{"id":649111,"date":"2026-05-04T13:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649111\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:48:21","slug":"the-week-after-dominating-a-major-nelly-korda-makes-more-history-by-collecting-her-18th-lpga-title-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649111\/","title":{"rendered":"The week after dominating a major, Nelly Korda makes more history by collecting her 18th LPGA title \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photos: Ishika Samant]<\/p>\n

There were a lot of smiles on the back nine for Nelly Korda at the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba, even when she lost a tee ball into the woods on 18 and later had to play a shot out of the gallery. Eventually she made a long putt bogey, but it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Korda won by four.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s her third victory in 2026. In the other three tournaments she\u2019s played this year, she\u2019s finished second. Last week she won the Chevron Championship<\/a>. No one would\u2019ve blamed her if she didn\u2019t want to hop on a plane to Mexico after a major win. But she did, and hoisted another trophy. Is this the best golf she\u2019s ever played?<\/p>\n

Korda won\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just enjoying myself and I love the competition,\u201d Korda said Sunday after shooting 69 to win by four shots at 17-under total. \u201cI\u2019m just having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Two things Nelly Korda does right in the bunker that many average golfers get wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

The refreshed mentality is one that Korda has worked on. In 2024, she had a historic season, winning five times in a row and seven times total. Last year was, naturally, was full of expectation and she didn\u2019t win, but to make matters more confounding, her stats were nearly better than they were in 2024. How could she be technically playing better, yet not winning?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting frustrated last year on the golf course, and I started overanalysing everything, and I started overthinking, and then that was paralysing me,\u201d Korda said after winning the Chevron Championship last week. \u201cI told myself I don\u2019t ever want to feel like that on a golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2274296990\"\/<\/p>\n

Korda, 27, and her long-time caddie, Jason McDede, talked about the tough year. And it helped them come up with a strategy for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were like, yeah, last year wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d Korda said. \u201cIt was because I was overanalysing absolutely everything. Sometimes there is a power in just letting go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korda\u2019s ability to let go and play freely was evident in Mexico. She cruised through all four rounds, making only two bogeys over four days. Her second bogey was on the final hole of the tournament. A wayward drive, a provisional into a bunker, a shot out of the bunker that went into the gallery. This could\u2019ve spelled disaster for most, but Korda smiled through it. She let go. And what could\u2019ve been a massive number on the scorecard, was just a tiny, insignificant blemish.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jessica Korda admires this move in Nelly Korda\u2019s swing. Here\u2019s why it matters<\/a><\/p>\n

The win puts Korda\u2019s name among some of the game\u2019s greats. Again. She\u2019s the first American woman to win a tournament the week after winning a major since Meg Mallon won the US Women\u2019s Open and the Canadian Women\u2019s Open in 2004. Korda also becomes the youngest American to win 18 times on the LPGA since 23-year-old Nancy Lopez in 1980.<\/p>\n

Whether this is Korda\u2019s best golf is for debate, but it is undoubtedly extraordinary golf. And she realises that golf like this should be enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be competing out here healthy, motivated. You know, I\u2019m so happy on the golf course. I\u2019m happy off the golf course,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think that, yes, I am living my best life for sure. But golf also humbles you, so I know that I need to enjoy these moments. There have been so many times that legends have told me it smell the roses, so now I have a week off and I can officially smell the roses for a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photos: Ishika Samant] There were a lot of smiles on the back nine for Nelly Korda at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[313623,4225,64,63,208757,755,122462,313624,1745,113264,314074,146405,314075,314076,21225,44,63841,314077,85,39133],"class_list":["post-649111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-2026-golf-season","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chevron-championship","tag-golf","tag-golf-australia","tag-golf-form","tag-golf-news","tag-golf-tournaments","tag-golf-winners","tag-lpga-tour","tag-major-winners","tag-mayakoba","tag-nelly-korda","tag-news","tag-professional-golf","tag-riviera-maya-open","tag-sports","tag-womens-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649111","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=649111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}