and a tournament with crowded galleries.

“The atmosphere was insane,” Korda said. “I can't even imagine what it is like in Celine's group. I've heard a couple of the roars. … I saw the crowds for the men, and to see similar crowds for women is just kind of, for me, mind-blowing.”

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