With its thick tough, notable adjustments in elevation and collection of sloping greens, the Outdated Course at Lancaster Nation Membership presents fairly the problem for the 156-golfer discipline at this weekend’s U.S. Girls’s Open, the second main championship of the LPGA season.
However to professionals like 29-year-old Lexi Thompson, enjoying in what can be her 18th straight begin on the Open, a tough course like that is good for tournaments of this magnitude.
“[It’s] tremendous hilly, not the best of walks, however it’s a problem as each main championship must be,” Thompson stated.
Nelly Korda, the world’s No. 1 golfer, took her ideas a step additional on the Pennsylvania course that is internet hosting the second U.S. Girls’s Open in its 104-year historical past, calling it “a beast.”
“It may check each facet of your golf sport, and even your psychological sport, as a result of it is a main championship,” Korda stated. “You may get forward of your self, get misplaced within the second. If you happen to make a few errors right here and there, typically it may well get away from you.”
Because the highlight surrounds her as soon as once more this week, Korda can be seeking to hold the course properly inside her grasp.
She headlines 4 storylines to observe this weekend:
Korda goes for second main win
Korda has appeared in eight occasions thus far this season and received six of them. A type of victories got here within the season’s solely different main, the Chevron Championship in April.
Her string of wins additionally embody her daring try at setting a brand new LPGA document. Korda got here up simply wanting a historic sixth-straight match victory on the Cognizant Founders Cup in New Jersey three weeks in the past, remaining tied with World Golf Corridor of Famers Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam at 5 in a row. At that match, Korda was merely overcome — like the remainder of the sphere — by stellar play from Rose Zhang and Madelene Sagstrom.
Zhang and Sagstrom posted scores of 24-under and 22-under, respectively. No different golfer completed the match double-digit strokes underneath par.
“Clearly I am going into each week desirous to win, however there’s a sense that typically that is not life like,” Korda stated. “For me, I want to offer one hundred pc of myself each single day, not simply my golf, however my household, my exercises, life outdoors of golf. For me, that is the No. 1 factor.”
Prime tales of the week from 
Get unique entry to hundreds of premium articles a yr from high writers.• Mock draft: Who goes No. 1 to Guardians? »• Why Bronny stayed in NBA draft, what’s subsequent? »• NFL: Contract offers and who will receives a commission » Extra ESPN+ content material »
Earlier than getting just a few well-deserved days off final week, Korda picked up her sixth general win, taking the Mizuho Americas Open, additionally in New Jersey.
“I do not know how one can clarify it or how one can phrase it proper, however what Nelly is doing just isn’t one thing that anybody can do,” Zhang stated. “It is so arduous to win one match out right here.
“I am witnessing some loopy historical past, and it is actually, actually inspiring to see her out right here and play. She’s virtually wanting unfazed.”
An amateur-friendly occasion, the U.S. Girls’s Open is usually the match the place the sport’s eventual high professionals start their careers. So like different golfers in Lancaster this week, Korda has been nostalgic, reflecting on the primary time she competed within the Open.
“This occasion, attending to play it as a 14-year-old again within the day, was the place I spotted that this was what I wished to do for a dwelling,” stated Korda, who made the lower in her LPGA debut on the 2013 U.S. Girls’s Open in Southampton, New York.
“I bear in mind on [that] Sunday I hit a driver and it was a gap the place in the event you make an eagle, there was a donation of a certain quantity to a sure charity,” Korda continued. “I hit it like most likely 10 toes and I sink the putt, and I acquired interviewed after. My quote was: ‘You have to threat it for the biscuit.'”
Changes key for Zhang?
Following the mind-bogglingly low rating she posted on the Cognizant Founders Cup in mid Could, Zhang stated just a few latest tweaks led to that spectacular play.
“I have been adjusting somewhat bit with simply the general sport, fine-tuning some issues in my swing,” Zhang stated forward of this week’s match. “I really feel like the sport is certainly trending in the suitable route. And whatever the outcomes, there’s loads of enchancment from the place my sport stood earlier than the prior two weeks.”
However Zhang’s mechanical changes might have solely been a part of the rationale behind her win at Higher Montclair Nation Membership. She acknowledged her dad may deserve somewhat credit score, too, after his pre-tournament remark {that a} 23-under had as soon as received it.
“I used to be telling him that it was a unique golf course, the Cognizant wasn’t all the time performed there, and I did not even see 20-under occurring,” Zhang stated. “However apparently in the event you hit loads of fairways, loads of greens and also you make some good putts, then you may get that quantity up there, and that is precisely what Madelene and I had been in a position to do.”
Zhang added that consistency was an indicator of her play that week. After getting off to such a robust begin main the match with a 9-under opening spherical, she continued piling on birdies all through the rest of the match. She stated her mission this week is to duplicate that type of consistency.
This can be Zhang’s first occasion in three weeks. An sickness compelled her to withdraw from the Mizuho Americas Open the week following her huge win.
“Undoubtedly I wish to win this one fairly badly,” Zhang stated. “It is some of the prestigious fields, most prestigious golf tournaments that the ladies’s sport can play.”
Thompson’s farewell tour begins
On Tuesday, Thompson, a two-time Olympian and six-time competitor within the Solheim Cup, shocked the golf world with information that this can be her last season competing full time on the LPGA Tour.
“I am taking it day-to-day proper now,” Thompson stated at a information convention Tuesday. “I am not going to say sure or no on what number of occasions I am going to play or if I do. I am simply going to take it day-to-day and see how I really feel, particularly going into subsequent yr. However I am very content material with this being my final full-time schedule yr.”
In 2007, at 12 years previous, Thompson made historical past because the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Girls’s Open. Thompson’s document was later bested by Lucy Li, who certified for the occasion at 11 years previous in 2014.
Thompson stated it was at that Open in Southern Pines, N.C., when she first believed she might play at a excessive degree.
“At Pine Needles once I teed it up, I am like, that is once I realized I wish to play towards one of the best,” Thompson stated. “It has been an incredible journey. I’ve beloved each little bit of it. So to have the ability to tee it up on my eighteenth is unbelievable.”
On Tuesday, as Thompson fought again tears and jokingly chastised herself about not wanting to point out emotion, the main champion and 11-time LPGA winner was requested if, when wanting again, she might have foreseen the way in which the previous 17 years performed out.
“Gosh, at my first U.S. Girls’s Open? No, I used to be not — properly, I used to be attempting to recover from shaking there from being so nervous,” Thompson stated. “All the things has exceeded my expectations of my profession and the relationships I’ve constructed. I am simply so blessed and grateful for each single individual and expertise that I’ve had alongside this profession.”
How will previous winners fare?
Final summer time noticed the primary U.S. Girls’s Open at famed Pebble Seaside in 72 years as Allisen Corpuz lastly cracked by way of for her first tour win.
Corpuz is hoping to make use of her 9-under end there as a springboard in her trophy protection this week.
“There’s loads of confidence simply figuring out I’ve finished it as soon as,” Corpuz stated. “So in principle, it must be simpler to do it a second time.”
Corpuz stated it has been good to see how the publicity round her has grown within the months since her huge win final yr, and to see the huge images and shows round Lancaster Nation Membership depicting her championship a yr in the past.
Additionally competing at this yr’s match is the 2015 U.S. Girls’s Open winner, In Gee Chun. Her win got here through the match’s solely different look on this course, and finally led to her growing a relationship with the area people.
The Korean-born golfer has established a basis on the nation membership to assist course staffers and their households attain their academic targets.
“I all the time respect if I might help the individuals, then they might help different individuals, too,” Chun stated. “It is so particular to see who acquired the scholarship from my basis.”
