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Nelly Korda had a Scottie Scheffler-like run in 2024, dominating everything and taking a commanding lead in the world rankings. Then, at least for her standards, she stumbled a bit. In 2025, she went winless, and she only made the top 10 in a little over half her starts. This was after seven wins in 2024.
2026 isn’t off to a scorching hot start like 2024 was, when she enjoyed a historic win streak. Korda does, however, have a top-10 finish in each of her five starts. She also has two wins, including a dominant showing at the Chevron Championship.
Nelly Korda wins third career Major
Nelly Korda was seen as the women’s version of Scottie Scheffler. Both had good careers before breaking out in 2024 with historic win streaks. Each won the first Major of the year that season. For Korda, that was the Chevron Championship. For Scheffler, it was The Masters.
Korda became world number one that year, and she, like Scheffler has in the years since, had a chokehold on the spot. However, a difficult 2025 saw a fall from grace, and she fell. Heading into the Chevron last weekend, Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul had taken the top spot.
A Major win will grant a lot of points, though, especially when Thitikul missed the cut entirely. The difference in their two placements was gargantuan, and it allowed Korda, who took home her third major title, to usurp the crown and get back on top.
Korda was so good all weekend that not one competitor ever got within four strokes of her. She played the last 29 holes to exactly par and still won by five strokes, the largest margin of victory at the Chevron Championship in 18 years.
Playing with a lead
You may think that playing with such a massive lead makes life easier. With the field firmly in the rearview mirror for so long, Nelly Korda could, in theory, relax and play stress-free golf. That’s not what her experience was, though, as she played for a long time without anyone close to her on the leaderboard.
“It’s not easy going in with that big of a lead,” the new world number one said. “I think that was the challenging point with, like, where do I still play like Nelly and where do I play a little defensive?” Ultimately, it didn’t matter, as defensive or not, she held off everyone with relative ease.
Despite some ups and downs on the final Sunday, she emerged with a win and continued the tradition of jumping into the pond at the venue. She made two birdies on the front nine and two more on the back nine to finish two under on the day, so everything else was very much a mixed bag. However, with such a huge lead, mistakes could be made.
Struggles even in dominance
The scoreboard paints a picture of a truly dominant golfer, and Nelly Korda certainly was that. This field had some of the best golfers in the world, and Korda beat them all by five without ever even feeling remotely threatened. But it wasn’t perfect golf, and Korda missed some putts that would’ve made it even more of a blowout.
“What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy, because I want to show the kids at home that it’s OK to miss short putts and still win a major championship,” she laughed afterward. “You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.
Korda said her mindset now for the rest of the LPGA Tour season is to play golf and have fun. If she wins and gets to celebrate as she did on Sunday, that’s an added bonus.
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