By: Max Bechtoldt
Nelly Korda is officially the 2024 Rolex Player of the Year, the first time in her career she has won this prestigious honor, but what has been the journey up to this point?
After an illustrious amateur career Korda, the younger sister of six-time LPGA Tour winner Jessica Korda, turned professional in 2016, joining the Symetra Tour. She won her first-career event in Sioux Falls by three strokes over Wichanee Meechai. Korda finished top 10 on the Symetra Tour money list, earning status to the LPGA Tour.
Korda had a successful rookie season, peaking late in the year with top-30 finishes in the last five events of the season and finished in third for the Rookie of the Year award. Her first win came in Taiwan late in 2018, where she once again was showing strong play at the end of the season. Just a few weeks later, she had perhaps her most significant result of her career, finishing runner-up in the CME Group Tour Championship.
While Korda showed future superstar potential in her first two seasons, 2019 is where she took that next leap. Korda completed the “Korda slam” being the fourth athlete in her family to win a major Australian event early in the season. Korda finished in the top 10 in six of the first seven events of the year. She later won her first LET event of the season, won her second LPGA Tournament in a dramatic playoff once again in Taiwan, and made her first Solheim Cup start. Korda was terrific in that Solheim Cup, going 3-0-1, despite the United States losing.
After a quiet 2020, where the most significant moment was a close call at the ANA Inspiration, Korda exploded back on the scene in 2021, showing herself to be maybe the best player on the tour. Korda won four times, including her first-career major championship at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. With the win, she moved to No. 1 in the world for the first time in her career. Just a little over a month later, Korda won the Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo. She once again appeared in the Solheim Cup, where despite a rules controversy, she still went 2-2. Korda came just short of the Player of the Year award behind Jin Young Ko, but showed she was the new superstar on the LPGA Tour.
2022 started strong, with Korda surpassing Stacy Lewis for most weeks at No. 1 in the world by an American woman in history, but immediately hit a major setback. Korda missed over three months with a major blood clot in her arm. After a long re-adjustment period, Korda returned to the winner’s circle in November, winning for the second season in a row at Pelican Golf Club in emotional fashion.
2023 saw a strong season from Korda, but without any wins. Korda came roaring back in 2024 though, with wins in six out of her first eight events of the season, including her second-career major at the Chevron Championship. This run catapulted Korda into superstardom, as she won her first ESPY Award for best female golfer, appeared at the MET Gala and now is the newest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition model. In September, she was a part of a winning Solheim Cup team for the first time, going 3-1-0.
Currently, Korda is almost unanimously considered the face of the LPGA Tour. She has 14-career victories and two majors at only 26-years-old. She has been at No. 1 in the world for the sixth most weeks of any player in history. With the Player of the Year win, she is only eight points away from qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
