All the talk will be about Nelly Korda’s seven (and counting) wins in 2024 — and that’s for good reason. But what happened between them will ultimately shape her continued charge into the LPGA history books.
Korda won her 15th LPGA Tour event this weekend at The Annika, adding a seventh victory to her decorated 2024 tournament resume. Recently crowned the Rolex Player of the Year, Korda emerged on top of the leaderboard for the first time since May. She grabbed the win with a lingering neck injury that took her out of the LPGA’s fall Asia swing. Before teeing it up at Pelican Golf Club outside of Tampa, Fla., Korda hadn’t played competitively since late September.
Yet she still pulled out the victory, firing five consecutive birdies on the back nine Sunday, beating world No. 11 Charley Hull, Weiwei Zhang and Jin Hee Im by three shots. Playing close to her hometown of Bradenton, Korda was greeted by her brother, tennis professional Sebastian Korda, who drove an hour and 40 minutes to catch her winning putt.
Korda is the first American since Beth Daniel in 1990 to win seven LPGA Tour titles in one calendar year and the first player since Yani Tseng in 2011. She has a chance at an eighth title and a big payday this week: The CME Group Tour Championship, the LPGA’s season-ending event, kicks off this week in Naples. Korda’s game fits the Black Course at Tiburon Golf Club excellently: In seven appearances at the tournament, Korda has three top-five finishes, and she’s only finished outside of the top 10 once. The winner will take home a record $4 million.
The floodgates first opened in January in a similar setting: Korda edged past Lydia Ko in a playoff to win the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton. A two-month tournament hiatus later and Korda was back on the course, dominating again. From March 21 to April 21, Korda played four events and won them all: the Seri Pak Championship, the Ford Championship, the T-Mobile Match Play and her second major victory, The Chevron Championship. Her streak ended with Rose Zhang’s return to the winner’s circle at the Founders Cup, but Korda came storming back just one week later, winning at Liberty National. She knocked off six wins in seven starts.
