Nelly Korda shoots 81, sent packing early again at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

SAMMAMISH, Wash. (AP) — Nelly Korda was sent packing early again Friday in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, another shocking downfall after a dominating run.

A stroke behind first-round leader Lexi Thompson after an opening 3-under 69, the top-ranked Korda shot an 81 in the second round to miss the weekend cut by a stroke. The round was the highest in a major championship by a top-ranked player since the inception of the ranking in 2006.

Korda also missed the cuts in the U.S. Women’s Open — opening with an 80 — and the Meijer LPGA Classic in her last two starts after winning six of seven events, a run that started with a record-tying five straight victories.

“It’s just golf recently for me,” Korda said. “No words for how I am playing right now. I’m just going to go home and try to reset.”

While Korda struggled in the warm afternoon conditions that sped up tree-lined Sahalee Country Club, Sarah Schmelzel and Amy Yang shared the lead at 6-under 136. Schmelzel had a 67 in the morning, and Yang shot 68 in the afternoon.

Korda bogeyed the first four holes and also dropped strokes on Nos. 6 and 9 in a front-nine 42. She bogeyed Nos. 11 and 14, had a double bogey on the 15 and made her lone birdie of the day on 18.

Schmelzel, the 30-year-old Arizonan who winless in six seasons on the LPGA Tour, made a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole and stayed aggressive on the par-5 18th, knocking her 3-wood short of the green and chipping to a foot for a tap-in birdie and the low round of the championship.

“Just staying really patient out there and aggressive off the tee was kind of our game plan this week,” Schmelzel said. “I drove (the ball) really well, so fortunately able to take advantage of having some shorter irons in today.”

Yang is searching for her first major title. Dealing with a back issue, she had the only bogey-free round of the tournament.

The five-time LPGA winner had no trouble with the firmness of the poa annua greens in the afternoon, successfully scrambling for par in all eight attempts. She hit her 97-yard third shot on 18 to a foot to set up a birdie.

“Fairways are so tight,” Yang said. “It’s very challenging out there.”

Thompson (72) was two strokes back with fellow major champions Jin Young Ko (68), and Hinako Shibuno (70).

Starting on the back nine, Thompson turned in 3 under 33 to reach 7 under, but made a double bogey on the par-5 second hole. Her second shot missed left, forcing a punch-out, and she three-putted for a 7. Thompson dropped another shot on the par-4 fourth.

The 29-year-old Thompson, who recently announced this season will be her last playing a full schedule, lost a playoff last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour since June 2019.

“You’re going to hit some bad shots, maybe get penalized by the trees,” Thompson said. “You just have to take your medicine with either pitching out or getting back into position.”

Hae Ran Ryu matched the low round of the tournament with a 67 to get to 3 under with Miyu Yamashita (70) and Leona Maguire (71),

“Course is firming up a lot,” Maguire said. “It’s dried out quite a bit.”

Brooke Henderson, who won the Women’s PGA the previous time it was played at Sahalee in 2016, shot 72 and was 1 over.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Lexi Thompson lines up her shot on the third green during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lexi Thompson chips onto the eighth green during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lexi Thompson hits from the sixth tee during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Amy Yang, of South Korea, holds her ball after finishing the 18th hole, her last of the day, during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Amy Yang, of South Korea, hits on the 18th fairway during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Sarah Schmelzel hits on the fairway of the 18th hole during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Sarah Schmelzel watches her shot after hitting from the 15th tee during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Sarah Schmelzel holds her ball after finishing the 16th hole during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Nelly Korda hits on the 17th tee during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Nelly Korda reacts to her putt on the fourth green during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Nelly Korda hits on the fifth tee during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Nelly Korda walks off the green after completing the sixth hole during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Sahalee Country Club, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Sammamish, Wash. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, will meet for a debate on Thursday that offers an unparalleled opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative.

Biden, the Democratic incumbent, gets the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the U.S. through a range of challenges. The 78-year-old Trump, meanwhile, could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.

