[PHOTO: Cliff Hawkins]
Welcome to Nelly Korda’s house. It’s called Pelican Golf Club, but the trophy stays with her. The world No.1, in her first LPGA tournament in two months after suffering a neck injury, entered the back nine with six others a stroke behind Charley Hull, and rattled off five straight birdies from the 11th to 15th holes as part of a back-nine charge for a closing three-under 67 to finish at 14-under, winning by three shots for her third career victory in the LPGA’s Annika event in only four appearances.
The title is Korda’s seventh LPGA victory this season, adding more ink to one of the most successful LPGA years in more than a decade. This is the first time since Yani Tseng in 2011 that someone has won seven times in a year, and Korda is the first American to accomplish the feat since Hall of Famer Beth Daniel did so in 1990.
Achieving this historic mark happened only because of the ferocity with which Korda attacked rehabbing her neck injury, working with her physio trainer Kim Baughman three times a day to strengthen her neck.
“It’s so nice to play in front of friends and family so close to home,” Korda said. “I think that’s what makes me so comfortable out here. Didn’t start the day the way I wanted to, but it’s not how you start it’s how you finish. To have that run that I did on those five holes, yeah, just kept myself in it all day.”
Korda, 26, battled migraines starting in September during the Solheim Cup, where only a dark room would give her reprieve from pain. She suffered a neck injury in her practice leading up to the Asia Swing, a consequence of trying to manage her migraine pain. Korda withdrew from a pair of tournaments in South Korea and Malaysia, primarily focusing on rehab during the past two months.
To get Korda right, Baughman would drive 40 minutes to Korda’s home three times a day to work for up to 45 minutes on strengthening her neck. They attacked the rehab uncertain if Korda’s body, which has dealt with injuries that have sidelined her in four of the past five seasons, would let her recover in time to compete. She got healthy enough to pick up a club only two weeks ago.
“I think she needs a vacation that I will gladly pay for,” Korda joked.
Korda’s team developed a mini-boot camp to prepare her for the week, with swing coach Jamie Mulligan flying across the US last weekend to work with Korda. Her first coach, David Whelan, and caddie, Jason McDede, also helped prepare her.
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Korda’s return accompanied one of the most well-attended pro-am days in tour history, as she partnered with WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark on Wednesday in Belleair, Florida. Korda showed no signs of injury with her 66-66 start – she’s averaging 66.5 in 15 competitive rounds at the course – and battled back from trailing Hull by four through the first seven holes on Saturday by playing the final 11 holes in five-under to be down only one shot to the Englishwoman going into the final day.
Korda was not punished after playing the front nine in two-over-par, trailing by two as she stepped to the 11th tee. She made six straight one-putts on some of the fastest greens the tour plays as part of a nervy flurry of birdies and salvaged a 10-footer for par on the 16th to remain two ahead.
“You should have felt the nerves that I was feeling on the back nine,” Korda said. “And then just after taking some time off with an injury, it feels great to be back out here. Nothing like being in the hunt, the adrenaline feeling on the back nine, and being in contention. I love it so much.”
The now 15-time winner played the back nine in eight-under over the weekend. Her brother, professional tennis player Sebastian Korda, surprised her by watching as the siblings hadn’t seen each other since Nelly watched him compete at the US Open in early September, bringing his sister to tears when she saw him for the first time and realised it was the first time he’d seen her win in person.
“She’s absolutely fierce,” Sebastian said. “She’s clutch. There is no one I guess works harder than her.”
Nothing beats the love and support from family 🫶@NellyKorda | @SebiKorda pic.twitter.com/RNDyvA0oEJ
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 17, 2024
Her second victory in her home state brings another high to a tumultuously successful 2024 campaign. She started a run of winning five in a row in January in her home city at Bradenton Country Club in the Drive On Championship. She took the opening Asian Swing off before sweeping the LPGA’s West Coast Swing, winning the Se Ri Pak Championship, Ford Championship and T-Mobile LPGA Match Play before capping off the third five-straight victory run in LPGA history in the Chevron Championship in April. The two-time major champion won her sixth tournament two events later in the Mizuho Americas Open in May.
Then she shockingly posted a round in the 80s in both the US Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, missing three straight cuts for the first time in her career. The group of McDede, whom she has been with for eight seasons, Baughman and Mulligan all stood with her as they got her game reassembled.
She stabilised her results with a T-2 in the AIG Women’s Open, a 3-1-0 performance in the Solheim Cup, and a T-5 in the Kroger Queen City championship before sustaining the neck injury. Even without teeing it up, Korda secured her first LPGA Player of the Year honours earlier this month.
History awaits Korda as she heads to the CME Group Tour Championship. With the $US487,500 winner’s cheque taking her season total to $US4,164,430, she can nearly double her season’s earnings with $US4 million awarded to the winner and obliterate Lorena Ochoa’s single-season money record of $US4,364,994 in 2007, which she earned in eight victories in 25 events.
Annika Sorenstam, tournament host, earnestly hoped Korda, on an ascending legendary trajectory, could appreciate what she has accomplished.
“I just hope you’re enjoying it,” Sorenstam said. “It’s so easy to kind of keep going forward that you forget really all the hard work you put in to get there. You set the bar so high so you almost expect it every week. There is a fine line where you push yourself and still can enjoy the moment and appreciate what you’ve done.”
