Nelly Korda’s drive for five still alive
LPGA star aims for 5th consecutive win at this week's major Chevron Championship
World No. 1 Nelly Korda is on an historic heater. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Amid little fanfare, Korda tries to inspire interest
Nelly Korda is doing her best to carry the LPGA Tour and women’s golf into relevance. It’s not her fault that her exploits to date have gone largely unnoticed. Such is the golf world we are in, the media landscape, and all the other distractions that have served to eclipse her run of brilliance.
Korda, 25, began the LPGA’s first major championship of 2025 on Thursday with the opportunity to win her fifth consecutive tournament. Not even Scottie Scheffler has done that. While Scheffler went 1-1-T2-1 — including the Masters — Korda went 1-1-1-1 heading into the Chevron Championship.
The difference, of course, is that Korda’s amazing streak was truncated and unappreciated. She won her first event at the LPGA Drive On Championship in January in Florida and then took an extended two-month break while the LPGA went on an Asian Swing. When she resumed play in late March, she won three events in a row (Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, Ford Championship and T-Mobile Match Play) — the last one on the same weekend as the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the day before Masters week began.
She’s trying to join Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as the only women players to win five consecutive tournaments.
“I think it’s happening right now with Nelly,” said world No. 2 Lilia Vu, the reigning Chevron champion who had to withdraw on the eve of the tournament. “She is bringing so much to the table just win after win, just having everything together. She’s done such a good job, so well-liked and loved out here. She brings a big following. She’s a great person, so just her — she’s kind of our Caitlin Clark out here.”
The Clark comparison is an interesting one because the Iowa star brought immense attention to women’s college basketball, as the NCAA Tournament outdrew the men’s final as well as the Masters. Clark is getting eight-figure endorsement deals and the WNBA Draft drew considerable attention as she was the No. 1 pick and even appeared on the set of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update last weekend.
Caitlin Clark drew a massive spotlight to women’s basketball. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
An average of 18.7 million viewers tuned in to see her Hawkeyes lose in the championship game to undefeated South Carolina. Ratings throughout were robust, and Clark’s exploits helped highlight other players and teams as well.
Even Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley was talking about Clark on the eve of the Masters.
“I have to confess that in spite of my love of the game and the women’s game of golf, that I haven’t watched a lot of women’s basketball, but I watched the last three or four games that Iowa played this year,” Ridley said. “So there you go. I mean, it’s just the way she plays, the way Caitlin plays the game, her passion, her energy, it just … it really just captures the imagination of the fans.
“So, you know, we hope that more people will come along like that, and certainly we hope that people will come along in golf.”
That kind of interest has been lacking in women’s golf, for numerous reasons: scheduling issues; lack of network TV commitments; dwindling golf media. The reasons are plentiful and not all are legitimate excuses.
“It’s an inspiration. I’m hopefully inspiring the next generation and hopefully it promotes the game. Hopefully we continue to climb up.” — Nelly Korda
But the bottom line is golf likes front-runners and favorites, and this is an excellent time for the LPGA to cash in on Korda’s success and ride it as long as possible. The hope is that she will draw in those who are curious and get them to stay because they find the women’s game and other stars enjoyable.
And anyone who has watched Korda hit a golf ball — do a Google search on her swing — should be mesmerized by the effortless, continuous motion that allows her to be such an excellent ball striker.
“For her to win the second event of the year and have eight weeks off and win the next three, I was like, ‘Man, I shouldn’t have played, all playing for second place,’ ” said world No. 8 Lydia Ko, who needs one win to secure a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame and who was the last LPGA player to win four straight tournaments in 2018. “I think it’s great for women’s golf, and I think with her playing well, it’s inspiring and motivating the rest of us to keep doing what we’re working on.’’
Korda can continue to raise the profile, even if she’s not the most comfortable self-promoter.
“Listen, I feel like for me, the way that I promote the game is just the way I am,” she said this week. “I’m very true to myself. I’m never going to do something I’m not really comfortable with. Obviously I love seeing all the kids and I love promoting the game.
“I mean, there is nothing more that I enjoy more. I’m always going to stay true to myself, and hopefully that way do I promote the game.”
She will have the opportunity to win a gold medal again at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris and the Solheim Cup returns to U.S. soil this September. In the meantime, she is dealing with the extra demands and attention as the LPGA tries to balance taking advantage of an impressive run while not disrupting it.
She doesn’t believe the attention is a burden, an she’s off to a solid start at the Club at Carlton Woods, shooting a 4-under 68 late Thursday to loom tied second just two shots behind first-round leader Lauren Coughlin.
“Never any burden when it comes to this,” she said. “Obviously with the run I’ve been on, maybe there are more eyeballs on me, but I always am very grateful for this because I know how fast something can be taken away from you. So I hope that people see who I am, my true self, and that inspires them, too.”
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley (Joe Toth/ANGC)
Not asking for too much
The women’s game got a lot of attention at Ridley’s state of the Masters address last week after another dramatic Augusta National Women’s Amateur and Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals provided great access to ANGC for female amateurs and juniors. Oh yeah, and new member Annika Sörenstam walking around in a green jacket and presenting trophies to DC&P winners.
A question about possible access to the iconic venue for female professionals may have been misunderstood by Ridley and certainly was misrepresented in some published reports.
Having successfully hosted a November Masters during the pandemic in 2020, an old subject was revisited with this question: “We have seen how the Augusta Women's Amateur has created tremendous access for the amateurs in the women's game. Has there been any thought about doing something in the future that would give access to this course for the professional women in the game, like a one-off Solheim Cup or a similar style event?”
