Keen statisticians will tell you that the best players in the world are those who rank in the top percentage of players in all aspects of the game tee-to-green.
The fact is, World No1 Nelly Korda is proof that you don’t have to be the best at everything to be a prolific winner. Korda’s six wins in her first seven starts on the LPGA in 2024 were accompanied by a set of interesting statistics that reveal the keys to her success and a few surprising weaknesses. Here are six of them...
1. Nelly Misses More Fairways Than Her LPGA Peers
With a 74.2% fairways hit average, Korda certainly isn’t the straightest hitter off the tee, in fact she ranks way down in 71st place in the LPGA Tour statistics. Yet she leads the tour scoring average (69.25) and greens in regulation (76%) categories, which just goes to show the importance of being able to scramble and recover from your mistakes off the tee. Nelly is clearly incredibly skilful at this.
Razor-straight driver of the ball, LPGA veteran Lizette Salas, leads this category, hitting over 88% of fairways in regulation. Salas has finished in the top 10 of this category for the past nine seasons.
2. Nelly Isn't A Perfect Putter
Given Korda's winning streak at the start of 2024, perhaps the most surprising of her statistics is her putting average. With 29 putts per round average, she doesn’t even rank in the top 50 putters on the LPGA Tour (at the time of writing she is ranked 61st). However, and this is a big point to note, the category leader Jeongeun Lee6 only averages one less putt (28 per round) than Korda. So there’s only one putt between the best and the rest!
Furthermore, let’s not forget that Nelly leads the greens hit in regulation category and it goes without saying that you will naturally take more putts if you hit more greens in regulation. More wayward players who miss more greens will have to play more recovery pitch and chip shots and at this skill level of the game their up and down conversion rate is high, so they’ll record more one putts.
3. Par 3s Are Not Her Forte
Korda's 2024 par 3 scoring average took a huge hit at the US Women's Open when she recorded a 10 on the par 3 12th hole in her opening round at Lancaster Country Club. A few uncharacteristic shot errors led to a very bad hole for the World No.1 and ultimately she narrowly missed the cut in the Major, her first poor performance of the year.
In overall scoring terms, Korda is very mediocre on the par 3s averaging 3.02. However, she makes up for this on the longer holes. She is the stats leader in both the par 4 & par 5 stroke averages. These are the clear categories where she makes up the shots.
4. Nelly Isn’t One Of The Longest Hitters On The LPGA
Considering her athleticism, you might be surprised to read that Nelly Korda doesn’t even feature in the top 10 big hitters as she ranks 25th, averaging 264 yards off the tee. The long drive accolade goes to American Auston Kim whose average tee shot travels an impressive 277-yards with the big stick.
Interestingly, no LPGA Tour player comes anywhere near to matching the power of the current women’s World Long Drive champion Monica Lieving, who captured her 2023 title with a 349 yard hit - over 70 yards longer than the LPGA Tour average.
There's a big caveat in all of this - the LPGA only measures two holes per tournament for distance off the tee, so arguably the stats aren't a true reflection of driving distances.
When Lexi Thompson took on the challenge of competing against the men in the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas in October 2023 her driving average was much longer. The 28-year-old beat her LPGA season driving distance average (271.4) by an impressive 30 yards, showing that maybe it’s simply down to the set-up of the LPGA courses not always being conducive to hitting the big stick.
5. Nelly Is A Long Way Off 'Hall Of Fame' Stardom
The greatest female golfer that has every played the game, Annika Sorenstam, amassed 72 wins in her stellar career. To date, Korda only has 14 to her name. While 2024 has seen her double that tally she is still a long, long way off Hall of Fame stardom.
Korda has, however, got a very realistic chance to claim a landmark margin of victory in the money list this year. She is currently almost two million dollars ahead of her nearest rival in the official money list. At the time of writing she’s amassed nearly $3 million in 2024 and her nearest rival is Hannah Green with $1.1 million.
6. Nelly Rarely Saves Par From Sand
Many of the greatest golfers that have ever lived had components of their game where the statistics would suggest that they were very “average” but remember these numbers are only a snapshot of performance and don’t give you the whole picture. Take Nelly Korda's sand saves stats, for instance, she's ranked 91st on the LPGA. But does this very poor percentage of sand saves mean she is a bad bunker player? Actually, it could simply be that she goes in far fewer bunkers than others, so the opportunity to make up-and-down is less frequent.
One thing that is certain is that stats can really help to highlight the areas of your game that need improving. So if you are serious about lowering your scores then keeping a track of some basic information on your scorecard, like the number of putts you take a round, along with fairways and greens hit, with a simple “tick” for a hit, “cross” for a miss can really help you get a clearer picture of the things you can focus on improving with practice.
