LOS ANGELES — Nelly Korda fell just short of her first U.S. Women’s Open title a year ago, coming up second to Maja Stark in a finish that was painfully appropriate for her inexplicably winless calendar year.But that disappointment at Erin Hills is a primary reason Korda arrived at venerable Riviera this week as the world’s No. 1 player and a favorite to raise the trophy at the 81st Open.“I was just hungry for more,” Korda said of last year’s Open experience. “Last year was just a weird year of kind of not necessarily playing my best, but also when I did, not getting the bounces or just missing by a centimeter here and there. But I also learned a lot about myself. It made me hungrier to be in those positions.”Korda has been eating this year, all right.A dominant major title at The Chevron Championship. Three victories overall. Three more second-place finishes, and an emphatic return to the top of the rankings.Korda says she welcomes the pressure that accompanies her success, and she is thrilled to be under the spotlight and playing for the richest prize pool in women’s golf at the first women’s Open ever held at Riviera, the 100-year-old country club nestled in Pacific Palisades and patronized by decades of Hollywood royalty.“I’m just motivated to put myself into that position, to grind on off weeks, to just play the game,” Korda said. “It’s really hard to explain, but there’s nothing better when you’re a very competitive person than being in the hunt on a back nine at a tournament. There’s a really big rush of emotions. Even if it doesn’t work out, you constantly want to put yourself back into that, because all that work that you’ve put in in your off weeks. That’s what makes it worth it.”Korda took the past two weeks off to make sure she was fully rested and prepared for the Open and for Riviera, a course she had played only once before this week. This tournament has nev …
