In her post-round interview, Nelly Korda gave herself a D grade off the tee in the first round at the Evian Championship. For a player with her standards driving the golf ball, that may have been generous.
According to Golf Channel analyst Morgan Pressel, Korda hit the least fairways Thursday of any major championship round in her career. She looked out of sorts off the tee all day, fighting a two-way miss and only hitting six fairways. Korda ranks No. 1 on the LPGA Tour this year in strokes gained driving and 74% of her fairways. She even got lucky on the 18th hole with a fortunate bounce into the fairway.
The positives for Korda? Everything else. She hasn’t looked better on or around the greens this year, scrambling phenomenally. She needed only 28 putts, hitting them in with confidence and in a timely manner, something that has been a struggle in 2025.
Because of the strong putting and short game play, she sits just two strokes back of the leaders at -4. Her round started out erratic with two birdies and two bogeys on the first four holes. While her driving was all over the place, the rest of her game stabled out as she didn’t make another bogey and made four more birdies.
As usual, she played the par 5s well, going -3 for the day on them. It could’ve been better as well, as she almost made a great eagle putt on the 7th hole.
Korda is in strong position to compete for her third major title through one round. If she can get the strongest club in her bag to cooperate, she could do some serious damage at this Evian Championship.