Biden and Trump enter the night facing fierce headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics. Both candidates are disliked by majorities of Americans, according to polling, and offer sharply different visions on virtually every core issue. Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the U.S. government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation's democracy.

With just over four months until Election Day, their performances have the rare potential to alter the trajectory of the race. Every word and gesture will be parsed not just for what both men say but how they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure.

“Debates tend not to change voters’ perception in ways that change their vote: They ordinarily reinforce, not persuade,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “What makes this debate different is that you have in essence two incumbents about whom voters have very well-formed views. But that doesn’t mean that those perceptions are right or match what voters will see on stage.”

Biden on Thursday afternoon greeted several dozen supporters outside of his hotel in Atlanta, where he was spending the several hours before the debate after arriving in the city from Camp David. Trump landed in Atlanta later Thursday, about three and a half hours before the 9 p.m. debate start.

Trump and Biden haven't been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss to Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.

Thursday's broadcast on CNN will be the earliest general election debate in history. It's the first-ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988.

Under the network’s rules, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.

Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. There will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. The candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.

The timing follows moves by both candidates to respond to nationwide trends toward early voting by shifting forward the political calendar. It remains to be seen whether the advanced schedule will dampen the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind.

“You have two men that have not debated in four years,” said Phillippe Reines, a Democratic political consultant who helped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare for debates with Trump in 2016.

Biden and Trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. That about sums up what’s at stake on Thursday.”

The debate falls days after the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion and pushing reproductive rights into the center of politics ever since.

The faceoff also occurs just after the Biden White House took executive action to restrict asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to lower the number of migrants entering the country. Trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza loom over the race, as do the candidates' sharply differing views about America’s role in the world and its alliances. Differences on inflation, tax policy and government investment to build infrastructure and fight climate change will provide further contrasts.

Also in the political background: The Supreme Court is on the brink of announcing its decision on whether Trump is legally immune for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. That’s weeks after Trump was convicted in New York of taking part in a hush money scheme that prosecutors alleged was intended to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.

Biden spent the week leading up to the debate secluded at Camp David with senior White House and campaign aides as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. A mock stage was built at the compound to simulate the studio where the debate will be held, and Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, was reprising his role as Trump in practice sessions.

Aides say the work reflects Biden's understanding that he can't afford a flat showing. They insist the sometimes stodgy orator would rise to the occasion.

“You know this president," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday. “He likes to fight.”

Trump, meanwhile, has continued his more unstructured debate prep with two days of meetings at his Florida estate, phoning allies and supporters, and road-testing attacks in social media postings and in interviews with conservative-leaning outlets. The unorganized style that is a hallmark of the former president’s often-rambling rally speeches could present a challenge in the regimented, tightly timed debate format.

Trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of Biden’s diminished stamina. In recent days, they've started to predict Biden will be stronger on Thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent.

Atlanta, the debate's host city, offers symbolic and practical meaning for the campaign, but each side believes that what happens there will resonate far and wide.

In 2020, Biden secured Georgia’s 16 electoral votes with a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Trump pushed the state's Republican leadership to overturn his victory based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to "find 11,780 votes.” He now faces state racketeering charges.

Both campaigns held a flurry of events in Atlanta leading into the debate, including competing events at Black-owned local businesses. Trump called in Friday to a gathering at Rocky’s Barbershop in the Buckhead community to talk about his matchup with Biden and question whether CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would treat him fairly.

Heading out of the debate, both Biden and Trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. Trump is heading to Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years.

Biden is set to jet off to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest-yet rally of his campaign in a state Trump narrowly carried in 2020.

Miller, Price and Weissert reported from Washington. AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

First lady Jill Biden poses for photos with campaign volunteers and supporters at the Virginia Beach Democratic Coordinated Campaign Office on Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

President Joe Biden, second right, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden, second right, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden takes a photo with a child as he greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden, left, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - This combination of photos taken in Columbia, S.C. shows former President Donald Trump, left, on Feb. 24, 2024, and President Joe Biden on Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)