By the end of a marathon Sunday at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, Nelly Korda had secured her second major, the Chevron Championship, and tied the LPGA Tour record with her fifth straight victory.
“It's everything I've always wanted since I was a little girl, to lift that major trophy,” Korda said.
Korda was one stroke back of Atthaya Thitikul when play was suspended for weather on Saturday afternoon. She was through 11 holes of her third round, tied at 10-under with two-time major champion Brooke Henderson.
“I think you just have to try to be positive about it and just tell yourself that you can't get caught up in possibly girls being on 18 or not having that many holes left,” the 25-year-old said about the challenge of 27 pressurized holes. “If you think about it positively, then I have a lot of opportunities left in the day that I can go out and maybe capitalize on a couple of them, then that's good.”
Korda shot even par in her remaining Round 3 holes, placing her one shot back of the lead going into the final round. She birdied four of the first 11 holes, but bogeys on Nos. 11 and 15 (including a nervous shot in the water) briefly gave life to hard-charging Lauren Coughlin. Sweden's Maja Stark (-11) ended up as the runner-up. Coughlin and Henderson (-10) finished tied for third.
The highlight of the tournament was Korda's near-ace off the flagstick on No. 17. Korda birdied the par-5 18th, for good measure, to etch her name in history.
“That felt like the longest back nine of my entire life,” Korda said afterward. “It was a little bit of a grind on the back nine but happy to get the win. I was definitely starting to feel it on the back nine. The nerves setting in.
“I can finally breathe now and just enjoy the moment because I was definitely really nervous. I feel sick to my stomach.”
Korda also won the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
By winning the first of the five majors, Koda took home $1.2 million from a purse of $7.9 million (2023 purse: $5.2 million).
Already in 2024, the No. 1 player in the world has won the LPGA Drive on Championship, the Fir Hills Seri Park Championship, the Ford Championship, and T-Mobile Match Play.
“There's a key in the simplicity that I have when I play it,” Korda said about her process. “I honestly just take it a shot at a time, and we pick a game plan when we get to the golf course and we work and we stay in our own little bubble. It's been working so far. I feel like golf can get overcomplicated, and there's a key to the simplicity of it.”
Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) are the only other golfers to win five tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour.
The LPGA Tour will next be at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, CA for the JM Eagle LA Champions (April 25). The 2024 U.S. Women's Open starts May 30.
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