Nelly! Wins Second Major And Fifth Straight Tournament
The 25-year-old survives a Sunday restart and sluggish pace to prevail over Maja Stark. Plus, an LPGA major means another NBC fail and eye-opening Quotables from the week.
Sheesh. Nelly Korda had to grind to earn this one.
The wonderous woman deserves extra Hall of Fame points after the 2024 Chevron Championship put the resounding World No. 1 through a bit of everything.
Granted, finishing off a major is not supposed to be fun, easy or simple. With a historic fifth-straight-win and second career major on the line, her Sunday was already infused with way more pressure than any other player faced.
Korda’s day started with a 4 a.m. Sunday morning wake-up call to complete the delayed third round that soaked Carlton Woods with 1.5 inches of rain.
Crisp morning air greeted Korda early Sunday, never a fun thing for a player who has overcome well-chronicled injuries.
Then, finishing the morning restart having lost her lead and trailing Haeran Ryu by a stroke, Korda opened the final round with a 3-under-par 33 yet still had to fend off a few persistent chasers battling to the last and eagle-friendly last hole.
And most unnecessary of all? One of the game’s fastest players endured a ridiculous six-hour-and-five-minute final round pace.
Somehow this 25-year-old legend-in-the-making overcame all that mishegoss to earn her second major title and vault her name into the mononymed stratosphere of the modern women’s game. (That means joining Yani, In-Bee, Lorena and Annika in case there was any doubt.)
Nelly’s 13-under-par total was enough to hold off Sweden’s Maja Stark by two strokes, with American Lauren Coughlin sharing third alongside Canadian and-in-no-hurry-Korda-playing-partner Brooke Henderson.
Coughlin is sponsored by No Laying Up and recorded her career-best finish.
Things got dicey at the end though it’s not clear if Korda knew how tight this one got. Stark nearly eagled the last to force Korda to birdie the 18th to avoid a playoff. But Stark just missed holing out as Korda also missed a short putt at the par 3 17th (moments after nearly lipping out for a hole-in-one in what would have been a shot for the ages.)
Nelly held a one-stroke lead coming to the watery home hole. She struck a huge drive up the center and wasted no time going for the green in two just a few seconds after Henderson hit her 18th hole approach. Korda cleared the lake and got up-and-down to make birdie to seal the victory by two.
“I can finally breathe now,” Korda said after holing her final putt and clinching her fist in a rare show of exuberance. “That back nine felt like the longest back nine of my entire life. It was a little bit of a grind on the back nine, but happy to get the win.”
Korda admitted nerves played a role in her back nine 36.
“I was definitely starting to feel it on the back nine, just the nerves setting in,” she said. “It's a major. It's everything that I've always wanted as a little girl, to lift that major trophy. I was definitely really nervous. I feel sick to my stomach.”
She was all smiles after and gave a beautiful acceptance speech before making the inevitable dive into the lake—with a $300,000 Mille on and the band probably trashed—with key members of the team she praised for keeping her isolated from an outside world: coach Jamie Mulligan and caddie Jason McDede.
As for the secret to this incredible run?
“There's a key in the simplicity that I have when I play,” Korda said. “I honestly just take it a shot at a time, and we pick a game plan when we get to the golf course and we work and we stay in our own little bubble. It's been working so far.”
She continued to elaborate on the meaning of Sunday’s performance.
“I really, really wanted this win,” Nelly said. “It feels amazing to get it. My first-ever major, competing in a major, was at the U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack, and that was when I dreamt of winning major championships. To have two under my belt now is a dream come true.”
With the Chevron victory, Korda earned her 13th career title to go with her 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She remains committed to this week’s JM Eagle L.A. Open at Wilshire Country Club where she’ll go for six-in-a-row while building on a run that’s seen her scoring average just under 69 while hitting 77% of her greens, birdieing 29% of holes played and gaining 3.5 strokes on the field per round.
As an admitted introvert often critiqued for not doing enough to carry the women’s game, Korda delivered incredible work after the round while “freezing” from the lake dive. In addition to saying lovely stuff that should inspire young players, she let her guard down to demonstrate her passion for playing and admitted how much the pressure of keeping the win streak alive weighed on her “headspace”. Wearing the Chevron robe and still soaked, Korda then sat for a full press session, several television interviews and even joined No Laying Up’s Kill House post game.
