Nelly Korda’s most up-to-date feat could be her most spectacular

What a yr it’s been for Nelly Korda, who has climbed to the very highest of golf’s highs and in addition suffered some very low lows. The time period roller-coaster appears to suit, given how she had gone up, up and up, adopted by dipping down, down and down. As a result of now, for those who have been ready for an additional reminder of her dominance, it has arrived — albeit in barely totally different kind than this yr’s earlier wins.

Korda was named Rolex Participant of the 12 months Monday, a formality of statistics lastly aligning quite than a majority vote from her friends. However what it tells you proper now isn’t a lot that her season was the most effective season, however that it was unequivocally dominant. She did extra in simply 14 occasions than different dominant gamers have completed in 20.

In latest months you possibly can have poked holes in Korda’s 2024 CV and argued for another person as an alternative. Lydia Ko received the most important occasions — on the Olympics and the AIG Ladies’s Open — and finalized her place within the LPGA Corridor of Fame because of this. Jeeno Thitikul has a slight edge over Korda in scoring common and Strokes Gained. Korda is the one participant who has earned greater than $3 million heading in the right direction this yr, however others are certain to affix her over the subsequent few weeks. 

All of that’s good for the LPGA product — some parity within the face of 1 dominant power — however the counting stats and the timing of occasions tends to neglect that Korda has performed simply 14 tournaments this yr. And in these 14 weeks, she received practically half of the time. And with three tournaments remaining, it doesn’t matter if Lydia Ko or Ayaka Furue shoot 30 beneath each time they tee it up. They received’t accrue sufficient factors to steal the LPGA’s year-end honor.

Not like the PGA Tour or numerous different sports activities leagues who select a Participant of the 12 months or MVP, the LPGA dishes out factors for particular achievements throughout a given season. Whoever finishes with probably the most factors at year-end is the POY. It’s probably the most meritocratic system you’ll be able to think about, one which doesn’t keep in mind a participant’s relationship with the media or their friends, and it merely pushes ahead the participant who checked probably the most bins probably the most occasions. 

Over the course of a season, gamers earn POY Factors for each top-10 end they’ve, with first place incomes 30 factors and second place incomes 12, all the way in which down to at least one level for a Tenth-place end. These factors are doubled throughout the 5 main championships. And through most seasons, the race for POY goes all the way down to the wire, with the winner sometimes amassing 160 to 240 factors at season’s finish. 

Korda has been sitting on a profitable tally larger than that for over two months now, and largely hasn’t needed to play any additional golf to cement her standing. Korda earned 180 factors in six wins from January by way of Could alone, which might have been adequate to win her the POY award in 2022 and 2017. Add in her three different high 10s and he or she’s constructed up 244 POY factors whereas barely leaving the US. 

That final half is context that shall be forgotten over time. However is a part of what makes this season so spectacular. Korda notably didn’t play any occasions in Asia this yr, a longtime staple of the LPGA schedule. She’s been battling a neck damage in latest weeks, which saved her homebound, and he or she handed on tripping to Asia to start with a part of the yr, too — in favor of household and coaching time within the Czech Republic.

Whereas a few of her friends grinded by way of one other arduous season of journey, Korda solely performed three tournaments from late Could by way of late July partly resulting from a canine chunk damage. That stretch included three missed cuts (two of them coming in majors), earlier than she righted her ship with a second-place end on the Ladies’s Open at St. Andrews.

Each Ariya Jutanugarn and Jin Younger Ko have clinched the award this early lately, however they did it whereas enjoying 26 and 21 occasions, respectively. Korda did it in simply 14. She’ll make two extra begins this month in Florida, operating her complete to 16. A very dominant 16, higher than anybody else, it doesn’t matter what occurs between now and Thanksgiving, capping off a season we received’t quickly neglect.