THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 18, 2024

Nelly Korda

The Club at Carlton Woods

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Here with Nelly Korda following her 4-under 68 in the first round.

Q. Difficult conditions out there in the afternoon; how satisfying was this round today?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I started off with a bogey today, and honestly, I just hit two loose drives out there, which I think it's the key to this golf course because if you get in the rough and with the firmness of these greens, it's just impossible to stop. Overall drove the ball really well and definitely capitalized on some shorter clubs into the greens on the back nine.

Q. Can you touch on how different you think the course played this afternoon or how it plays in the afternoon?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I think overall, I think the wind kind of was consistent throughout the entire day. Jason was out here walking in the morning, and he said it was pretty windy, as well. Obviously I think with playing in the afternoon, the greens get a little bit more baked out. With them already being firm, it's quite tough to really stop them.

But yeah, I think the difficulty of this golf course compared to last year, I would say the firmness of the greens is just by far the biggest difference because I know last year we got so much rain that it was actually really, really soft. They're definitely rolling out on the fairways, and they're really firm, and they're not that fast, but they're just really firm.

Q. How do you make adjustments on your approach shots when they're that firm?

NELLY KORDA: You hit and pray. I had a wedge shot on the back nine, and honestly I had like 80 yards, and I landed -- it released 20 yards on me, and I hit my highest lofted club, a 58-degree, and it was downwind, so that doesn't help, as well. You try your best to adjust to it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you actually get a soft patch and it comes up way shorter than you think. In a sense, it's all a guessing game, as well.

Q. Obviously figured this golf course out last year and had to relearn it this year it sounds like. How challenging is that to put the history away and really focus on what's ahead of you to re-learn something that's playing a totally different way than it did last year?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I think of it as I would say every girl is kind of adjusting to it this year that played last year, and the girls that didn't play are playing this for the first time, as well. I always try to take a golf course how it's playing right now, not how it was playing maybe last year, because if you do that, then you're just kind of reminiscing about the past. That never kind of leads you anywhere.

But overall, that's why you have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You get your prep done and you kind of figure out the golf course that way.

Q. You birdied four of your last six today. What clicked for you down the stretch?

NELLY KORDA: Two of them were par-5s, so I got to take advantage of that with my length. Hit a really good tee shot, and then I was just on the front of the green on 17, and the other one I was just on the fringe, too. I two-putted pretty much for birdie on those.

Then I had wedge shots in on the other two, too. Taking advantage of my length and hitting good tee shots.

Q. Did this first round feel any different than some of those other weeks?

NELLY KORDA: Definitely a little more tired today. I think just a week -- I think those three weeks, I didn't think that it was going to drain me as much as it did maybe mentally. I was dead when I got home. I just didn't even leave my house for the first two days, which was nice, because I had contact naps with Greyson, which was just so wholesome and so amazing.

I can definitely still feel maybe a little bit of tiredness, so it took me a while to get going. I felt the nerves definitely at the start of the round. Once I made the turn, I was just playing free golf.

Q. What percentage of your battery did you have at the start of your day?

NELLY KORDA: Today? I was like, my phone battery? I was like, no, I can't. Sorry, that's where I am right now.

I don't know. I would say maybe about 70 percent, and then once I got past -- I think 12 is a par-5. I actually had an apple on 13, and that gave me actually a nice boost. I felt a lot better after that. Maybe I should have apples more often.

Q. Are you someone who keeps track of what side of the draw you get in a given tournament?

NELLY KORDA: No, I know it's always luck of the draw in a sense, but I've had my fair share of late-early, early-late, and you've just got to make the most of it. You can't really get too caught up in that, be like, oh, I had the worse side of the draw or I have the better side of the draw. You've just got to go out there and perform.

Q. You were talking about a shot on the back nine, on No. 2, your 11th hole, you had a shot where you ended up hitting it over the green. You and Jason were talking about not wanting to leave it in the bunker. But it sounded like a shot that just because of the conditions and out of the rough it was going to be hard to hold the green. How do you game plan for that?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, it's easier said than done. I feel like once I hit it, we kind of talked about maybe hitting an 8-iron over to the left and having more green to work with. But we made the call of hitting a little controlled 7, and unfortunately with the firmness of the greens and kind of the shootiness when you hit it out of the rough, it makes it hard to stop. I landed probably three on the green, and it went over into the rough, and it's just dead there. You're just judging a bounce and in a sense a little luck.

Q. I know you're a WHOOP person. What's the stat that you play the closest attention to in terms of what's most important for you?

NELLY KORDA: My sleep. For sure my recovery I would say. I try to get to bed always at 9:30, 10:00, no matter events. I would say the one that I look at the most is definitely my sleep and recovery.

Q. Do you hit that most of the time pretty well, like 100 percent?

NELLY KORDA: No. No.

Q. You talked about having some nerves early; that looked about as stress-free as any 68 we've ever seen. At what point did you relax and get into the rhythm of the round?

NELLY KORDA: After I made my first birdie. Actually I had the apple on the hole I made my birdie. After that I just kind of buckled down and actually Jay told me, okay, let's get it back here now. He can read me so well, and I'm very open and honest with him of what I'm feeling internally. A lot of people may not see it, but I always am very vocal with him because he's my teammate out there, and he knows what to say at the right time.

Yeah, he helped a lot, and after my first birdie, I really relaxed into the round.