Olympic Golf almost recorded a rare double

Both milestones failed at the same time, because Korda double bogey the last hole of East Kasumigaseki par71, which is also the last hole of the second leg.

In this unfortunate “tunnel collapse”, Korda hit the rough grass on the left of the fairway. The ball went 270 yards in the hole but settled behind a tree so the American couldn’t hit the green on the second shot. She had to save the fairway, add 78 yards and then hit a bunker in front of the green on the third shot. After escaping to the edge of the hole on the fourth shot, the world’s number one female golfer (Rolex Rankings) added two more putts to finish the 18th, par4 hole, 436 yards long.

During the previous 17 holes, Korda scored round -11 – an eagle, to nine birdies. With this ecstasy, historical scenarios were set when Korda was at the top of the 18th hole.

If she keeps par, she sets the men’s and women’s Olympic ring records at 60 strokes. If bogey, she still 61 strokes, thereby breaking the ceiling of 62 strokes in the women’s content set by Maria Verchenova in the final match of Rio 2016 and also touching the male record Rory Sabbatini (Slovakia) just set on August 1 – the closing day of the competition. men’s medal.

If birdie, Korda is the second player to hit 59 strokes on the LPGA Tour, after Annika Sorenstam – the Swedish player who is currently the President of the International Golf Federation and is also the governing body of the Olympic golf game. Considering the PGA Tour, Korda could become the 13th man to hit under 60 over 18 holes. Of these, Jim Furyk alone has achieved a rare record twice – 59 in the 2013 BMW Championship and 58 in the 2016 Travelers Championship.

But in the end, Korda took 62 shots. At the end of the second game, Korda said that using a driver – a tee-stick for the entry of the 18th hole was a stupid choice. “But that’s golf. If you make a big mistake, the lesson will take a long time,” Korda said Golf Digest.

After 36 holes, Korda monopolized the top of the table at -13, four strokes away from the closest position – T2. This group consists of Aditi Ashok from India and Danish duo – Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Emily Kristine Pedersen. Madelene Sagstrom reached -8 and alone closed the top 5 while T6 featured the second Korean player in the world Ko Jin Young and the representative of the Japanese host Mone Inami.

The second leg recorded a hole-in-one by Morocco’s Maha Haddioui on the par3 7th hole, 176 yards long in a 74-stroke journey. However, Haddioui is considered to be out of medals because he is scoring +4 after two rounds, 17 strokes from Korda.

Maha Haddioui wins Hole in one at the Olympics

Due to the storm forecast for two weekends, Tokyo 2020 women’s golf may end in 54 holes instead of the standard 72 holes.

Quoc Huy