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Jessica Korda makes strong case for why she should have won the season-long bet with her sister Nelly last year

U.S. Women's Open - Round Two

Streeter Lecka

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Following a bogey-free second-round 68 at the U.S. Women's Open, Jessica Korda insisted that there is no sibling rivalry between her and younger sister Nelly, who was also in contention before stumbling out of the gates on Friday at the Country Club of Charleston. Their relationship is a supportive one, free of both trash talk and side bets, much to the chagrin of those looking for trite "A HOUSE DIVIDED" headlines.

However, there is a season-long wager involving an expensive handbag that Jessica would really like to win, especially after Nelly literally and figuratively snatched the bag out of her hands last season.

"I think everybody is so disappointed because they think we trash talk each other, or they think there's side bets," said Jessica on Friday afternoon after pulling into a tie for second. "We just have the one yearly one. Other than that, we're trying to be supportive. We know how hard it is out here. If we see the other one's down, you always try and lift the other one up."

The wager? Whoever is ranked higher at year's end gets a purse from the lower-ranked sister. In 2017, the first year the duo made the bet, Jessica won, ending the season ranked 26th while Nelly finished at 77th. Last season, Nelly's second on the LPGA Tour, things got much more interesting, as the 20-year-old broke out, collecting seven top 10s and her first victory in 22 starts. That was enough to get a Louis Vuitton duffle bag from Jessica, who made a strong case as to why she actually should have been receiving the prize on Friday.

"I still think that I shouldn't have lost last year because I didn't play as many events, and then I took a medical at the beginning of this year, so I still feel like I'm behind her. "

A HOUSE DIVIDED?!?!

No, the relationship still appears as strong as ever, even though it looks like Jessica's wallet took quite a hit. A simple internet shows those bags run anywhere between $500 and $2,000. For Jessica's sake, let's hope it's the former. Right now, Jessica is ranked 13th in the world to Nelly's 11th, and they've each had stellar starts to 2019. Jessica has finished T-13 or better in three of her five starts, while Nelly picked up her second victory at the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open in February and has five other top 10s.

Jessica holds the current edge this week, heading into the weekend at the top of the leader board at five under overall. Something tells us either sister would take a U.S. Open trophy over any handbag, no matter how expensive.