Nelly Korda and women\u2019s golf should celebrate this moment and embrace the work ahead<\/a><\/p>\nKorda\u2019s make-up was professionally done and her hair was down and wavy, such a different look than her signature bun under a visor on the golf course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being feminine; it\u2019s not something that I\u2019m like always in, obviously,\u201d Korda said. \u201cI wear a lot of golf clothes and athletic wear and leggings and whatnot, because I just bounce from golf to a gym and kind of chilling at home. So, it\u2019s fun to do, and I really enjoy it. It\u2019s another way to express yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Korda then made a stop in front of her digital billboard on 34th and 7th and was all mega-smiles posing in front of the ad that read: \u201cIt\u2019s not easy making it look this easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nelly Korda relaxes before going on the US edition of the \u201cToday\u201d show.<\/p>\n
Asked what her 13-year-old self would\u2019ve thought of someone telling her she\u2019d one day be gracing a billboard in Manhattan after winning the US Women\u2019s Open, Korda said: \u201cYou\u2019re lying! She would be absolutely over-the-moon ecstatic. More like, \u2018Are you serious?\u2019 This is such a pinch-me moment. There\u2019s been so many times in the past week and a half where I\u2019ve had pinch-me moments and I\u2019ve been like, \u2018Oh, my gosh, am I a 13-year-old girl still?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The LPGA surprised Korda with some LPGA Girls Golf participants there to greet her, and maybe one of those girls will one day win a major, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was absolutely amazing,\u201d said Korda, who has long signed autographs for children after rounds and often doing so until everyone has one. There could come a point in her career where she won\u2019t be able to sign for everyone.<\/p>\n
After her chat, she was off to CNBC at the New York Stock Exchange, and like any comedy, music or entertainment tour, there was an outfit change. For this appearance, she was dressed in a Nike sportswear top and Aritzia blazer.<\/p>\n
The LPGA needs and wants to capitalise on Korda\u2019s star power and translate it into higher ratings and ticket sales and more. Monday was a good day for the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cNelly is a total superstar, and as we know, superstars help grow sports and generate fans,\u201d LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler told Golf Digest. \u201c\u2026These are opportunities that very, very few athletes receive, and they reflect both what Nelly\u2019s accomplished and the profile that she\u2019s built.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool to me to see that Nelly\u2019s been incredibly willing to step into those moments. I think she understands that growing the game means reaching beyond traditional golf audiences. Every new fan who discovers Nelly could potentially become a new fan of the LPGA, and that\u2019s why days like today matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kessler didn\u2019t know Korda until he took over as LPGA commissioner last July, and he continues be more impressed by her as an athlete and person.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see her transformation and how comfortable she\u2019s become in the spotlight, her willingness to do things outside the ropes that helps not just her brand, but frankly helps the tour, I am so impressed by what she\u2019s doing and how she\u2019s doing it,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cFrankly, I\u2019m grateful to her and so many of her peers for stepping into the spotlight and doing their part to help grow the LPGA. Nelly deserves it. She\u2019s earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The majors matter and Korda has set up her schedule to prioritise those. It shows. And she\u2019s starting to open up more and show more personality. In 2024, the LPGA didn\u2019t take advantage of Korda\u2019s seven wins and record-tying five consecutive win streak. Korda is different now, too, and it\u2019s showing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in 2024, it was more just that I wasn\u2019t sure how to maybe handle it, but I\u2019ve grown a lot through it,\u201d Korda told Golf Digest. \u201cI am a very private person, but I think there is a strength in being vulnerable, and I want to show people we\u2019re not robots. We\u2019re human beings. We\u2019re gonna have ups and downs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have emotions, and I think it is really important to express your emotions in any way that you want, and just be yourself. I really just wanted everyone to see me for who I am, and not for someone that they wanted me to be, who they\u2019ve painted their story of me. I wanted to paint my own picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes that picture will include more major victories, and she\u2019ll have the chance to the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship for a second time later this month. The major will be at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, where Australia\u2019s Hannah Green won in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just going to prepare as best as I can, and my attitude is that I\u2019m going to control what I can control, and if I\u2019ve prepared the best that I can; I\u2019m always gonna give it 100 percent,\u201d Korda said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone can ever say that I\u2019m not a grinder, I\u2019m fighting until the last putt drops. That is what I\u2019m going to control. If someone shoots a better scorer than I have, I can\u2019t do anything about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After not winning all of last season, Korda is again on the hot pace she was in 2024. She has already won four tournaments and has three other runner-up finishes in eight starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s grinded her entire life, and she\u2019s being rewarded,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cThe season that she\u2019s having right now is off the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what she hopes these national audiences, many of whom might not know her, will learn, Korda said: \u201cThat I smile when I\u2019m on the golf course. I\u2019m very giggly, and I have a very different personality on the golf course, but that\u2019s because I\u2019m very much in the zone. Like other athletes we have some amazing personalities on the LPGA Tour, and they actually invest in seeing our personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photos: Courtesy of LPGA Tour] Nelly Korda woke up at 5:18am in New York City, the one that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,350095,755,138747,58251,21225,44,85,204890,11766],"class_list":["post-739486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-craig-kessler","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-lpga","tag-nelly-korda","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-us-womens-open","tag-usga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739486","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=739486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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