CLAYTON: Greatness awaits Nelly Korda

Nelly Korda with the Patricia Bridges Bowl.

Nelly Korda's first Australian raid was to the Women & # 39; s Open 2017 in Royal Adelaide. I wore her clubs to a relatively low 40th place and, although far from terrible, it was clear that she would become a force in women's sport.

Saturday was especially windy and her 77 was proof that she had to work on better arranging her irons when the breeze was gone. Golf in Australia is slightly different than the version she is accustomed to in Florida and it requires a little bit of learning to play our courses with their seemingly ever present coastal winds, the broader than regular fairways and scarce roughs with all the flyer lies they encourage. Steep, shaven banks, so often a feature of the sides and backs of the greens here, take marginal recordings far away from the targets and leave behind difficult recoveries.

That said, Nelly's sister, Jessica, came to Royal Melbourne in 2012, without ever having taken a shot in Australia and winning around Royal Melbourne, the most Australian of all our championship courses.

Royal Adelaide was the start of Nelly's first season during the tour and she eventually won at the end of last season at the LPGA tournament with swinging shirts in Taiwan. & # 39; Finally & # 39; is maybe hard but winning was no surprise given her obvious skills and that victory "gave me the belief that I could fight out and win here."

From this point on there is no reason that she can not become the dominant American player and the best Asian players who have taken over the predominance of the Americans over the past fifteen years.

Michelle Who would be that player, but she threatened to retire from the tour at 30 o'clock, a day that was approaching quickly. If she retired, it would be a career far behind the number of victories everyone expected when she broke off the refurbishment with a single admission in the Hawaiian Open men as a 14-year-old.

Lexi Thompson corresponds to the strength of Korda, but clearly one technique – Korda & # 39; s – is preferable to the other. Technology may not be the only and the end, but it is not unimportant.

Curtis Luck, the young Western Australian who finds his way on the American tour, plays a lot with Nelly during their off weeks in Florida and he is a big fan of her game. & # 39; She saves it much better than any others & # 39 ;, is his estimate and although it may be exaggerated, it becomes clear how impressive her game is.

The best technician in women's golf, the eighty-four-year-old Mickey Wright, is also a recognition of the quality of the swings of the Korda sisters. & # 39; Of the players that are there now, I really like the swings of the Korda girls, Jessica and Nelly. They are both special. & # 39; From a player that Ben Hogan once said he was the & # 39; best swing in the game, it is a compliment.

This victory in Adelaide is of some significance for a player who has described Ivan Lendl as & # 39; visceus competitive & # 39 ;. The defender, Jin Young Ko, made eight birdies for a 64 and could well have expected that this would be enough to catch the leader. Instead, Korda made six of her own in the opening twelve holes and threatened to make a procession into a bogey on the 15th almost at the same time that Ko entered a birdie on the 16th and the leadership returned to a few shots. The 17th is probably the best hole on the track and Korda drove perfectly and wedged to 15 feet and the putt never failed – not out of six feet. It was her third birdie on the 17th, it was easily the most timeless and it made the walk through the last hole a deal less stressful.

With what she showed us this week, we can expect much more from the brilliant young player.