Sirak: Korda Learning What It Takes to Win First Major

WOBURN - The arc of Nelly Korda’s LPGA career has curved gracefully upward, the improvement coming in steady steps forward with precious few stumbles along the way. Now, just days past her 21st birthday, the rising star looks to add more glitter to her resume by picking up her first major championship at this week’s AIG Women’s British Open.

It speaks to the quality of Korda’s career to date that at such a tender age she sees the absence of a major title as a flaw that needs to be rectified. But if there is one thing she’s clearly demonstrated in her brief stint as a professional it’s that her learning curve is extremely sharp.

In just her third full season on the LPGA Korda already has a pair of victories and 20 finishes in the top 10, including third earlier this year in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, her best finish in a major. Last week she was T-25 in the Evian Championship, also a major.

“I've been playing pretty solid this year,” Korda said Tuesday at Woburn Golf Club, which was bathed in rain all day. 

“I'm really happy with my play,” she said. “I haven't really performed that well in majors as I wanted to this year, but it's been a pretty solid year and I'm happy with it so far.” 

The numbers detail the growth of her game. Korda finished 2017 No. 73 in the Rolex Rankings and was No. 23 at the end of last year. Now, she is No. 10. Her scoring average had dropped from 70.62 in 2018 to 69.86 this year, seventh best on tour. 

She’s also in the top 10 in Race to the CME Globe points, Rolex Player of the Year points, the money list and greens in regulation while being No. 15 in driving distance at a robust 272.14 yards per wallop. That distance off the tee should serve her well this week on a Woburn course softened by all the rain.

“The conditions on the golf course are I think one of the best we've played this year,” Korda said. “I like the golf course a lot. It's playing long. I'm one of the longer players, so I guess right now it's suiting a longer player, but you never know, and all I'm hoping for is to play as well as I can.” 

Korda feels she is still learning that delicate balancing act needed to reconcile the desire to win a major with the pitfall of putting too much pressure on herself in the majors.

“I started kind of playing golf because I wanted to win major championships,” said Korda, whose father won the 1998 Australian Open, a major championship in tennis. 

“I feel like the more experience I get and the more I'm in contention, the more under pressure I am in these situations, the more I learn; the more I grow as a player,” she said. “Actually, I played well at KPMG, but I'm just trying to get as much experience as I can.”

One of the challenges of this week is that many of the players in the field competed at the Evian Championship last week. The last time the LPGA played majors in consecutive weeks without an off week in between was 1960.

“Yesterday, I just took the day off and relaxed, because I mean, back-to-back majors, it's quite hard,” said Korda, who never got a chance to celebrate her birthday on Sunday because delayed tee times caused a hectic rebooking of plane tickets then a scramble getting to England.

“Mentally, you're fatigued,” she said about what it’s like at the end of a major. “I just played 12 holes today and I have an 18-hole pro-am tomorrow, and I'm trying to get as prepped as I can be but I'm also trying to rest.”

As impressive as the numbers are, there is another dimension to Korda’s growth as a player that cannot be easily quantified. It’s her attitude. She believes she can win. She believes she is among the top players in the women’s game.  

“At the end of the day, I'm playing against the same girls I've played against every week, and obviously the golf courses are usually playing tougher,” Korda said about her attitude in majors.  

“I'm just trying to approach every week as it is like the same, like a normal tournament, and that's all I'm trying to do,” she said. 

Part of the game within the game for Korda is that she and her sister Jessica have a bet each year on who’ll have the better season. The winner gets an expensive handbag and the loser gets the bill.

Right now, with a win this year and being six spots ahead of No. 16 Jessica on the Rolex Ranking, Nelly has one hand on that bag. What she wants now is the other hand on the trophy that goes to the winner of the AIG Women’s British Open.