US star Nelly Korda recovered from a shaky start in her opening round of the women’s Olympics golf tournament to finish level for the day. However, the World No.1 was not remotely put off by her difficulties on the front nine when it came to the venue for this year’s tournament, Le Golf National.
That’s down to the incredible atmosphere generated by the fans at the course, which follows a similar reception found at the men’s tournament, which took place last week.
In fact, Korda was so impressed with the welcome during her opening round that she even suggested the Paris venue could be used for a future edition of the Solheim Cup - particularly having hosted the men’s equivalent, the Ryder Cup, six years ago.
“It's amazing," she began. "We were actually talking that it would be so much fun to have a Solheim Cup out here. I know the Ryder Cup was amazing, but the atmosphere was insane.”
The reception given to local star Celine Boutier by the French fans was also not lost on Korda, who continued: “I can't even imagine what it is like within Celine's group. I've heard a couple of the roars, and it's been such an amazing experience so far.”
Korda also admitted that the incredible atmosphere that greeted the players for the opening round can help give golf the momentum to grow as an Olympics event given its relatively short history in the modern era after returning to the schedule in 2016.
She continued: “Yeah, I saw the crowds for the men, and to see the similar crowds for the women is just kind of for me mind-blowing. I wasn't sure what to expect walking on to that first tee, and obviously my first view was the tee.
“Then I kind of looked out to the green and I just saw like four people deep and I told Jason [McDede, her caddie], I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is absolutely amazing.’ Like I did not expect this many people to come out and support everyone out here.”
Korda will be hoping that the fans can help inspire her to her second successive Olympics gold medal in the three rounds to come after what she admitted had been a difficult start to proceedings. That left her three-over after eight holes, which she put down to the slower pace of the greens.
“Won't be very positive on the front nine but on the back nine I started hitting better putts," admitted Korda. "I actually didn't hit it that bad. I just made four 3-putts.
“The greens were just so like completely different, just from the practice green to the golf course, they were a lot slower. I feel like they were almost a foot slower from what I felt personally. It was very much a pace thing. I actually came up really short on number one. Short on number two. Very short on number three. So it was just a pace thing.”
Korda, who is grouped with South Korea’s Jin Young Ko and China’s Ruoning Yin, begins her second round at 5.55am EDT (10.55am BST) on Thursday.
