After slow start, Nelly Korda wakes up with birdie run, eagle at TOC

ORLANDO, Fla. – That didn’t take long.

Nelly Korda, who delivered one of the best shots of last season when she nearly jarred a 7-wood for albatross at the KPMG Women’s PGA, needed only 11 holes to record her first eagle of the new year on Thursday. From 222 yards out at Lake Nona’s par-5 11th hole, Korda flushed a hybrid to 4 feet.

The shot highlighted an opening 4-under 68 that has the world No. 1 a shot off Gaby Lopez’s lead at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. But it arguably wasn’t the most crucial of the day.

Korda bogeyed two of her first four holes before rattling off three straight birdies, at Nos. 5-7. The first of the run, after a stuffed 58-degree wedge on the…