PGA Tour star Scottie Scheffler, who gained his second inexperienced jacket on the Masters final week, is not the one world No. 1 golfer dominating knowledgeable tour proper now.
Nelly Korda, No. 1 within the Rolex Girls’s World Golf Rating, has gained in 4 consecutive begins on the LPGA Tour, turning into the primary golfer since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 to perform the feat. Korda is the primary American golfer since Kathy Whitworth in 1969 to seize victories in 4 of her first 5 LPGA begins in a season.
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At this week’s Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas, the primary main championship of the season in ladies’s skilled golf, Korda will try to turn into solely the third golfer in LPGA Tour historical past to win in 5 consecutive begins — Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2004-05) have been the others.
Even Scheffler, who captured his first 9 PGA Tour victories since February 2022 and has already gained thrice this season, is not successful at Korda’s present tempo.
Korda, 25, mentioned she has been impressed by Scheffler’s run the previous three seasons.
“I imply, gosh, I do not suppose anybody can ever say something unhealthy about Scottie,” Korda mentioned. “I really like his morals, I really like his perspective on the market. I simply love the way in which he goes about his enterprise. He conjures up so many round him, together with myself.
“So yeah, clearly, as he even mentioned, he desires to win each event he tees it up in. That is each lady that is out right here competing, too. I feel that you just simply need to go about your small business. You may get misplaced within the articles, misplaced within the expectations, however I feel should you simply stick with your true self, I really feel like you’ll be able to reside in your personal bubble and luxuriate in it much more.”
Korda has lengthy been thought-about probably the greatest gamers in golf. She has gained 12 occasions on the LPGA Tour and thrice in Europe. In 2021, Korda gained 4 tournaments, together with her first main on the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Membership. Later that summer time in Tokyo, she turned the primary American ladies’s golfer to win a gold medal within the Olympics since Margaret Abbott in 1900.
Following that breakthrough season, Korda was identified with a blood clot in her left arm and wanted surgical procedure in April 2022. She battled COVID-19 earlier that 12 months and ended up lacking about 4 months of the season. Final 12 months, she was sidelined for a couple of month due to a lower-back harm and by no means regained her type. She did not win in 2023, her first marketing campaign in three years and not using a victory.
“Yeah, in 2021 I went on a run, after which in 2022 and 2023 golf actually humbled me,” Korda mentioned. “I feel [in] sports activities, there are ups and downs. Each athlete goes by means of the curler coaster, and that’s what makes the game so nice. You mature and develop a lot and be taught extra about your self. You by no means take these weeks with no consideration.”
What has made Korda’s present streak so spectacular is the various methods by which she has gained this season.
“Yeah, I do not suppose I can put a scale to what she’s completed,” LPGA professional Rose Zhang mentioned. “That is actually simply such an unimaginable feat. There is just one Nelly Korda, and I feel she actually reveals how she’s the perfect proper now within the recreation. Even rising up I’ve at all times watched her play. There was clearly one thing particular about her. So to see her do all that she’s performed, particularly the final 4 occasions, it has been actually inspiring. It is so tough and it is so uncommon.”
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After tying for sixteenth within the season-opening Hilton Grand Holidays Event of Champions in Orlando, Florida, on Jan. 21, Korda gained the following week on the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida. She got here again from a 3-stroke deficit by carding an eagle and birdie on the ultimate two holes to pressure a playoff. She defeated Lydia Ko on the second playoff gap to win in her hometown.
Korda skipped the LPGA Tour’s Asian swing and took seven weeks off from competitors. When she returned in late March, she battled Augusta Nationwide-like winds and chilly temperatures on the West Coast on the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship. Korda made bogeys on her final two holes to fall right into a playoff, by which she beat Ryann O’Toole on the primary further gap with a 12-foot birdie. Korda returned to No. 1 on this planet for the sixth time in her profession.
The subsequent week on the Ford Championship offered by KCC in Gilbert, Arizona, Korda posted a 7-under 65 within the ultimate spherical — in regular rain no much less — to win her third straight event by 2 strokes. She turned the primary American ladies’s golfer to get to 3 victories earlier than April 1 since JoAnne Carner in 1980.
Two weeks in the past on the T-Cell Match Play offered by MGM Rewards in Las Vegas, Korda struggled early within the 54-hole stroke play competitors to even advance to the match-play knockout rounds. She carded a 1-over 73 in every of the primary two rounds earlier than rallying for a 3-under 69 within the ultimate spherical. She beat Angel Yin and Narin An to advance to a championship match towards Eire’s Leona Maguire. Korda took 4 of the primary seven holes and gained the match 4 and three.
“That is positively probably the greatest stretches I feel a participant has performed in my 11 years on tour,” mentioned Ko, a 20-time winner on the LPGA Tour. “For her to win the second occasion of the 12 months and have eight weeks off and win the following three, I used to be like, ‘Man, I should not have performed, all taking part in for second place.'”
