SAMMAMISH – At 5-foot-10, Nelly Korda is used to being looked up to by most of her LPGA competitors. But when you consider its distance from the rest of the class in the world golf rankings, Korda is a redwood among the pines.
The 5.56 points that separate her from Lilia Vu, second classified, are equal to the total that separates Vu from number 71, Narin An. In the sport of walking par excellence, Korda, from Florida, has escaped from the field .
The problem for the 25-year-old is that she didn’t work weekends in either of her last two tournaments. This wasn’t so much self-care as self-immolation, as a series of errors (most notably a 10 she scored on a par-3 at last month’s US Open) caused her to miss consecutive cuts.
Before that, Korda had won six of his previous seven tournaments, including the major that was last April’s Chevron Championship. It was the kind of dominance we used to see from that Stanford grad in the Nike cap who wore red on Sundays.
Then came this recent skid. Wow, Nelly! One second, Oh Nelly! To the next one.
Perhaps that’s why Korda isn’t the heavy favorite to win this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee. At press time, oddsmakers had her at 9-1 to capture the third major of her career, with Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul next at 14-1.
But Korda remains the best player in the world in the midst of the best season of her life. So don’t expect to hear much concern in her voice.
“That’s golf. I mean, I’m going to go through these situations a lot where I feel like I’m playing really well, and I’m going to go through a little lull where golf is going to be the hardest thing in my life,” said Korda, a three-time participant in the Solheim Cup that won the Women’s PGA Championship in 2021. “That’s what makes me grow as a person and what makes me appreciate the sport so much, and makes me appreciate the victories, the ups and downs, the good shots and there are also crowds over there”.
Korda’s crowd is likely to include longtime Washingtonian Wendy Ward, who will compete in this week’s tournament. The 51-year-old is a four-time winner on the LPGA Tour and she earned a spot in the Women’s PGA Championship by finishing eighth at last year’s LPGA Professional National Championship, an instructors’ event.
Ward said if he gets the chance to see Korda in person this week, he will. She has been a fan of Nelly for a while and remembers advocating for her to be on the 2015 Solheim Cup team when she was 17 years old.
Juli Inkster, the captain at the time, decided not to take her, which surprised Ward. But they both saw the potential the boy possessed.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God. She has no weaknesses,’” Ward said. “And Juli says, ‘Yeah, I think I’ll have to let it go.’ We think that?’ She says, ‘Trust me.’ Just give her a couple more years and she’ll do amazing things.’”
Fourteen LPGA wins and two majors later, it’s safe to say Inkster was right. Oh yeah, there’s also the Olympic gold medal Korda won in Tokyo three years ago, a feat he’ll try to repeat in Paris this summer.
Not that defense will be the first thing on his mind when he lands in France. Nelly said she is looking forward to the croissants that she anticipates will be on every corner. She seems to like both baked goods and cooking to her opponents.
Not that that should make the countryside feel relaxed.
After all, if Korda can emerge as the most successful athlete in her family, how difficult can the Women’s PGA Championship be?
Okay, pretty tough. But his father, Petr, was a tennis player who won the 1998 Australian Open. And his sister, Jessica, is a fellow golfer who won the 2012 Australian Open. His brother, Sebastian, won the Australian Open junior tennis 2018. Nelly’s veins are 10% blood and 90% competitive juices.
However, this course will put it to the test, but in the most entertaining way. Korda said she will have to hit the driver most of the week and stay aggressive. It’s the kind of mentality that might spawn a ghost or six, but it’s what it takes to win.
And these days, winning is what Korda does best, even if his last two tournaments have been among his worst.
Matt Calkins: mcalkins@seattletimes.com; Matt Calkins joined The Seattle Times in August 2015 as a sports columnist after three years at the San Diego Union Tribune. Never afraid to take a stand or go off the beaten path, Matt enjoys writing about the human condition as much as quitters and bell ringers. His mom reads the comments so she takes it easy.
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