When Rolex Rankings No. 2 Nelly Korda pulled into Blythefield Country Club, she couldn’t help but chuckle. As is tradition at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, the club’s driveway is named after the defending champion each year, and the American superstar got a kick out of “Nelly Korda Drive.”
“I was just like, ‘Oh, my God.’ It was really cool,” said Korda. “I think they do that with every defending championship. I think last year it was Brooke Henderson Drive. But it's super cool. I know there is this event that I played as a junior golfer, Scott Robertson, and every winner got a tree planted. So it's cool that this event does that. It's special and different.”
Korda’s two-shot victory over Leona Maguire last year in Belmont, Mich. kicked off an impressive stretch that cemented her place in golf as one of the game’s young, up-and-coming phenoms. She earned her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club the very next week, winning by three over Lizette Salas and, as a result, ascended to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Korda then took home the gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, wrapping up a whirlwind summer that proved to be career-defining.
“I think it's hard with golf because you don't let it settle in a sense,” said Korda. “It doesn't really settle in. It's like, okay, what's next in a sense? That's always been kind of my mindset. But I have had time to look back, and I looked at a couple of highlights here and there and it is very special. But in golf, you're constantly moving forward, looking at what's next so it's kind of hard to sit back and reminisce. It's nice to, but I also like to look at what's ahead of me.”
This is only Korda’s fifth start of the 2022 season and her second event back on the LPGA Tour after the 23-year-old was sidelined in March with a blood clot in her left arm. She officially returned to competition two weeks ago at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica, where she finished in a tie for eighth. While Korda would’ve preferred to tee it up a bit sooner than Pine Needles, that top-10 finish has given her a ton of confidence as she readies herself for back-to-back title defenses this week in Michigan and next week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“I wasn't planning on the U.S. Women's Open to be my first event back. I wanted to come back earlier just to get a couple reps in before the major championship because all the girls are in the middle of their season, they have a bunch of rounds under their belts, and I've been out for a couple of months not even touching a club. So, to be able to show that to myself, that I can top 10 at a major championship, was good for me and to see what I've been working on is a step in the right direction.”
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