Korda’s ballstriking has been on one other stage throughout her successful streak. Amongst golfers with a minimum of 30 rounds performed, she ranks first on the LPGA in strokes gained: whole (2.76) and tee to inexperienced (2.21) and second across the inexperienced (.78). She is tenth off the tee (.76) and seventeenth in method (.93).
Her placing is not statistically pretty much as good (she ranks forty sixth in strokes gained on the greens) however she has made loads of clutch putts to win.
“I am not stunned, I’ll let you know that,” U.S. Solheim Cup group captain Stacy Lewis mentioned. “It is very spectacular. 4 very completely different golf programs, and the three weeks in a row I feel was probably the most spectacular. The quantity of vitality it takes to try this, I believed you’ll’ve possibly seen a bit drop in play at match play simply getting a bit bit extra drained.
“However the ballstriking has at all times been so good for her. Quick recreation will get a bit higher, the boldness to be in that place. I feel that is what you are seeing extra now. … I knew it was simply going to be a matter of time.”
Among the most completed PGA Tour stars have envied Korda’s silky-smooth and seemingly easy swing.
When she competed with PGA Tour gamers on the QBE Shootout in Naples, Florida, in December 2022, Kevin Kisner known as her the “Tiger Woods of the LPGA Tour.” After watching her play, Max Homa mentioned, “I do not know the way she doesn’t win each week.”
On the PNC Championship, one other exhibition that groups professionals with their mother and father or youngsters, Jordan Spieth mentioned he advised his father, Shawn, to “swing like Nelly.”
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“It is like taking part in with Adam Scott,” Spieth mentioned, evaluating Korda to the 2013 Masters champion, who is thought for his almost flawless swing.
In an ideal world, younger golfers in all places can be attempting to “swing like Nelly”– identical to they’re now attempting to make 3-pointers like former Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark, whose sharp-shooting the previous three seasons introduced file TV scores to the NCAA ladies’s basketball event.
The LPGA is hoping that Korda’s success and the rising reputation of ladies’s sports activities may also help it broaden. The ultimate two rounds of the Chevron Championship have been broadcast on NBC for the primary time final 12 months and protection will prolong from 4 hours to 6 this 12 months. There’s additionally 40 hours of protection of featured teams on ESPN+. Different non-major tournaments are broadcast on tape delay or solely on streaming.
“I really feel like we simply want a stage,” Korda mentioned. “We have to be placed on TV. I really feel like when it is tape delay or something like that, that hurts our recreation. Girls’s sports activities simply wants a stage. If we now have a stage we will present up and carry out and present folks what we’re all about.”
LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan acknowledges the distinctive alternative her tour should make the most of. Throughout a information convention on the Chevron Championship on Tuesday, she famous that the LPGA did not have a advertising and marketing division not way back.
Now, it has 4 or 5 folks serving to publicize the tour’s stars. She mentioned weekly social engagement numbers have improved from about 4 million every week in 2022 to about 11.6 million this 12 months. The LPGA will roll out a brand new web site this fall.
Together with the 4 remaining main championships and the upcoming Olympics in Paris and one other Solheim Cup in Gainesville, Virginia, later this summer time, Korda may have loads of alternatives within the highlight.
“We at all times speak about publicity and funding,” Marcoux Samaan mentioned. “These are the issues we’d like proper now. There isn’t any doubt that the product is world class. I imply, from Nelly Korda to Lilia [Vu] to Lydia, simply down the leaderboard, these are the easiest ladies on this planet. So our job is to ensure folks know who they’re and ensure folks can see them.”
Whether or not Korda is aware of it or not, a part of that burden falls on her shoulders, in keeping with Lewis.
“I feel Nelly does have a accountability, and he or she most likely would not at all times need it, simply realizing her,” Lewis mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s saying, sure. Persevering with to play nice golf although is No. 1. That is what helps our tour probably the most is her taking part in nice golf. I’d inform her to do not forget that. I’d inform her to do as a lot further stuff as you’ll be able to for us.”
At occasions, Korda has been a reluctant famous person. This week, she has talked typically about staying in her “bubble” to keep away from distractions, even when she understands her energy to affect the following era of ladies’s golfers. If Korda retains successful, maybe it will not be too lengthy earlier than younger women try to “swing it like Nelly” all over the world.
“It is an inspiration,” Korda mentioned. “I am hopefully inspiring the following era and hopefully it promotes the sport. Hopefully we proceed to climb up. I simply hope I present folks how a lot I take pleasure in being out right here week in and week out competing towards all the women, training, and hopefully that drives extra consideration to us.
“Hear, I really feel like for me, the way in which that I promote the sport is simply the way in which I’m. I am very true to myself. I am by no means going to do one thing I am not likely comfy with. Clearly, I really like seeing all the youngsters and I really like selling the sport. I imply, there’s nothing that I take pleasure in extra. I am at all times going to remain true to myself, and hopefully that method I do promote the sport.”