By The Numbers…
She becomes the 52nd player in LPGA Tour history to earn at least two major championship titles and the ninth player to have won the first two women’s majors (Chevron/ANA/ANA Inspiration/Nabisco/Dinah and LPGA/KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
She ties the LPGA record (5) for most consecutive Tour wins in tournaments participated since 1978, joining Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez.
She ties the record (4) for most consecutive Tour wins in scheduled events played consecutively, joining Kathy Whitworth (1969), Mickey Wright (1962, 1963), Annika Sorenstam (2001) and Lorena Ochoa (2008)
She earns two points toward the LPGA Hall of Fame, bringing her current career total to 16 and closer to the threshold of 27 points
She crosses the $2 million mark in official season earnings ($2,424,216) and $11 million threshold in official career earnings ($11,361,489)
She becomes the fastest player to reach $2 million in single-season earnings in LPGA Tour history.
With her win Korda earns $1.2 million, $2,414,216 this season and $11,361,489 in her career.
Her full stats for the week:
Also…
Coughlin (T3, -11) on her career-best finish on the LPGA Tour: “I almost quit my first two years playing. Putting has been something that's kind of held me back at moments, and just to make some putts when I needed to was really cool and really fun. It's definitely something that I struggled to see myself doing at times, and so to do them today was pretty awesome.”
Stark (2nd, -11) on a big turnaround in her game at the Chevron: “It makes me really happy because two months ago, it did not look like this. It was actually terrible. Nothing really was working for me, and then I feel like I really just analyzed everything and figured it out and got some great help from my coaches.”
Henderson (T3, -10) on contending: “It's so much fun. The crowds were amazing all week, and just to kind of be in it and to feel that kind of adrenaline and excitement is really awesome. So hopefully I can just, like I said, keep moving forward. My game is right there. Just need a couple breaks and fine-tune a few things, and hopefully I'll be able to lift a trophy soon.”
Amateur Jasmine Koo unintentionally bounced her approach into 18 off some lakeside Chevron signage and her ball finished over the green. She finished T13.
Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad made the leaderboard’s first page Friday after rounds of 71-69 and eventually finished with 73-74 (T23).
Thirteen-year LPGA Tour veteran So Yeon Ryu officially retired after the second round on Friday, finishing at +7. She spoke to Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers after her round.
NBC And Chevron Fail Women’s Golf
How low has NBC set its golf broadcasting bar?
Amidst the slog of a final day it felt miraculous that the once-gold standard of golf coverage even bothered to show a major final round championship past the allotted time. The schedule (above) called for signing off at 6 p.m. and covering what was left of the Chevron Championship on Golf Channel. This sad schtick of years past was previously caused by Olympic trials, other obligations, affiliate pressures or contractually committing to doing the bare minimum.
There were two caveats to Sunday’s “miracle” of covering a major sporting event to its conclusion. First, there were no Olympic trials to get to and only infomercials on the West Coast to show. (Sorry Jane Seymour skin care-secret fans. There’s always next week.)
And two, the Comcast-owned mess passed on covering Sunday morning’s third round restart. This, despite having the World No. 1 in quest of a fifth-straight win and second major. But at least this guilted network into sticking with the conclusion later in the day and well past the scheduled time.
A rain delay situation was inevitable when Chevron decided to move to The Woodlands, Texas from Rancho Mirage. The old Dinah Shore was played for 51 years without a single thunderstorm delay. But when third-round 2024 Chevron Championship play was called and forced nearly all leaders to come back Sunday morning, this might have put Nelly Korda’s pursuit of her fifth win in a row on NBC’s golf-specific network (Golf Channel) and/or streaming service (Peacock). Such behavior would have been the bare minimum for a major championship in the not-so-distant past.
Instead, the ESPN+ featured group coverage picked up the slack despite not being allowed to show leader groups contractually (but presumably on Sunday they got an OK from NBC for saving their skin).