LANCASTER, Pennsylvania. Nelly Korda has won six of her last seven tournaments. She tied the record of two LPGA greats, Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, by winning five consecutive tournaments. Therefore, it is safe to say that she is above everyone else.
She felt that way outside the ropes too.
One of her favorite moments this year was when Korda became the first LPGA player — and the first golfer since Tiger Woods in 2013 — to attend the Met Gala earlier this month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“For me, it was more shocking how tall I was compared to everyone else,” Korda said Tuesday with an easy smile. She’s 5 feet 7 inches — her height makes for one of the most graceful athletic swings in golf — and Korda was quick to point out that she was wearing high heels.
“We were in a tent, there was no air conditioning and it was very hot, and everyone was sweating,” Korda said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, the air is good here, guys.’”
She says the best part of such a cool experience was looking at who was there. “The ultimate people-watching festival,” was how she described it.
Korda should know the feeling. No one is getting more attention in women’s golf right now. She became the singular star of the LPGA Tour, the No. 1 player in the women’s world rankings by more than double the margin of second place.
Expectations have never been greater and the stage is the biggest of the year.
The U.S. Women’s Open begins Thursday at Lancaster Country Club, a classic tree-lined course with all the trappings of a tough, old-fashioned U.S. Open. The prize money is US$12 million, the largest in the world for an independent women’s event, with US$2.4 million going to the winner.
The last time the U.S. Women’s Open was held in Lancaster, it set an attendance record of 135,000 spectators. The same is expected this week at the championship that has long been considered the biggest on the LPGA calendar.
It’s a huge opportunity for Korda and women’s golf.
It took five straight tournament wins, which Rose Zhang finished at the Cognizant Founders Cup, to get the LPGA’s attention this year.
Even so, it was left behind at a time when women’s sport is on the rise.
Leading the way right now is Caitlin Clark, from her record-setting college career at Iowa to her WNBA debut, which led to spikes in ticket prices and attendance. Football and tennis remain more popular than golf, especially in the United States.
It doesn’t matter that the LPGA Tour has more history and offers more money. The LPGA Tour dates back to 1950 and has never received – nor asked for – help from the PGA Tour. Ty Votaw, the LPGA commissioner two decades ago, once spoke about the LPGA’s independence by saying, “If you take the NBA out of the WNBA, you get the ABL.”
The American Basketball League launched in the mid-1990s, shortly before the WNBA, and went bankrupt within two years.
This year’s LPGA prize money tops $100 million. Last year, 28 players won at least $1 million.
Mollie Marcoux Samaan, commissioner of the LPGA, points to rising consumer metrics, from spectators to page views and television. She sees progress and points out that more energy and more volume are key to that moment when women’s golf comes to the forefront of the conversation.
Korda appears to shoulder most of that burden. She prefers to do this with her clubs.
She is known for avoiding media opportunities that could help the greater good of the LPGA. One such moment was at the Women’s British Open in 2021, when she refused a press conference. It was her first appearance since she won the Olympic gold medal.
“I think our responsibility is to go out and play golf, put on a show for everyone and do our best,” Korda said. “I hope this attracts the public. I know there are expectations from players and I think our No. 1 priority should be to go out there, enjoy our time on the golf course and develop our game by playing good golf.”
As for the expectations of her role as the LPGA’s biggest star, Korda said the lesson was to be honest with herself and the people around her, and not try to be someone she’s not.
A young 13-year-old reporter asked Korda what she would tell her 13-year-old self.
“There will be expectations from those around you, and the best thing you can do is stay true to yourself and stay your course,” Korda said.
“I just try to be very, very pure and very, very honest with everyone around me,” she said. “And I hope they see that I’m proud of the person I am at the end of the day. And that’s how I hope to develop the game.”
Winning never hurts, and Korda certainly did his part. She already has six wins this year, and it’s not even June yet.
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