That last part was pretty key, since it’s entirely unreasonable to ask Augusta National Golf Club to try to host another annual tournament. But a one-off boutique event like the rotating biennial Solheim Cup or helping to create a Solheim-style event that included other international players wouldn’t be tasking ANGC to shoulder something more than once or once every couple of decades.
“I think the answer is yes,” Ridley said of the consideration. “I think we've addressed this question in the past and there are some fundamental difficulties in that. We happily were able to find a way to have a competition for juniors and a competition for women amateurs sort of wrapped around the Masters Tournament, and it just seems to fit really well.
“To have another tournament of any kind would be very difficult based on our season, based on the fact that this is essentially a winter and spring golf course. … It’s not open in the summer. It doesn’t play the way we want it to play in the fall for a major tournament. We did have one, one time, and Dustin Johnson did very well.
“So we really have a limited period of time we could play any additional event. We close in the third week of May. Then you add the element of something that was brought up I think in the first question about sort of the mystique and the magic. And, you know, we need to make sure that we really respect the mystique and the magic of the Masters. So we would have to think long and hard to have another golf tournament.”
That’s not a complete shutdown of the idea. A long time ago, Augusta National helped launch the Senior PGA Championship by playing host to the first two editions in 1937 and 1938 — won by Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod, respectively, which is why they were invited as the first Honorary Starters at the Masters. Both events were played at ANGC in December.
Augusta National has been very involved in growing the game around the world with the introduction of the Asia-Pacific and Latin America amateurs. The Asian market has been of particular interest to the club, and the fact that Asian players make up more than half of the top 50 women’s professionals in the Rolex World Rankings would make for a compelling event for a such a predominant segment not eligible for the Solheim Cup.
ANGC would be the perfect place to boost the launch of such an event, and it wouldn’t matter that the course isn’t up to its high Masters standards in the fall for a team match-play event. Birdies and eagles winning holes would be the desired result and wouldn’t make the course seem too easy. DJ’s 20-under wouldn’t be in jeopardy,
It’s a question we hope the club continues to revisit.
The On-Going Off the Course Struggle
As LIV Golf this week announced several new high-level executive hires — suggesting that it is not going anywhere — the state of the game and negotiations between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia appear to be in a constant state of nowhere.
The Bahamas meeting with player directors of PGA Tour Policy Board hosted by Tiger Woods that was attended by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of the PIF, is already a month in the rear view mirror. With the year’s first major championship having taken up all the oxygen, it’s difficult to envision much progress having been made since.
And when Woods was finally asked about it after the final round of the Masters, the 15-time major champion allowed that the meeting was “positive’’ but added “I don’t know if we are any closer.’’
Several rumblings have emerged that suggest Al-Rumayyan laid out a vision that came as a bit of a surprise to those player directors on the Policy Board. If they were expecting him to capitulate and either end or diminish LIV Golf, that did not seem to be the message. Nobody has disclosed what really was said or happened but the general tenor says we’re a ways off.
And that means more doubt about the future of the men’s professional game. Bob Harig covered some of his ground earlier this week in a Sports Illustrated story.
Fleetwood keeps changing loops
Adrian Rietveld is back on Tommy Fleetwood’s bag this week at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Since the Valero Texas Open, Fleetwood sent his long-time caddie Ian Finnis home due to a lingering illness after finishing 35th at the Players Championship.
Rietveld — a senior manager at TaylorMade who works with Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler with equipment issues — is back on the Englishman’s bag after caddying at Valero but taking the week off at the Masters as Fleetwood hired Augusta National veteran Gray Moore.
“It just seemed like a great idea to have a caddie, who was a local caddie that had been around there before,” Fleetwood said of Moore.
Fleetwood also noted that Rietveld has another job and a family, both of which have been gracious enough to let him moonlight for the two weeks on Fleetwood’s bag.
The four rounds with Moore were very productive as Fleetwood finished tied third — his first top 10 at the Masters which was worth $1,040,000 and gives him career top-three finishes in all four majors.
“I think anytime you spend time with those guys [ANGC caddies], you learn about the course, and I think Greg put it beautifully a couple of times when he said it's a lifetime of work,” Fleetwood said of the advice that Moore provided to him at Augusta. “I honestly think every time you go there, you learn something new. And maybe he can excel that a little bit just having spent so much time there and carry around there so much.”
Fleetwood returned to competition with an even-par 71 on Thursday at Harbour Town (tied 51st) with Rietveld back on the bag.
Oddly, Fleetwood admitted that turning up to a PGA Tour event on Wednesday it’s not hard to learn the course because you play it every year, but Augusta National is different. You’re learning on trips to the Alistair MacKenzie/Bobby Jones masterpiece every time you play it.
Fleetwood said he will not see Valhalla, Pinehurst No. 2 or Royal Troon before they play host to the last three majors of the year. He is not planning on going on early scouting trips, even though he has never played any of the venues.
“I think ideally, it’s great to go and see the courses before just to get an idea of what you’re looking at,” Fleetwood said. “Honestly, when it comes to the majors, the actual week of the tournament the course plays so much different to any other time you’re ever gonna see it. But it’s always a helping hand if you know the course a bit more beforehand.”
The majors are both physically and mentally exhausting and Fleetwood was still feeling the after effects of last week and is dealing with a little “snotty” as well.
“I think one of the great things probably about this week is that you are going to play four rounds, if you can be patient and hang around,” Fleetwood said. “I think the easiest thing to do is get angry or get impatient especially when it’s not going how you want it to, I think if you can stick around you never know what can happen.”
Nelly is just ridiculous right now... Scottie too. Hate that all the peripheral noise is distracting from it all.