Nelly Korda’s putter saves her second round as she holds on to ANA Inspiration lead

Nelly Korda remains atop the leaderboard after the second round of the ANA Inspiration thanks to some nice putting.

RANCHO MIRAGE, California — It was the birdies that Nelly Korda made Thursday that pushed her to the early lead in the ANA Inspiration. It was the pars she made Friday that helped her keep that lead.

With five birdies in her second round but a handful of clutch par-saving putts, Korda managed a second-round 67 at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to extend her overnight lead to three shots midway through the second round in the major championship in Rancho Mirage.

“The thing out here is you hit a solid putt and it keeps on going,” Korda said of her battles on the Mission Hills Country Club greens Friday. “You think it’s going to stop, and it just keeps on releasing, so then you’re like, this is a good putt, this could possibly go in, and then it releases five to six feet because that’s just how it is out here. I had a lot of five- and six-footers for par today.”

LEADERBOARD: ANA Inspiration

A pair of back-to-back par saves from medium distance, a 15-footer at the par-5 second hole and a 25-footer on the par-4 third hole, allowed Korda to keep her momentum and her lead over Mirim Lee.

Lee fired a 6-under 66 and is in second place at 8 under midway through the second round, one shot ahead of Nanna Koerstz Madsen at 7 under. Madsen shot 69 in the morning wave of tee times that saw all those players finish with the temperature still under 100 degrees.

The afternoon wave of golfers who could put some pressure on Korda includes world No. 2 Danielle Kang, who starts the afternoon at 4-under par, and Canadian Brooke Henderson, also at 4 under after the opening round.

Unlike her reputation as a long hitter who can dominate par-5s on a golf course, Korda made three of her five birdies on par-3s in the second round. She was just 1 under on the four par-5s, that coming with a birdie on the ninth hole, her final hole of the day.

“I’ve been hitting it really good off the tee. Even off the fairway, I mean, I’m not missing it by much,” Korda said. “Like, occasionally, because it’s so grainy out here, you catch it a little fat or you don’t catch it so clean, but honestly I’ve just been playing really solid golf.”

Starting her round on the 10th hole, Korda made four pars before a birdie on the par-3 14th, then added a birdie on the par-3 17th. A five-foot par putt on the 18th was an omen of things to come for Korda.

Nelly Korda on the seventh hole during the second round of the 2020 ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. (Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)

Front-nine struggles still produce the lead

After a birdie on the first hole, Korda missed her only fairway of the day to the left of the par-5 second hole. Her second shot with a hybrid out of the tough Bermuda rough was wild and missed the fairway well to the right, and she was still short of the green on her third shot. She stubbed a chip onto the green, but made the 15-foot putt for par.

“Honestly on 2, I didn’t even hit my drive that bad, I just may have tugged a little, and I was in a spot where I was about to drop, but if I dropped I would have been in thick rough,” Korda said. “So I just took the chance. I’ve been hitting my 4-hybrid out right a lot recently, and I hit this thing probably like 30 yards out right. Near dead over there. So honestly, I was super happy with rolling that putt in. I was like, just get me off this hole.”

On the third, Korda hit her approach shot fat and short of the green, chipped up to 25 feet and seemed in danger of making her first bogey of the round, but the putt dropped.

Korda capped her round with birdies on the eighth and ninth holes after barely keeping a short par putt inside the cup on the seventh.

“The putts were definitely rolling out a little more for sure, but I think when it came to fairways they weren’t rolling out as much,” Korda said of the course. “I think in the morning it was a little softer and dewy. You had longer clubs in I would say.”

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at Sun.@Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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