Nelly Korda’s win at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions has a spooky statistical connection to her seven-victory 2024 season, one that just might wind up being a good omen for the 27-year-old in 2026.

Korda collected a whopping seven titles in a single season two years ago, five of which came in five consecutive starts at the LPGA Drive On Championship, the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass, the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards and The Chevron Championship.

That first victory in her hometown at Bradenton Country Club ended a winless drought that had lasted since the Floridian had picked up her eighth career title at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican in 2022, a span of 1 year, 2 months and 15 days.

The Olympic gold medalist’s impressive run in 2024 ultimately came to an end at Pelican Golf Club, where Korda secured her third ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican title in four years after winning by three shots over Charley Hull, Jin Hee Im and Weiwei Zhang. She earned Rolex Player of the Year honors and won the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award at the conclusion of the season, the first time in her career that Korda had taken home either accolade and a perfect exclamation point to what had been a spectacular year of success.

After she finished solo second to A Lim Kim at the 2025 season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, it looked like Korda was just going to keep her 2024 form rolling and that the LPGA might see another year of domination from the two-time major champion.

That didn’t end up being the case, however, as despite making 19 of 19 cuts and racking up nine top-10 results, Korda went without a victory in 2025, a somewhat shocking turn of events considering what had transpired 12 months prior.

So, as the calendar flipped to 2026, there were a lot of question marks as to how Korda would respond to this latest bout of adversity and if this quiet stretch would continue into her 10th season as an LPGA Tour member.

But Korda answered those inquiries immediately at the Tour’s season-opening event at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, picking up her 16th career title in her eighth appearance at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after the tournament was shortened to 54 holes on Sunday, Feb. 1.

And oddly enough, just like her last winless streak, Korda’s drought-ending triumph in Orlando once again came 1 year, 2 months and 15 days after she last won in Belleair, Fla., an eerie exactitude that was seemingly scripted by the golf gods themselves.

“Golf is a game of centimeters,” Korda said about the 2025 season in her winning press conference at Lake Nona. “There were so many times last year where I wished I had an inch here or a centimeter there, where it would've changed the story completely. That's how it goes sometimes. As long as you are mentally 100 percent in it and preparing to your best ability, that's all you can control at the end of the day. Same with weather.

“I was so close. I played really well last year. Obviously didn't get the win, but I played some amazing golf the first three days this week, and I'm really proud of myself, my team, and all the work that we have put in when no one was watching, and everyone was talking about it.”

But snapping her winless streak isn’t the only statistical significance Korda’s latest success possesses.

The 2026 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is now the second LPGA Tour tournament that both Nelly and her older sister Jessica have captured during their respective careers, with the first being the Women’s Australian Open, a championship that Jess won in 2012 and Nelly won in 2019.

She is the first American since Danielle Kang in 2022 to win the Tour’s season-opening event, and this is the first time since her rookie year back in 2017 that Korda has collected a victory in her season debut.

Korda has become the 28th different American to win 16 or more times on the LPGA Tour, and she has passed Amy Yang on the Career Money List, currently sitting in the eighth position with $16,424,558 in official earnings.

She has also secured her 20th LPGA Hall of Fame point and is currently seven points away from automatically qualifying for one of the most exclusive halls of fame in all of sports, something that was most recently done by Lydia Ko in 2024 when she won gold at the Paris Olympics.

Now, though, Korda will get to enjoy her own version of an offseason as the LPGA Tour travels to Asia for a three-tournament stretch that includes the Honda LPGA Thailand in Thailand, HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and the Blue Bay LPGA in the People’s Republic of China.

But rest assured that when she returns to action in late March at the Fortinet Founders Cup in California, Korda will be working hard to keep this early momentum rolling as she looks to enjoy even more success in 2026.

“I’m very happy to get the first win of the year, and hopefully that leads into a great year, too,” Korda said. “No matter what, I'm always going put 100 percent into it. With results, when it comes to sports, you just never know. The only thing you can control is the level and the input that you put into your craft and your sport. I will always be doing that.

“No matter the results, I know that mentally I'm doing that every single day I step on the golf course, and that's what I'm proud of.”

Korda’s Win at HGV Tournament of Champions Has Spooky Similarity to Last Drought-Ending Victory

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