With a tempered wave to reasonable applause, Nelly Korda’s 2024 LPGA marketing campaign formally ended Sunday with a bogey-free 66 and a tie for fifth on the CME Group Tour Championship.
It was a muted response to an in any other case seismic season, one which registered very very similar to a seismograph to Korda.
There have been seven wins, one player-of-the-year award, one main and 9 LPGA Corridor of Fame factors earned.
All of it started with a HOF denial in her second begin, the place she completed eagle-birdie to actually put Lydia Ko’s skilled immortality on ice, after which beat Ko in a playoff.
After seven weeks off due to the tour’s first swing by Asia, Korda returned and received 4 in a row – making it 5 straight, in complete, tying an LPGA report.
To not be forgotten throughout that historic stretch was the dearth of commonality. She received from behind, from the lead, in varied parts, on reverse coasts, in medal play, in match play and, lastly, in a significant (her first since 2021).
One week after the streak lastly ended, she received once more. In eight begins, she had six victories and was a dominant world No. 1. Most significantly, the majority of the season remained: 4 majors, the Olympics, the Solheim Cup and the $11 million CME finale.
Then got here the par-3 12th gap at Lancaster Nation Membership.
Taking part in her third gap of the U.S. Girls’s Open, Korda hit three balls into the water, made a ten and shot 80 (oddly, it was her second-straight 80 on the USWO as she shot that within the last spherical at Pebble Seashore in ’23).
Korda missed the lower after which opened in 76 on her method to a missed lower in her subsequent begin on the Meijer LPGA.
The ship appeared righted per week later on the KPMG Girls’s PGA, the place she posted a first-round 69, solely to follow-up with an 81 – her highest rating ever as knowledgeable.
Now, she a had a brand new streak: 3 consecutive missed cuts.
“With golf, it’s up and down,” she mentioned on the Tour Championship. “It’s a curler coaster. You may by no means be snug.”
There have been no extra weekends off after Congressional, however the collection of baffling moments continued.
Following a non-descript T-26 on the Amundi Evian, Korda arrived on the Paris Olympics in protection of her gold medal from 2020 Tokyo Video games. A quadruple bogey within the second spherical left her scrambling to get into medal competition, which she did within the last spherical, solely to be undone by a late triple bogey.
She subsequent appeared at St. Andrews for the AIG Girls’s Open, which she led by 36 holes earlier than a 75-72 end, the place she made a late double bogey in each rounds to tie for second.
Ko, in a full-circle second, captured each Paris gold and the Girls’s Open, the previous accounting for a profession medal sweep and guaranteeing enshrinement into the LPGA Corridor of Fame. Hers was the story of the summer season and continued into the autumn as Korda skipped the tour’s second Asian swing – one other seven-week layoff – partially due to a “minor neck harm.”
After which she returned a few weeks in the past in Naples, Florida, made five-straight, back-nine birdies within the last spherical, and received The Annika.
“I mentioned, like at first 12 months, simply felt prefer it was sort of flowing. I’d by no means say golf is simple, however I used to be simply in a state of only a movement,” Korda mentioned on the CME.
“Then in the midst of the 12 months simply felt like the toughest factor on the earth, and sort of overcoming that with my group, having the ability to lean on the folks that imply essentially the most to me, I feel that was in all probability the toughest and in addition essentially the most rewarding.”
Alongside the way in which, Korda grew to become an aunt for the primary time, attended the Met Gala, suffered a canine chunk, helped the U.S. win again the Solheim Cup, handled migraines and posed for the 2025 Sports activities Illustrated Swimsuit subject.
“Truthfully, it’s been a loopy 12 months,” she mentioned. “I’m grateful for all of it. I’m grateful for the highs; grateful for the lows.”
