Nelly Korda – “It Was Definitely Awkward, You Don’t Want To Win A Hole Like That.”

Nelly Korda and Madelene Sagstrom give their reaction following the controversial incident on the 13th hole.

Nelly Korda – “It Was Definitely Awkward, You Don’t Want To Win A Hole Like That.”

The incident occurred on the 13th hole at the Inverness Club, with Nelly Korda’s eagle putt finishing agonisingly over the hole.

With the American sinking to her knees, her opponent, Madelene Sagstrom, picked the ball up and threw it back to her with neither Korda, or her playing partner, Ally Ewing, mentioning a thing.

As play moved on, however, a rules official (Missy Jones) came over to the players and stated that Korda’s ball should have been given 10 seconds on the lip to see if it would drop.

Because of the infringement, Sagstrom had broken rule 13.3a, which says: “If your opponent in match play or another player in stroke play, deliberately lifts or moves the player’s ball overhanging the hole before the waiting time has ended, then in match play, the player’s ball is treated as holed with the previous stroke, and there is no penalty to the opponent.”

Korda and Ewing celebrate with team USA after their victory. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

The American pair would then go on to win the match 1-up, with the rules infringement the deciding factor in what was overall a good match.

Speaking after the game, Korda said: “It was definitely awkward, you don’t want to win a hole like that. By the time I got off the green, Missy had already come up to us and said ‘they’re reviewing everything,’ and we honestly had no say in it, and it was all up to the rules committee.

Related: Check out the incident here

“Hopefully they’re OK with us. We didn’t want it to happen this way. It’s very unfortunate, but they played solid golf, we also played solid golf, and at the end of the day, hopefully we can put this behind each other and move forward.”

Sagstrom, who had already endured a dramatic round when she was stung by a bee on the 5th hole, was visibly emotional as she was interviewed following her match.

Speaking afterwards, the 28-year-old said: “I believe in integrity and honour of the game of golf and I would never pick up a putt that had a chance to go in.”

It wasn’t just Sagstrom who was emotional, with her playing partner, Nanna Koerstz Madsen, mentioning that after the rules incident on the 13th, they heard heckling from the pro-American crowd. “People were yelling terrible stuff,” Madsen said.

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