Nelly Korda is only four starts into her 2024 LPGA season and we’re already talking about the “h” word: historical.
Korda has won her last three starts, dating to January, and will play for more history at this week’s T-Mobile Match Play.
“I would say that every victory I’ve had or every single time I’ve played well I’ve felt more in the zone,” Korda said Tuesday, on the eve of the five-day tournament.
“But I would say that the past two weeks everything has just kind of clicked a little bit more. Even my mistakes, I’ve made the right mistakes in a sense.”
If she prevails on Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada, it will mark her fourth win in as many starts (non-consecutive on the schedule as she skipped the tour’s Asian swing, between wins No. 1 and No. 2).
She’d join Shirley Englehorn (1970) as players to do that. The LPGA record is five straight tournament wins, in which a player participated. Annika Sorenstam accomplished that from the end of the 2004 season through the start of ’05. Nancy Lopez won five straight starts in 1978.
As for winning in consecutively contested tour events, Korda could make it three in a row. Four players (Sorenstam twice) have done that:
- Annika Sorenstam (2002, 2005)
- Lorena Ochoa (2007)
- Inbee Park (2013)
- Ariya Jutanugarn (2016)
The record is four consecutive wins in scheduled starts. Should Korda capture the Match Play and then the Chevron Championship (a major and the next event following a bye week), she would join this group:
- Mickey Wright (1962, 1963)
- Kathy Whitworth (1969)
- Annika Sorenstam (2001)
- Lorena Ochoa (2008)
Korda has won in a variety elements – wind, rain, cold and heat – this season and will now try to do so in a different format. Click here for details on the stroke-play, match-play combination. And click here for how to watch this week on Golf Channel and Peacock.
