Nelly Korda has been a golfer on fire lately! It, however, comes as no surprise for someone who’s carried royal sporting genes all her life, considering that her parents are retired Czech professional tennis players Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová. As if that’s not enough, she’s the younger sister to Jessica Korda, and even their younger brother Sebastian is a tennis champion. At 25 years old, Nelly has 18 professional wins, including 13 LPGA titles that include two major victories. She also boasts a gold medal from the women’s individual golf event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. We traverse the meteoric rise of the 2024 Chevron Championship winner.
Early Life & Amateur Career
As highlighted above, Nelly was born into a sporting family, with her father being the renowned 1998 Australian Open winner and tennis grand slam champion Petr Korda. Growing up around sports, she took an interest in golf after her big sister Jessica, and it wasn’t long before she discovered that swinging clubs was her calling. As an amateur player, Korda turned heads after making the cut at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open, just a month before turning 15. In 2015, she was an AJGA Rolex Junior All-American, a U.S. Junior Solheim Cup member, and won the PING and Harder Hall Invitationals.
Turning Pro
The American turned pro in 2016, beginning her career on the Symetra Tour. Her first professional win came at the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge, and after ending the season 9th on the money list, she earned her LPGA Tour card for 2017. In October 2018, Korda claimed her first LPGA title, the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship in Taoyuan, Taiwan. With that win, Nelly and her sister Jessica became the third pair of sisters to win in LPGA history, joining Charlotta and Annika Sörenstam, and Moriya and Ariya Jutanugarn.
In February 2019, Korda won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, breaking into the top 10 of the Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time. Later that year, in September, she won the Lacoste Ladies Open de France by eight shots in windy conditions, further cementing her place in women’s golf. In November, she defended her Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA title in a playoff, and she also represented the United States at the 2019 Solheim Cup alongside Jessica.
Career Breakthrough
2021 was the breakout year for Nelly Korda. She started by winning the Gainbridge LPGA title in February at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida. Halfway through the year, in June, she won the Meijer LPGA Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan, becoming the first two-time LPGA winner that season. That same month, on June 27, Korda clinched her first major title, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club, rising to the number one player on the Women’s World Golf Rankings.
In August, Korda won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Japan, becoming the first American woman to do so since Margaret Abbott in the 1900 Olympic Games. The following November, she registered her fourth LPGA victory of the year by winning the Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Florida. 2022 was a slow year for Korda due to a blood clot in her arm, but she managed to defend her Pelican Women’s Championship crown in November. In 2023, she also won once in the Aramco Team Series at the Centurion Club, London.
Magical Start to 2024
In 2024, Nelly Korda has come out all guns blazing, recording five straight wins in five starts. The achievement has seen her match the record for the most consecutive wins on the LPGA Tour, leveling with Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam and America’s Nancy Lopez. The first win came in January at the LPGA Drive On Championship in her Bradenton hometown, where she defeated Lydia Ko in a playoff. In March, she won her 10th LPGA title and moved back to number one at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, beating Ryann O’Toole in a playoff.
A week later, Korda claimed the Ford Championship title in Arizona with a two-shot victory, marking her third successive win. The World No. 1’s winning streak didn’t stop there. She added one more trophy to her cabinet in the first week of April after defeating Ireland’s Leona Maguire in the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas. As fortune would have it, she clinched the second major title of her career after winning the Chevron Championship this moneth. Korda posted a two-shot victory at The Woodlands in Texas, effectively sealing her spot in LPGA Tour history.
Parting Shot
Nelly Korda is arguably the best sportsperson to emerge from their rich lineage of athletes, and 2024 has already been her best year yet. After clinching her second major title at the Chevron Championship and fifth consecutive win of the season, will she be able to continue making history and become the first player to win in six consecutive starts? Whether she makes to achieve this feat or not, she has already etched her name in the LPGA history books.
