Streaks in golf rarely end with a bang; they end with a putt that pulls up one roll short. That is how it went for Nelly Korda at the Amundi Evian Championship on Friday, where the world No. 1’s birdie attempt on the final green stayed out and, with it, a run of 34 consecutive cuts made in official LPGA Tour events came to a halt.
Korda signed for a two-under 69 — comfortably her best round of the week — but a one-over total of 143 left her a single shot the wrong side of a cut that fell at even par, with the top 65 and ties advancing, according to Golf Channel. It is her first missed cut since the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
For fans who followed Nelly Korda’s career grand slam bid into the season’s fourth major, an early exit from Evian-les-Bains lands as a jolt. Yet the manner of the miss tells a kinder story than the headline does.
What Happened On Korda’s Final Hole?
The par-5 18th plays as the easiest hole at the Evian Resort Golf Club, and Korda needed a birdie there to extend her week. Instead she missed the fairway off the tee, was forced to lay up, saw her approach finish 15 feet beyond the flag and left the putt short — the second hole running she had come up shy with a putt she needed, as reported by Golf Channel. She was tied 67th when she signed her card.
The context makes the arithmetic crueller. Golf Digest reported that an opening 74 had left the four-time major winner 11 shots adrift after Thursday, meaning Friday’s 69 — five shots better — was a genuine recovery round that fell one roll of the ball short of completing the rescue.
Who Leads The Evian Championship At Halfway?
While Korda packed, England’s Lottie Woad delivered the round of the day. Her seven-under 64 — eight birdies against a single bogey — moved her to 11-under 131 and a one-shot halfway lead over first-round leader Aki Iwai, whose Friday 69 was soured by a bogey at the 17th and a double bogey at the par-4 sixth. Japan’s Mao Saigo and South Korea’s Haeran Ryu share third at eight under, with Jeeno Thitikul’s own 64 lifting her into a tie for fifth at six under.
“Yeah, I think I just kept on giving myself chances,” Woad said, in quotes carried by Field Level Media. “On the back nine seemed to make most things.”
Should Korda Fans Panic?
No — and the numbers say why. A player does not rattle off 34 straight made cuts across two full years by accident, and her Friday 69 was a recovery round of real quality. One putt on one green separated the world No. 1 from the weekend.
The sharper concern for Korda is not the cut line but the queue forming above it. Woad, Iwai, Saigo and Thitikul are part of a generation that is no longer waiting its turn, and a leaderboard this deep at a major is the clearest sign yet of where the LPGA Tour’s centre of gravity is moving. Korda’s streak is gone; her standard is not — but the margin for carrying both into Sunday afternoons has never been thinner.
