​You’d be crazy to bet on world No. 1 Nelly Korda missing a cut. But if you had to, this week might have been the time to do it, given the Evian Championship—the fourth of five LPGA majors on the calendar. Korda arrived tired, with the tournament set at the scenic and hilly Evian Resort in the French Alps. Like many players, she was competing in her second major in three weeks and adjusting to a new time zone. “Trying to prioritize sleep and rest,” she said. “It’s a lot, definitely.”
Her outlook at Evian wasn’t helped by a relationship with the venue that’s never quite clicked. Korda admitted, “I don’t know. It’s Evian. That’s all I’m going to say, is that it’s — I’ve hit some really good shots and ended up in some really bad places and hit some bad places and ended up in good places.” Not exactly a glowing endorsement.
You’d also be crazy to bet on the other world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, missing a cut. But if you had to, this week might have been the time to do it, as the Scottish Open served as the lead‑in to the Open Championship, the fourth and final major on the men’s calendar. The case against Scheffler was weaker than the one against Korda, yet if you were hunting betting ammo, you’d quickly learn that Scheffler has never shown his best stuff on Tom Doak’s Renaissance Club course. That doesn’t mean he’s been poor—before this week he posted two top‑10s and a MC at this event—but he hadn’t dominated. “A golf course I feel like I can play well on,” Scheffler said Friday, “I just haven’t for some reason.”
Yet, as the betting world would have it, those outrageous wagers would have paid off. In perhaps one of the strangest Fridays in modern pro golf, both Korda and Scheffler exited early. Korda shot 74-69 to miss the Evian cut by one stroke, marking her first missed cut in 34 starts, a stretch spanning roughly two years. Scheffler posted 68-72 to miss the Scottish Open cut by two, his first missed cut in 78 starts, a run of about four years. Justin Ray, a stats guru, noted that the double misfire marked the first time since the Rolex Rankings began in 2006 that the men’s and women’s No. 1s both missed the cut on the same day. That’s the essence of greatness: even when they falter, they manage to leave a mark in the record books.
What went wrong? Korda did not speak to the press after either round, but it’s clear she was undone on Thursday by a sequence that started hot—the first eight holes all under par—then soured over the final 10, with 34 putts on the day. On Friday she recovered somewhat, though not enough to climb back into contention. She faced several crucial birdie attempts from 8 to 10 feet on the closing holes, only to pull them short on 17 and 18.
Scheffler’s day followed a similar arc of expectation, with early promise and late stumbles, though his woes didn’t come with the same degree of drama as Korda’s. He described the course as one he felt he should be able to conquer, yet admitted the round hadn’t gone as planned. In the end, both No. 1s failed to finish with the rounds their reputations would have suggested, and both went home early, leaving the door open for others to claim the headlines and the week’s major prizes.