No. 1 in the Race to the CME Globe. No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. Six wins in 2024. Defending Olympic champion.
You’d think Nelly Korda would be riding into Le Golf National as a virtual lock. But golf, like very nearly all of sports, is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately enterprise. And Korda knows her lately hasn’t been her best. The Olympics could be the return to the form the top player in the women’s game has been looking for, and two weeks of hard work has her pointing to a second gold medal.
“Hopefully, [I’m] trending in the right direction,” Korda said of her pre-tournament preparations ahead of the 72-hole event that begins Wednesday at Le Golf National. Korda is coming into the Olympics on a bit of a stall, having missed three of her last four cuts including at both the U.S. Women’s Open in May and the KPMG Women’s PGA in June. She won six times in the first five months of the year, most recently at the Mizuho Americas Open almost three months ago. While she won the Chevron Championship in April, in addition to missing cuts at two other majors, she is coming off a T-26 at the LPGA’s fourth major, the Amundi Evian Championship three weeks ago.
Korda likes to keep her distractions to a minimum, but she’s enjoyed the time at the Olympics as a spectator, including watching swimmer Katie Ledecky win the 800-meter freestyle, her second gold at these games and her ninth overall.
“That was really exciting,” she said. “That’s something that I watched as a kid so getting to do that in person was definitely a bucket-list thing. … Obviously we have five majors a year, and they train four years for one shot. And that’s what makes track and field, swimming, gymnastics, all those sports so amazing because they train four years to live out their dream, and we have five times a year to live out our dream. It’s absolutely incredible, and it makes me appreciate what they do that much more.”
