THE NIGHT THAT NELLY KORDA reclaimed the title of World No. 1, she celebrated in unlikely, unglamorous fashion: with a drive across the desert. Korda had just won the Seri Pak Championship in L.A. but had previously agreed to road-trip to the following week’s LPGA tour stop in Gilbert, Ariz., with fellow pro Olivia Cowan. So after the trophy ceremony, off they went. Victory dinner was a burger at In-N-Out — side of fries, Animal-Style — and the six-hour odyssey continued.
“Huge mistake,” Korda says, thinking back on that night. “The adrenaline wore off, we got there at, like, 11:30 and my whole body was just aching.”
Korda frequently references the mental and physical toll of being in contention. She frequently references just how much she loves being in contention, too. This year? For a while, she was in contention every time she teed it up. Korda worked her way into the mix at that week’s Ford Championship, then shot Sunday’s lowest score, a seven-under 65, in tough conditions to rally to the win. It was her third in three starts. Her lead at World No. 1 had widened. And Korda would celebrate the win in the same way: with a drive across the desert. The next week’s event was in Las Vegas, so she headed north, this time alone. In-N-Out was closed for Easter Sunday, but she’d saved an almond croissant for the occasion. One more road snack — “I picked up some corn nuts and had myself a nice meal,” she says — and she was ready to roll.
There’s a much more glamorous side to Korda’s place in the cultural landscape. She’s the face of women’s golf, a generational talent with a picture-perfect swing. She has blue-chip endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, Delta and Goldman Sachs. She shared the red carpet with global A-listers at this spring’s Met Gala. Opportunities and invitations have stacked up almost as fast as her first-place finishes. But she’s most comfortable prepping for the next one, alone at home on the range. And when she wins?
“I get in the car and I blare music,” she says. “That’s kind of my happy place. That’s how I celebrate.”
So she drove into the night, arriving in Vegas satisfied and exhausted. She’d go on to win that tournament, too.
THE NIGHT THAT XANDER SCHAUFFELE WON this year’s PGA Championship, at Valhalla GC, in Louisville, Ky., he couldn’t sleep. He and his wife, Maya, had hosted a little party at their rental home there. They’d poured beers into the massive Wanamaker Trophy. Emptied it. Filled it again. On the course, Schauffele is locked in and inscrutable, but after years of close calls — 12 previous top 10s in majors and six top fives — he’d finally broken through, and it was worth celebrating. That night, as he watched a replay of his birdie putt on Valhalla’s 18th hole, the exhilaration of the win was unmistakable, but two more dominant emotions overtook him. “Relief,” he says, “and validation.”
The friends left between 2 and 3 a.m., but Schauffele was wired.
“I was just so fired up,” he says.
In addition to the night’s festivities, one moment of genuine satisfaction stands out.
“It was all the way to 5 a.m., and I’m still up. I remember I was brushing my teeth. I looked up and just had a moment with myself in the mirror,” he says laughing but, still, in all seriousness. “And I was like, ‘You did it.’”
THERE ARE COMPELLING SIMILARITIES between these two, the season’s hottest golfers not named Scottie, who also happen to be the reigning gold medalists entering the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris — and you don’t have to squint terribly hard to see them. Both Schauffele and Korda are diligent workers. They’re low-key and well liked. Both use phrases like “I let my clubs do the talking.” They’re obsessed with process. They’re the kids of European immigrants who’d chased Olympic dreams of their own before moving their families to the States and pulling up front-row seats to watch their children pursue greatness.
Though Nelly’s father, Petr, a former top-tier Czech pro tennis player, is more routinely cited as the force behind his daughter’s competitive career, he never competed in the Olympic Games. Nelly’s mother, Regina Rajchrtová, also a retired tennis professional, represented Czechoslovakia in the 1988 Summer Games.
While no contemporary golfers grew up dreaming of Olympic glory — the global competition was golf-free from 1904 until 2016 — in the Korda household the Games were must-see TV.
“It was such a family thing for us,” Nelly remembers. “Every four years we’d sit in front of the television and watch every sport, especially track and field, gymnastics and swimming. But I never dreamed of standing on a podium and seeing my country’s flag get raised. I never thought I’d have that opportunity. And then, when I finally did, I had this rush of emotion that I’ve never had to this day. It was just such a surreal and amazing experience.”
What made Nelly’s ride at the 2020 Games in Tokyo even more satisfying was having her sister, six-time LPGA winner Jessica Korda, at her side. Jess managed to secure one of Team U.S.A.’s final qualifying spots, thus earning the title of Olympian that neither Petr nor Nelly’s brother Sebastian — currently the 22nd-ranked men’s tennis player in the world — can lay claim to. (Sebastian, maintaining a laser focus on hard-court season, has actually turned down spots on the last two Olympic teams.)
