Nelly Korda will open the defense of her Olympic women’s golf title on Wednesday as a gold medal favorite despite her superb season in recent months threatening to slip away.
The world number one arrives at Le Golf National hoping to halt a sudden slump in form after breaking records at the start of the year with a run of six wins in seven tournaments.
Korda became the first LPGA Tour player to win six times in one season since 2016 Olympic champion Park In-bee in 2013 with victory at the Americas Open in May.
The American had previously won five titles in a row, including a second major triumph at the Chevron Championship.
But a disaster at the US Open, a lowlight 10 on the par-three hole, was the first of three missed cuts and could only finish tied for 26th at the Evian Championship in July.
“The game of golf is a fun game,” she told reporters Monday.
“Sometimes you feel on top of the world and within seconds you feel like you’re at the bottom of the sea.”
“So it definitely makes you appreciate the good golf you’re playing, but you’ve got to have a mix of everything in there and everything doesn’t always turn out well.”
Korda edged out Japan’s Mone Inami and Lydia Ko to win gold by one stroke at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
She and her sister Jessica followed in the footsteps of their mother, former Czech tennis player Regina Rajchrtová, and became Olympians.
Their father, Petr Korda, the 1998 Australian Open tennis champion, never played in the Olympics.
Tennis brother Sebastian decided not to compete in Paris and instead won the ATP title in Washington last weekend to reach a career-high ranking of world number 18.
“We always make fun of the boys because we say that the girls in the Korda family are the only Olympians and the boys are not,” said Nelly Korda. “So we have it in the family above them.”
Korda will play alongside South Korean star Ko Jin-young and Chinese world number five Yin Ruoning in the first two rounds.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko is the only female golfer in history to win multiple individual Olympic medals, after finishing second to Park in Rio and taking bronze in Tokyo.
She has shown signs of form this season, winning her 20th LPGA Tour title in January.
“I have the most medals in golf in both the women’s and men’s divisions, so it’s a pretty cool thing,” said the former world number one.
“If I can leave Paris with another medal, it will be very special for me because you never know what will happen in the future.”
Ko said her sister has a silver medal and her father a bronze, but she will take them back if she makes the top step this weekend.
“If I win the gold, I will definitely take them all back and find a way to present all three,” she added.
France’s hopes will be pinned on 2023 Evian champion Celine Boutier, although she has dropped from third to seventh in the world rankings after 11 tournaments without a top 10 finish.
“I think it’s going to be huge for France and huge for golf in France,” Boutier said. “Personally, I’m not thinking about inspiring people yet. I’m just trying to hope by Wednesday and then just one day.”
