NAPLES, Fla. — Nelly Korda is just grateful. The ups, the downs. The made-up photo shoots and trick-or-treating with her nephew. Her team. Her fans. Even the time she had to take away from competition due to injury.
She’s happy. She’s winning at an all-time clip.
And it’s Korda’s world—we’re just living in it.
“Honestly becoming an aunt to little Greyson would be my favorite obviously off the golf course,” Korda said Tuesday, “but I think all the moments that I've gone through, the lows and highs, they've shaped me to who I am. They're constantly shaping me to who I am; constantly growing.
“I can't pick one certain point (about this year) because I've just enjoyed kind of all of it.”
There has, of course, been a lot to enjoy in 2024. Korda has won seven times—including last week in a dramatic come-from-behind triumph at the Annika presented by Gainbridge at Pelican—and rattled off five wins in a row earlier this year. She also attended the Met Gala (the first golfer since Tiger Woods in 2013 to appear) in New York and will appear in the upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Coming into the LPGA Tour’s season finale, this week's CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club, Korda has already locked up Player of the Year honors. She did it with three events left, as no one could mathematically catch her.
And then she won her next start on Tour to put a hearty exclamation point on the award.
“I'm just proud of everything that I've overcome this year and everything that my team and I have accomplished, so no matter how I finish this week, I'm going to be proud of the season and how we all worked together.” Korda said.
“It's really tough to win out here against such great players. The caliber of players is really, really high out here. I would say to me, it's really, really nice to know that all the hard work that I put in with my team is paying off.”
Korda is having as complete a year as anyone on the LPGA Tour—she’s gaining almost 2.5 shots on the field, sitting first in strokes-gained total for the year. She’s also fifth in strokes-gained tee to green, second in strokes-gained driving, and sixth in strokes-gained around the green.
She talked at length about the support of her team through some tough times this year, including a recent neck injury that forced her to withdraw from two events in Asia (no matter, she took two months off and won last week anyway). She also admitted she struggled with migraines during the Solheim Cup—a first for her.
Despite those obstacles, her 2024 campaign on the course has been one for the ages.
“It's great for the game. I don't know if everyone on Tour would say that,” said Ally Ewing, who played alongside Korda at the Solheim Cup, with a laugh, “but it's pretty incredible to see somebody dominate like that.”
“Her season is very, I would say, inspirational,” added Ruoning Yin, who herself had a tremendous 2024 campaign with three wins including two in a three-week span. “I love watching her do her thing. It justs makes me want to get better and better. Really impressed to see her, like witness her season, witness her success. It's really cool.”
Unlike the FedExCup finale on the PGA Tour, this week’s closing event on the LPGA Tour is a completely blank slate. Korda, at No. 1, or Carlota Ciganda, at No. 60, could win the $4 million first-place prize—the biggest in women’s golf history. The purse is $11 million.
Korda has stolen the headlines this year, for good reason, but right behind her are a plethora of players who have made this campaign an exciting one from start to finish and any of them could win this week’s big prize. Yin has her aforementioned three titles, same with Hannah Green from Australia. Lauren Coughlin won twice in three weeks over the summer.
And then there’s Lydia Ko, who won the season-opening Tournament of Champions, the AIG Women’s Open at the famed St. Andrews, the Kroger Queen City Championship and, between all that, the gold medal at the Olympics in Paris to solidify her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Incredible.
Ko, who has won this event twice before, struggled so much in 2023 that she didn’t make the top-60 cutoff in the Race to CME Globe and did not tee it up at Tiburon last year.
“I think … not making it into this event last year, I think I took for granted, that ‘You know what, I always finish the season at the CME Group Tour Championship.’ I think last year was like, ‘Hey, you know what? The level of competition is so much higher,’” Ko said. “I literally need to work my butt off to make sure that I'm qualified and playing here.”
Ko worked hard and the results followed.
But it was the year of Korda.
And there’s one more week left for her to try to end the year in the most appropriate of ways.
“Finishing high is just going to be a cherry on top obviously,” Korda said. “The goal in mind is to come out here and win.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as In the Year of Nelly Korda, One More Opportunity—and a Big Check—Is Within Reach.
