NAPLES, Fla. — Nelly Korda has one final chance to win this season.
It’s almost unfathomable that Korda—ranked second in the world—has yet to win after a seven-victory season where she tied a record for winning five straight. That is even more head-scratching because there have been a record 29 different winners this year on the LPGA.
Statistically, Korda has had a great season. She just hasn’t won. She’s had eight top-10s and two runner-up finishes. Her last chance to win this season is the finale here at Tiburon Golf Club the CME Group Tour Championship.
“It’s honestly a fine line,” Korda said. “It comes down to sometimes one shot. It’s like one putt lips out and you don’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf. And I’m not disappointed with the season. Obviously, I would’ve loved to raise a couple of trophies.
“When it comes down to my stats and the way my body has felt, it’s been amazing compared to [how it’s been] since 2021. I think I’ve been out for a couple months every single year with injuries. So I always like to take the positives out of the year. I still have one more week. You never know what’s going to happen. But with golf it’s literally all about centimeters and it can go such a different way.”
Korda, 27, also had the pressure of following up that kind of insanely successful season. She’s seen a record 29 different winners on tour this year and only two golfers—World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul and World No. 5 Miyu Yamashita—have each has won twice.
It’s surely frustrating.
Michael Reaves
“She has better stats than last year, but she hasn’t won and won seven times last year,” said Lydia Ko. “Sometimes stats isn’t it. Like if you did that you would think you would win x-amount of times. There are so many variables and you’re playing against 143 other players. It’s just a lot of things. But I think as a tour, having better talent and more talent throughout the leaderboard is just as important as having one superstar.
“We market ourselves to be a very global tour, and I think that’s what we see, especially having [11] first-time winners this year, a bunch last year and the year before. So I think that just shows rookies aren’t really rookies. They’re very good and really hard to count anybody out.”
A closer look at comparing Korda’s statistics from last year show that it’s been her chipping that’s held her back. In 2024 she was fourth on tour in strokes gained/around the green. This year she’s down considerably to 58th. However, in strokes gained/driving (second to first), approach (22nd to 17th) and putting (34th to 25th), she’s improved her numbers from a year ago. She’s second in scoring average this year behind Thitikul.
“The competition is just getting better. Girls are just getting really good. You see that across all sports though,” said Korda, with 15 career LPGA titles. “Everyone is getting better. The technology when it comes to that, the knowledge, whatever you want to point it to, it’s just really tough to win anywhere. At the end of the day, you can spin it in a very positive way of like, OK, I need to sit down and I need to improve myself to keep up with all the good play out here. The goal every week is to be in that final group and to raise a trophy. I would say in individual spots you definitely lose more than you win, but it’s always just a learning opportunity for me.
“The drive of competing against the best players in the world is what drives me to be out here and to compete.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com