Nelly Korda’s wild ride through 2024 ended quietly Sunday with a bogey-free 66 at the CME Group Tour Championship, good enough for fifth place.
But don’t let that calm finish fool you. Her year was anything but quiet.
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Korda racked up seven wins, including a major championship, in what became one of the most dramatic seasons in recent LPGA history.
It started with a bang. In just her second tournament, she went head-to-head with Lydia Ko and won in a playoff, temporarily keeping Ko from her Hall of Fame dreams.
Then came the streak that had everyone talking. After a seven-week break, Korda did something almost unheard of – she won four tournaments in a row. That made it five straight wins, matching an LPGA record that had stood for decades.
What made it even more impressive? She won every way possible. From behind. From the front. In terrible weather. On both coasts. In match play and stroke play. Even grabbed that major title she’d been chasing since 2021.
Just when everyone thought she might cool off, she won again the very next week. Six victories in eight starts. World No. 1. Seemingly unstoppable.
Then golf happened.
At the U.S. Women’s Open, Korda hit three balls in the water on a single hole. She shot 80 – her worst round in years. It was just the start of a brutal summer stretch that saw her miss three straight cuts for the first time in her career.
"With golf, it’s up and down," Korda said at the Tour Championship. "It’s a roller coaster. You can never be comfortable."
The struggles continued in some of the year’s biggest events. A quadruple bogey derailed her Olympic gold medal defense in Paris. At the historic St. Andrews Women’s Open, she led halfway through but fell apart on the weekend with costly double bogeys.
Meanwhile, Ko captured both the Olympic gold and the Women’s Open, completing her career grand slam and securing her spot in the Hall of Fame after all.
Korda took another long break, dealing with what she called a "minor neck injury" and skipping the Asian swing.
But just when everyone wondered if her early-season magic was gone for good, she came roaring back. Two weeks ago in Naples, she fired off five straight birdies on the back nine to win The Annika.
"At the beginning of the year, everything was just flowing. I would never say golf is easy, but I was just in a state of flow," Korda reflected. "Then in the middle of the year it felt like the hardest thing in the world."
Through it all, she became an aunt for the first time, helped the U.S. team in international competition, battled migraines, and even found time for a magazine photo shoot.
"Honestly, it’s been a crazy year," she said. "I’m grateful for all of it. I am grateful for the highs; grateful for the lows."
