Nelly Korda won't ever forget her amazing run of five straight LPGA Tour victories, including the Chevron Championship, last year. The world's No. 1 player knows too well that none of that means a thing this week as she prepares to defend her title at the season's first major.
Korda, 26, had a career year in 2024, winning seven events including five in a row last spring and was named the Rolex player of the year.
“What I achieved last year, no one can take that from me,” Korda said this week. “That's always going to be such a great memory, but it's a fresh week and a fresh mindset.”
Korda's game this year hasn't quite matched up with a season ago. She finished second at the Tournament of Champions to start the season in January, then added another top-10 finish a week later. But she has not yet found that dominating form as the LPGA Tour heads to Texas, with middle-of-the-pack performances in the past three events heading into The Club at Carlton Woods.
Korda felt better about her iron play a week ago at the LA Championship, where she finished tied for 16th, seven shots behind rookie winner Ingrid Lindblad. Korda said her putting has come up short so far.
“Just need my putter to click a little bit more to make those putts,” she said. “I think that's where it's been lacking, is the putts that I was making last year I'm just not making as many this year.”
Korda will need to be on point in this one, which features 24 of the top 25 in the world rankings, including 2023 Chevron champion Lilia Vu and reigning Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko, who won the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore earlier this season.
Korda's not worried, knowing she eventually will get right with her game. “That's just golf,” she said. “I've gone through waves like this before and if I just continue working at it, hopefully, it does click.”
Lindblad's run
It didn't take long for Lindblad to show off her impressive talent as an amateur golfer at LSU once she made it to the LPGA Tour, winning in her third career start. She'll try to make her second professional win a major.
The 25-year-old from Sweden received texts of congratulation from women's golf greats Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen. Lindblad said Delta even waived the baggage fee for her on her flight into Houston.
“But I don't know if that was me or they did something wrong,” she said to laughter.
Lindblad has played in nine majors as an amateur but never the Chevron. Her best finish came at the 2022 U.S. Women's Open, where she tied for 11th.
That was a different time, she said, and she will try to tap into the way she played last week to perform well here.
“Obviously, like just got to keep trying to play my own game and do whatever I can to play well out there,” she said.
Vu's return
Lilia Vu went from the champion's plunge into the Poppie's Pond pond in front of the 18th green after winning the Chevron Championship in 2023 to wondering if she'd ever play a round of pain-free golf again.
She had to withdraw last year when painful back spasms flared up and she could barely hit a ball 40 yards on the driving range.
“I think last year, I was so much in panic with would I ever play a round of golf again, let alone a tournament round,” Vu said this week. “Took two months off, and that was probably the hardest two months of my life because I love competing.”
Vu said she reevaluated her entire routine, how she practiced and trained, focused on better posture and how to recover from a round and be ready for the next one.
She steadily regained her form. She beat Lexi Thompson in a playoff last June in her first event back. She lost a playoff to Hoo Joo Kim at the Ford Championship last month.
“I would say I'm in a much better place than I was last year,” she said.
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