19-time LPGA winner, Nelly Korda, remains on edge as she fights on a links course. A victory at the AIG Women’s Open will complete her grand slam. She already has won the KPMG Women’s PGA, U.S. Women’s Open, and the Chevron Championship. But the links course has never been her favorite test, and she admitted as much at the pre-round press conference. Firm fairways, unpredictable bounces, and ever-changing winds demand patience and precision over brute power.

As a result, the American has learned that trying to control every shot only adds to her frustration. She came determined to embrace the unpredictability rather than fight it. Even so, the World No. 1 opened the AIG Women’s Open with a 2-over 73, suggesting the links once again had the upper hand. Here’s what went wrong for Korda on Thursday.

Nelly Korda’s performance on the first round

She started her round slow, making par on the first hole. But she followed it with two straight bogeys on the par-4 2nd and 3rd. Her second shot on the third hole found a greenside bunker. Korda looked disappointed after the tee shot, and while walking toward the fairway, she kept her head down. She got herself out of the pot bunker in one shot, but that left her a lot of green to work with. She carded a bogey to move to 2-over. The front nine featured two birdies on the par-5 6th and par-4 8th. But what happened on the next few holes will remind you of Korda’s admission before the first round.

“I would say I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with it, depending on the bounces that I get. Sometimes you feel like you’re hitting it good, but you kind of get really bad bounces,” Korda said, and it proved to be true.

Korda hit every fairway and every green after those two bogeys. In fact, on the ninth, the World No. 1 was expected to make another birdie after a spectacular tee shot. However, her second shot missed the hole on the right, and she had to settle for a par. The back nine proved more troublesome as she made two bogeys. Her first one came on the par-5 11th, followed by the par-4 15th. On the 11th, she misjudged the break and the ball veered away from the hole from a short distance. The 15th was even more baffling.

Her tee shot landed in the rough, and from there she sailed her approach wide toward the dry rough guarding the green. Now she ranks second in the LPGA Tour in scrambling with a 68% conversion rate. Yet, from the rough, she hit her chip shot a little heavy and left it well short of the hole.

The four-time major winner couldn’t make any birdie on the next few holes. Her playing partner, Ryu, who has also won two majors this season, put the pedal to the metal, adding two birdies on the last three holes to move up the leaderboard. And that put Korda’s problem to the surface.

The numbers that explain Nelly Korda’s struggle

Korda finished the day at 2-over 73 to settle for T53 when most players took advantage of a toothless course. Ryu, for example, hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation compared to Korda’s 10 out of 18. Similarly, Korda could hit only nine fairways out of 14. Clearly, her off-the-tee accuracy let her down. And again think of her admission from the pre-round presser, and you will feel as if Korda had a premonition of it.

“Sometimes with links golf you can kind of get pretty agitated with the bounces that you get. You hit a good shot, get a bad bounce, end up in a pot bunker, and have to pitch out unfortunately and save par. So this week my attitude is going to be control what you can control.”

While Korda didn’t speak after the first round at Manchester, the four-time major champion’s day unfolded almost exactly as she had predicted earlier, almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. She shared, knowing how quickly a well-struck shot can turn into a disappointing result. Moreover, the challenge here is as much mental as it is technical.

Is fatigue the reason behind Korda’s sudden slip?

After the highs of 2025, she admitted expectations surrounding every major have only grown. With the AIG Women’s Open representing both the season’s fifth major and her chance to complete a career Grand Slam, the emotional toll sometimes becomes harder to ignore. Then there is the phsycial toll after a long season.

Said Korda before the start of the 2026 AIG Women’s Open: “Sometimes with it being the fifth major and coming off a lot of condensed majors in a packed schedule, I feel like you’re a little bit more on edge because you’ve been in these high-pressure moments throughout this middle part of the year.”

Korda, who turned 28 earlier this week, shared that the tough, firmer fairways put higher pressure on her wrists. The reason why she focuses on putting in clear effort, rest, and taking care of her body. After the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Korda missed the cut at the Amundi Evian Championship and struggled at the Women’s Scottish Open, finishing T16, largely thanks to her lone under-par round on Sunday. Moreover, her tough test at the Links course isn’t an unfamiliar story.

In 2024 in St. Andrews, Korda led for 36 holes before a rough closing stretch cost her. She finished runner-up to Lydia Ko. Last year, at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, a tied 36th finish ended her 17-month run atop the world rankings. This year, she has lost two major opportunities to Haeran Ryu. And now, the lone links major poses a big question for her.

That said, Nelly Korda is clear with her mindset, as she understands the importance of just giving her best rather than trying to control every shot. Whether she can apply that mindset with this new setback and lift the third major title this year remains the story of this week. Korda will tee off with Ryu and Lydia Ko at 8:26 a.m. ET on Friday.