Nelly Korda approaching potentially historic British Open with controlled mentality

[p]The world number one claimed the Chevron Championship in April and collected her fourth major at the US Open last month.[/p][p]South Korea's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hae-ran-ryu/8fKOxFeb/"]Ryu Hae-ran[/a] then won the PGA Championship before adding the Evian Championship in France, where US star [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/korda-nelly/4OpkdK7D/"]Korda[/a] failed to make the cut at a tournament for the first time in two years.[/p][p]The 2026 season is the first in golf history in which two players have won multiple majors, and only six players - men or women - have won three of the biggest prizes in a single year.[/p][p]Korda was asked whether she was confident she could win a third major of the year ahead of Thursday's first round of the British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, on the coast of northwest England.[/p][p]She admitted she had a "love-hate relationship" with links courses, typically built on sandy coastal terrain, offering firmer playing surfaces than parkland courses, with wind exposure often a factor.[/p][p][b]"My attitude this week is control what you can control - sometimes with links golf you can kind of get pretty agitated with the bounces that you get,"[/b] Korda said.[/p][p][b]"You know you hit a good shot, get a bad bounce, end up in a bunker, have to pitch out unfortunately and save par."[/b][/p][embed guid="4fd26567-e4b9-489b-9331-46e5b8f0fa8f" url="https://x.com/LPGA/status/2082460735876034637" social-type="twitter" /][p]The American, who celebrated her 28th birthday on Tuesday, is looking to improve on her best performance at the fifth women's major of the year - a shared second-place finish behind [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ko-lydia/QwaoPVVh/"]Lydia Ko[/a] at St Andrews in 2024.[/p][p][b]"I would say with it being kind of in a condensed part of our schedule I get pretty agitated and I think what I've learned is I just need to take a step back and hit the reset button sometimes,"[/b] she said.[/p][p]But Korda said she relished the challenge of links golf, even though she plays it for just two weeks in the year.[/p][p][b]"I think that's what's really fun is the creative side of like tossing everything that you really know, technique, everything out the window,"[/b] she added.[/p][p][b]"You're like 'I'm not even going to hit the fairway here because all these bunkers are into play. I'm just going to go into the rough because that's actually a better line into the green'.[/b][/p][p][b]"When do you ever say that when you play like normal golf?... And I feel like that's kind of what's unique and fun about this type of golf."[/b][/p][p]Korda and Ryu will tee off alongside New Zealand's Ko in one of the marquee groups for the first two rounds.[/p]