Nelly Korda's shocking double-double knocks her from contending in Chevron

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — World No. 1 Nelly Korda had an unbelievable run on Friday just to make the cut in the Chevron Championship. Her momentum continued in Saturday’s third round with four birdies and a first nine of 33 that got the defending champion only four shots off of the lead.

Then, inexplicably, Korda collapsed with back-to-back double bogeys on holes 3 and 4—the back nine for her since she started on the 10th tee—at The Club at Carlton Woods.

Korda had moved up 71 spots from nearly the bottom of the leaderboard at plus seven on Friday into a tie for 23rd at two under on Saturday. She had four birdies and one bogey on her front nine and shot 65 over 18 holes from her back nine on Friday to her front on Saturday. It had been an absolute rollercoaster of a few days for Korda, who opened the tournament with a 77 that included a string of four straight bogeys.

In the third round, she shot four over in just two holes.

Korda’s derailing began at the 143-yard par-3 third. The pin was tucked on the far left side, with a full carry over water required, and Korda appeared to make an aggressive play. But her shot came up short in the pond, and after a drop at 100 yards, her third shot came up 30 feet short, and she needed two putts from there.

The next hole, a 509-yard par 5, was much more disastrous and most un-Korda-like. Korda’s drive found the right rough and she sliced her second with a fairway wood into the trees, with her ball caroming off the ankle of a marshal and then a tree before settling down. Korda had 70 yards from there, but she launched her wedge high enough that it caught tree branches and came almost straight down. Then came the really bad shot, with Korda chunk-pulling another wedge short into a bunker. She hit a strong sand shot from there to six feet—and then missed the putt to make a 7.

After the 77 on Thursday, Korda ballooned to seven over after she bogeyed two of her first three holes Friday. She then rallied with birdies six of her next 10 holes and made the cut with a gutsy four-under 68.

Perhaps she ran out of steam by the weekend after expending so much energy and surely plenty of stress.

“At one point I was seven over, so grinded a lot on the two birdies on my eighth and ninth hole, which really helped kind of boost it,” Korda said after her round. “Then knew that there were some gettable par 5s on the back nine. Just a crazy day. Go from win a tournament to just make the cut.”

Korda closed out her round with birdies on 7 and 8 to shoot 71 and sit T-31 with an even-par total. At the time, she was nine shots off the lead of Haeran Ryu, who had just begun her back nine.