A clueless golf fan was seen picking up world No. 3 Nelly Korda’s ball as she competed at the Evian Championship in France over the weekend. Korda was hunting down her second major title when out competing at the Evian Resort during Sunday’s final round.
During the day’s play though, the Olympic champion found herself engulfed in some fan controversy, as a supporter watching on decided to pick up the world No. 3’s ball after it came to rest near the spectator ropes. Korda was out on the sixth hole when the chaos played out.
As a result, the American sent her second shot into the shrubbery down the right-hand side of the hole - alongside the spectator area.
One woman watching on though broke the sacred rule for every golf fan, as she decided to pick up Korda’s ball after it came to rest before parading it up and down the spectator path. An angered marshal frantically ran over, asking the fan to put the ball back where she had found it.
And this she did, as her excitement of finding what she thought to be an impressive souvenir turned into shock and embarrassment. Despite not receiving a penalty, Korda went on to card a double bogey on the sixth, after struggling to recover from her misplaced second shot.
This unsurprisingly went on to hamper the world No. 3’s title chances despite still carding a two-under-par 69. As a result she finished the tournament 13-under, leaving her in a seven-way tie in eighth, which included England star and 2018 Open champion Georgia Hall.
Korda found herself four shots off eventual winner Brooke Henderson, as the Canadian’s level-par 71 proved enough to secure her second major title, one shot ahead of America’s Sophia Schubert. Earlier in the day Henderson nearly surrendered her advantage with a four-putt, but soon recovered to win the title.
On a rollercoaster final round she said: “I'm super excited to have my second major win… It was definitely an interesting day. Not the day I wanted but I stayed patient. The saying is majors are won on the back nine on Sunday, so I kept that in mind.”
