Nelly Korda with another 65 leaves the field behind at Chevron Championship

Nelly Korda with another 65 leaves the field behind at Chevron Championship

HOUSTON — Nelly Korda is playing with so much control even her misses are right where she’s aiming. She birdied her last two holes Friday with exquisite irons shots for another 7-under 65, giving her a daunting seven-shot lead going into the weekend at The Chevron Championship.

Korda has made only one bogey through 36 holes at Memorial Park, missing a 3-foot putt on the sixth hole after a nifty chip from below the green.

Otherwise, the two-time major champion has been practically flawless in reaching 14-under 130 that makes her appear to be playing a different course.

“I’m comfortable with my game,” Korda said. “I think where I’m the most comfortable is definitely with my mindset of knowing when I mess up I’ll figure it out. Sometimes I think you get stuck in wanting to play well and wanting to be at the top always that you have this tension of not wanting to make a mistake.

“I think there is a power in knowing it’s OK to make a mistake and just bounce back.”

She had a seven-shot lead over Ryan O’Toole (68) and Texas junior Farah O’Keefe (69), one of eight amateurs in the field. Among those still on the course, only Patty Tavatanakit had a chance to get closer to Korda.

O’Keefe didn’t get her invitation to The Chevron until after the Augusta National Women’s Amateur three weeks ago, and she’s making the most of it. She played bogey-free in the second round, though she only managed one birdie on the par 5s.

But her scrambling saved her, and the 20-year-old didn’t seem all that fazed by Korda on the verge of running away with this major.

“I compared it to Rory (McIlroy) at the Masters. You never know what can happen in golf,” O’Keefe said, referring to McIlroy losing a six-shot lead on the weekend at the Masters before going on to win for the second straight time.

“There is so much random out there that you can get a bad break and it’s just kind of that thing,” she said. “My dad and I called it that golf is a staring contest and all you have to do is not blink first. So I’m just trying not to blink. Just trying to keep playing my game, and whatever that ends up at the end of the week is where it ends up.”

Korda, however, has hit her stride again. She won the season opener in a weather-shortened event, and has played in the final group in all four of her tournaments.

She looks calm and poised, and there is power.

Korda began her great closing stretch with a 3-wood into the wind from 221 yards that landed in the perfect spot to roll out 15 feet beyond the hole, leaving an eagle putt that grazed the right edge of the cup.