{"id":574814,"date":"2026-03-30T19:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574814\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:55:14","slug":"after-weird-year-nelly-korda-is-back-to-her-world-beating-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574814\/","title":{"rendered":"After ‘weird’ year, Nelly Korda is back to her world-beating ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four months ago, Nelly Korda stood in front of the assembled media in Naples, Fla., and tried to reflect on a frustrating season<\/a>. A year after winning seven times, including a major, the LPGA\u2019s biggest star didn\u2019t lift a trophy. <\/p>\n

On paper, things were similar.<\/a> Korda finished the 2025 season with a better scoring average, better Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, better birdie or better percentage and better bogey avoidance numbers than in 2024. Her Strokes Gained: Approach numbers were almost even, and her putting ticked up. A few things were slightly down, but, for the most part, Nelly Korda looked like Nelly Korda. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly a fine line,\u201d Korda said back in November at the CME Group Tour Championship. \u201cIt comes down to sometimes one shot. It\u2019s like one putt lips out and you don\u2019t get your momentum. It\u2019s just such a fine line when it comes to golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think that I\u2019m a worse golfer or a better golfer. I would say that maybe last year few more things were going my way. That\u2019s just kind of how golf is. I\u2019ve never going to have a pity party and never going to be like, oh, why is it in this divot or why did I get that bad bounce. It\u2019s just sports. That\u2019s just how they are. Sometimes you get a wave of good bounces and good breaks and sometimes you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Members <\/a><\/p>\n

The ANWA\u2019s rare gift? You can see it on display in its most loaded team<\/a><\/p>\n

By:<\/p>\n


\n Josh Schrock <\/a><\/p>\n

Golf is a fickle sport. A bad bounce there, a burned edge here or a poor strike there, and a winning moment can easily melt into a missed opportunity. Korda said the 2025 season was instructive, albeit disappointing. She leaned on her team and used it as a reminder that sometimes those around you have a better perspective on what\u2019s going on than you do when you\u2019re staring at something right in front of your face. In the sometimes isolating world of pro golf, having that support system can buoy you when the inevitable dips arrive. <\/p>\n

Nelly Korda had few chances to win in 2025. Her late run at the Tournament of Champions came up short, and a regrettable swing ended her run<\/a> at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open. But, apart from those two instances, Nelly Korda\u2019s exacting, overpowering style of golf that won her seven titles in 2024, made only short cameos in 2025. There would be a flash, but it rarely stayed for long at one time.<\/p>\n

Things are different so far in 2026.<\/p>\n

Korda opened the season with a win at the weather-shortened Tournament of Champions<\/a>. As noteworthy as it should have been, it was hard to judge that 54-hole victory. Korda played outstanding golf in worsening conditions in the third round, but finished before the worst of the weather arrived and won the title on the driving range on Sunday. Then, she took six weeks off as the LPGA went on its Asia Swing. <\/p>\n

But she returned two weeks ago at the Founders Cup and finished runner-up, with a three-putt bogey on Sunday<\/a> costing her a chance to run down Hyo Joo Kim. Korda didn\u2019t despair. She teed it up again this past week at the Ford Championship and held the 36-hole lead before Kim blazed past her on Saturday and coasted to a second straight win. A win and two runner-up finishes for Korda has the World No. 2 looking and sounding different than she did a few months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very grateful. If you\u2019d have told me this time last year the finishes that I would have right now, I would be super happy with the game that is trending,\u201d Korda said on Sunday after her second-place finish. \u201cLast year, I just felt so weird with my game. Nothing was kind of going my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a minuscule sample size, but through 11 competitive rounds in 2026, Korda ranks first in total Strokes Gained: Total (4.00), first in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (5.55), third in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (2.10) and third in Strokes Gained: Approach (2.66). She also ranks first in scoring average, just slightly ahead of Kim, although Kim has played five more rounds so far in the early going.<\/p>\n

Those numbers will obviously dip as more golf is played. But the more important point is that, after a year of being on the wrong side of golf\u2019s fine line, Nelly Korda appears to be on the cusp of returning to her world-beating ways. That\u2019s welcome news for a tour that has made broadcast improvements and schedule tweaks to draw more eyeballs<\/a>. Having its biggest needle mover<\/a> in form as major season arrives is vital to the LPGA\u2019s push for growth. The talent is deep on the LPGA. Starpower raises the ceiling. <\/p>\n

Nelly Korda looks like Nelly Korda again. But that doesn\u2019t mean she rediscovered that 2024 feeling. This is something else. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year is so different,\u201d Korda said on Friday at the Ford. \u201cI can\u2019t even tell you similarities right now that I\u2019m feeling what I felt two years ago. I just have a different feeling. Every year, you\u2019re overcoming something, working on something different.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Korda, the work has seen her open the year 1-2-2. Those near-misses would\u2019ve burned a searching Korda last year. But these have left her looking to the horizon, eager for what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Caddie Jason McDede] was walking up 18, and he was like, \u2018We\u2019re playing some amazing golf. It\u2019s not time to deflate, it\u2019s time to inflate,’\u201d Korda said on Sunday. \u201cSo continue moving on with the positives, and trying to keep putting myself into that position and knocking on the door.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four months ago, Nelly Korda stood in front of the assembled media in Naples, Fla., and tried to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-574814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}