Nelly Korda’s return to competitive golf nearly resulted in a victory at Lake Nona, falling just short at the LPGA’s season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
The world No. 1 fired a final-round 65 to reach 18 under for the tournament. That score would’ve been enough to win any of the previous three editions at Lake Nona, but A Lim Kim’s late surge – including birdies on three of her final four holes – pushed her to 20 under and left Korda in second place.
“Not bad,” Korda said. “I’m never going to complain finishing second in a tournament and giving it a run, especially on a Sunday. There are definitely a couple putts I would like to have back, but overall, I think I’m very happy with this week and excited for next week.”
It’s Korda’s fifth consecutive top-5 finish, a streak that began with her T-2 at last summer’s AIG Women’s Open. Her game seems to be picking up right where it left off.
Next up is what amounts to a home game for Korda – the Founders Cup at Bradenton Country Club in Florida. While Rose Zhang is technically defending her title from when the event was held at Upper Montclair, Korda’s already found success at Bradenton, winning last January’s Drive On Championship there.
The equipment story this week centered around Korda’s brief experiment with TaylorMade’s new Qi35 driver. After opening with a 71, she switched back to her familiar Qi10 for the remaining rounds.
“If you’re not confident in one part of your game it kind of leaks to everything else,” she explained Friday. “Not saying that I’m not going to put it in for the rest of the year, but there are just a couple tweaks that I want to do to it before putting it in to actually play for my whole set to be confident.”
She’ll have plenty of time to work on those tweaks. After next week’s event, Korda’s planning seven weeks away from competition, skipping the Asian swing before returning at the Ford Championship in late March.
For now, she’s keeping it light heading into Bradenton. “Definitely some areas where I feel like I need to kind of tighten up some loose ends,” Korda said. “Overall, I think I cant complain about the state of my golf game right now.”
