ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Nelly Korda was playing such good golf in the first half of 2024 that her rivals were starting to hope she wouldn’t turn up for tournaments.
“I played in LA a couple weeks ago and she pulled out,” No. 40 Georgia Hall said of the world’s top-ranked player. "I texted her and just said, ‘Thanks for giving us a chance.’”
One of the greatest winning streaks in the history of women’s golf sure has come to end, however, heading into this week’s British Open — the fifth and final major of the year.
After a run of five straight victories from January to April amid a tear of six wins in seven starts on the LPGA Tour, Korda missed the cut in three successive events –—including in two majors — for the first time in her career and was outside the top 20 at both the Evian Championship and the Olympic Games in Paris.
So, where does Korda see her game heading to the home of golf at St. Andrews, which is staging the Women’s Open for the third time?
“You’re going to go up. You’re going to go down,” Korda said Wednesday. “I think the best part of the downs is that you learn so much about yourself and it’s always a learning opportunity and I enjoy that.
“I always try to think of everything in a positive mindset. Compared to the start of the year, obviously I’ve had some finishes that weren’t the best. But at the end of the day, I’m still learning and I’m still getting better from it.”
For Korda at this stage of her career, it’s about “not getting ahead of yourself.”
That will apply to this week, too.
The Old Course should provide a stern test for the best players in the world because of the rain and strong winds — potentially more than 30 mph — that have been forecast for Thursday and Friday.
Stacy Lewis, the American who won the event the last time it was held at St. Andrews in 2013, said Wednesday she reckons “maybe 60% of the field” will start off the week with the kind of mindset that will prevent them from winning.
“There’s a lot of people,” Lewis, the captain of the United States’ Solheim Cup team, said, “when they get off the plane and they see the weather, it’s not going to fit them.”
Korda, whose only top-10 finish in seven British Opens was a tie for ninth in 2019, said it was important to “stay present.”
“The beauty of this week is that you’re going to hit some bad shots and they are going to end up well and then you’re going to hit some good shots that are not going to end up very well,” said Korda, who won the Chevron Championship in April for her second major title.
“At the end of the day, you get to be really creative with the game of golf, too, which we don’t get to do on a lot of golf courses.”
Lilia Vu of the United States arrived as the defending champion and recent history suggests she'll struggle. Since 2019, each British Open champion has failed to make the weekend in their title defense.
Vu also said she was sick all last week after competing in the Olympics.
"I think I know it’s going to be a battle for everyone, not just me," Vu said of what she described as a “once-in-a-lifetime chance” to play a major at the home of golf.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - Nelly Korda, of the United States, hits her shot from the 14th tee during the third round of the women's golf event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, at Le Golf National, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. Nelly Korda was playing such good golf in the first half of 2024 that her rivals were starting to hope she wouldn’t turn up for tournaments. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Nelly Korda, of the United States, throws her ball to her caddie to clean it before putting on the 11th green uring the final round of the women's golf event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, at Le Golf National, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. (AP Photo/Matt York)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A tech billionaire performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth on Thursday, a high-risk endeavor reserved for professional astronauts — until now.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s brand new spacesuits on his chartered flight. The daring feat also saw SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis going out once Isaacman was safely back inside.
This spacewalk was simple and quick — less than two hours — compared with the drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA. Astronauts at the International Space Station often need to move across the sprawling complex for repairs, always traveling in pairs and lugging gear. Station spacewalks can last seven to eight hours.
Isaacman emerged first from the hatch, joining a small elite group of spacewalkers who until now had included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman said as the capsule soared above the South Pacific. Cameras on board caught his silhouette, waist high at the hatch, with the blue Earth beneath.
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight financed by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, and the culmination of years of development geared toward settling Mars and other planets.
All four on board donned the new spacewalking suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. They launched on Tuesday from Florida, rocketing farther from Earth than anyone since NASA’s moonwalkers. The orbit was reduced by half — to 460 miles (740 kilometers) — for the spacewalk.
This first spacewalking test involved more stretching than walking. Isaacman kept a hand or foot attached to it the whole time as he flexed his arms and legs to see how the spacesuit held up. The hatch sported a walker-like structure for extra support.
After roughly 10 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to go through the same motions. Gillis bobbed up and down in weightlessness, no higher than her knees out of the capsule, as she twisted her arms and sent reports back to Mission Control.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers but did not unfurl them or dangle at the end unlike what happens at the space station, where astronauts routinely float out at a much lower orbit.
More and more wealthy passengers are plunking down huge sums for rides aboard private rockets to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Other have spent tens of millions to stay in space for days or even weeks. Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking, deemed one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight after launch and reentry but also the most soul-stirring.
This operation was planned down to the minute with little room for error. Trying out new spacesuits from a spacecraft new to spacewalking added to the risk. So did the fact that the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
There were a few glitches. Isaacman had to manually pull the hatch open instead of pushing a button on board. Before heading out, Gillis reported seeing bulges in the hatch seal.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped to their seats to monitor from inside. All four underwent intensive training before the trip.
It went by “in the blink of an eye,” said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice.
Congratulations streamed in after the spacewalk concluded at one hour and 46 minutes — or a full swing and then some around Earth.
“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said via X.
Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card-processing company, has declined to disclose how much he invested in the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he’s dubbed Polaris; this one was called Polaris Dawn. For SpaceX’s inaugural private flight in 2021, he took up contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Until Thursday, only 263 people had conducted a spacewalk, representing 12 countries. The Soviet Union’s Alexei Leonov kicked it off in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image made from a SpaceX video shows SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis emerging from the capsule, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image made from a SpaceX video shows SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis on her way out of the capsule, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the crew of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman inside the capsule, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image provided by SpaceX on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, shows a view of Earth and the Dragon capsule's Skywalker spacewalk platform shortly after the Polaris Dawn crew launched into an orbit. (SpaceX via AP)
