CHASKA, Minn. — Nelly Korda couldn’t stop smiling on Thursday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Before her first round, girls from a local LPGA*USGA Girls Golf chapter were waiting to greet the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1, wearing custom Nike jerseys as a nod to the United States men's national soccer team outfit that Nelly sported at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club.

Each jersey had Nelly’s favorite number – 13 – on it and had Korda’s name on the back, a detail that the four-time major champion didn’t notice at first, but one that made the gesture even more special for the 27-year-old American superstar.

“I saw them when I walked up to the first tee,” said Nelly with a grin on her face when she met the media after round one. “I saw they had the No. 13 jersey, but I didn't know my name was on the back of all of them. It was a cute surprise after a few holes when I noticed them. A lot of posters with, Go, Nelly, go! They take so much time out of their day to do that, to come out and support us, and it was quite amazing.

“I've never had that before at a tournament, and they were all so cute. When they wanted me to sign anything during the round, I did it. I had a smile on my face through the majority of the day when I saw them.”

That good energy surely carried Korda through the first day of the year’s third major championship, which saw the 19-time LPGA Tour winner kick off her week in Chaska, Minn., with a 2-under 70, one that has her lurking early at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Nelly got off to a slow start, bogeying the par-3 fourth hole, but the Olympic gold medalist quickly picked up a pair of back-to-back birdies on the par-4 sixth and par-5 seventh holes to get back into red numbers. Korda moved to 2-under with a birdie on the par-5 11th hole and then climbed to 3-under when she stuffed her tee shot to five feet on 13 from 166 yards and rolled in the resulting birdie try.

Korda tallied her fifth birdie of the day on the par-5 15th hole to get to 4-under total, but Nelly dropped two shots when her tee ball found a watery grave on the par-4 16th hole, leading to a double bogey. She finished with a pair of pars on 17 and 18 to ultimately post at 2-under, a first-round effort that has kept her in the mix early at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“It was solid,” said Korda, who won this event back in 2021 at Atlanta Athletic Club. “Honestly, I just made one bad swing, which ended up in a double. But overall, pretty happy with my day.”

Nelly came into this week in Minnesota on quite a heater, having won four tournaments thus far across the 2026 season. She collected her 16th career title at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and picked up her third major victory in April, doing so in dominant fashion at The Chevron Championship, a tournament she won by five strokes over Patty Tavatanakit and Ruoning Yin at Memorial Park in Houston.

Korda triumphed again the next week at the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba and then took home the trophy she has yearned for the longest throughout her career in Los Angeles, winning the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Riviera Country Club by one shot over Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez, what was her fourth career major victory.

That title saw Nelly become the first player since Korea’s Inbee Park to win the first two majors of the season and the first American to do so since Pat Bradley in 1986, an athlete who went on to finish the Career Grand Slam that same year.

She is the fifth American to win four majors before turning 28 years old and was the first athlete to win the U.S. Women’s Open after coming in second the year before since JoAnne Carner last did so in 1976.

But those historical statistics aside, the most significant spoil of Korda’s win in the City of Stars concerned her LPGA Hall of Fame points. Nelly has been on a steady march toward the Hall since the start of the 2024 season, a year that saw her win a major, collect six other victories and earn Rolex Player of the Year honors.

And now, after the run she has been on in 2026, the Rolex Rankings No. 1 currently has 25 Hall of Fame points to her credit and is just two points away from gaining entry into the most exclusive hall of fame in all of sports, an accomplishment that Korda said ahead of this week’s major championship is one she’s trying to not think too much about week to week.

“I wouldn't say it's a motivating factor, but it would be an absolutely amazing accomplishment to be alongside some of the best that have ever played in this game on the LPGA Tour,” Korda said. “But if it's a motivating factor to me and I'm like thinking about it, not necessarily. I just enjoy playing golf, and I enjoy being in the hunt in tournaments. I always say good golf solves everything, and that's my main focus, is just trying to play consistent good golf.”

A win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship would push Korda over that points precipice, as she would earn those final two points with just a single victory. However, there’s still plenty of work to be done over the next 54 holes if Nelly wants a shot at a trophy this week at Hazeltine.

But after getting off to a solid start, Korda just might once again find herself rewriting the LPGA Tour record books and making all sorts of history in the process.

Nelly Korda Opens with 70 in First Round KPMG Women’s PGA at Hazeltine in Pursuit of LPGA Hall of Fame

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