Nelly Korda went into the new year with the same outlook as Scottie Scheffler. Both were coming off monster seasons and more willing to look at 2025 as a clean slate instead of an encore.
Korda won seven times last year, including a major, and had a wide gap at No. 1 in the world. She said at the season opener in Florida the last week in January, “Last year is last year.”
“When it comes to defending titles, the field is different. There’s different girls in the field. Weather is different. Golf course could be different,” Korda said at the Tournament of Champions. “There are so many variabilities that just completely changes it.”
The biggest change: She has yet to win in 15 tournaments this year, and last month lost the No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul.
Her statistics are roughly the same — a scoring average of 69.89, compared with 69.56 for all of 2024. She is 20th in putting, up from 34th a year ago. She has taken a significant dip in strokes gained: around the green (No. 62 this year, down from No. 4 a year ago).
If there was a category called strokes gained: patience, Korda might be leading that.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of work on every part of my game,” she said two weeks ago in Canada. “Statistically I saw my stats, and seeing that I’m always in the top and some of my stats are maybe better than even last year, it’s just crazy. That’s just golf.
“By this time last year I had six wins under my belt and my stats are better and I have zero wins under my belt this year,” she said. “I think the most important thing is kind of sticking to your process, always trying to be in contention coming into the weekend, and kind of figuring out your groove, too.”
Most alarming of late is getting into contention.
Dating to her runner-up finish in the U.S. Women’s Open, Korda has not been closer than seven shots of the winner in seven starts. She was 13 shots (Evian) and 14 shots (AIG Women’s Open) in the last two majors. She wound up 14 shots behind at the FM Championship last week.
Korda is entered in the Kroger Queen City Championship outside Cincinnati next week.
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