Nelly Korda Bio
Nelly Korda, born July 28, 1998, in Bradenton, Florida, is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. She is a two-time major winner, with titles at the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship and the 2024 Chevron Championship. Across her career she has secured 20 professional titles, including 15 on the LPGA Tour, and captured a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Korda has spent more than 100 weeks as the number one player in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, finishing the year-end top spot in both 2021 and 2024. She has represented the United States at four Solheim Cups and was a member of the victorious American team in 2024. In 2024, her seven LPGA Tour victories earned her the LPGA Tour Player of the Year award.
Early Life and Background
Nelly Korda was born on July 28, 1998, in Bradenton, Florida, to retired Czech professional tennis players Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová. Her father is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 1998 Australian Open in men’s singles, while her mother also competed on the professional tennis circuit. Nelly grew up in a deeply athletic household alongside her older sister Jessica, a professional golfer on the LPGA Tour, and her younger brother Sebastian, who later became a professional tennis player and won the 2018 Australian Open boys’ singles title.
Raised in Bradenton, Korda trained at the IMG Academy, where she developed the all-around game that would take her to the top of women’s golf. At the age of 14, she made the cut at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open, eventually finishing in a tie for 64th place, an early signal of the promise she would fulfill in the years ahead.
As a junior competitor, Korda captured the 2014 Kathy Whitforth Invitational and earned a place in the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship as one of nine amateurs in the field. In 2015, she won the Harder Hall Invitational, the Yani Tseng Invitational, and the PING Invitational, a run that pushed her into the top 10 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking. She also represented the United States at the 2015 Junior Solheim Cup in Germany, where the American side became the first team to win the event away from home.
Path to Professional Golf
Korda turned professional in 2016 and immediately made an impact, winning her first professional tournament at the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge on the Symetra Tour. She finished three strokes ahead of Wichanee Meechai and ended the season ninth on the Symetra Tour money list, a performance that earned her an LPGA Tour card for 2017.
Her LPGA Tour debut came at the 2017 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic, where she tied for fifth place. Korda closed her rookie season with a tie for eighth at the 2017 CME Group Tour Championship, having openly acknowledged the demands of full-time travel but laying the foundation for sustained success at the highest level of women’s golf.
In January 2018, Korda appointed Jason McDede as her caddie, a partnership that helped sharpen her competitive edge. That October, she secured her maiden LPGA Tour title at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, winning by two strokes in Taoyuan. The victory made Nelly and Jessica Korda the third pair of sisters to have both won on the LPGA Tour, joining the Jutanugarn and Sörenstam sisters.
Nelly Korda Career
Early Career (2016–2017)
Korda’s transition from junior standout to professional golfer began with her 2016 Symetra Tour campaign, highlighted by her win at the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge. The victory established her as a rising talent and secured her LPGA Tour card for the following season.
Her first year on the LPGA Tour in 2017 brought steady adjustment rather than immediate titles, with a tie for fifth at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic and a tie for eighth at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Those results gave her valuable experience and prepared her for the breakthrough that followed in 2018.
2018–2019: First LPGA Tour Win and Top-10 Ranking
Korda claimed her first LPGA Tour title at the 2018 Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, capping a season that included a runner-up finish at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and seven top-10 results overall. She then finished the year with a runner-up result at the CME Group Tour Championship.
In February 2019, Korda won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open by two strokes over Ko Jin-young, completing a unique family sweep of Australian titles across tennis and golf. The win moved her from 16th to ninth in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, making her the second-highest-ranked American behind Lexi Thompson. She also made her Solheim Cup debut at Gleneagles in 2019, partnering sister Jessica in the first sister pairing in the event’s history.
2020–2021: Major, Olympic Gold, and World Number One
The 2020 season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Korda still reached a playoff at the ANA Inspiration, finishing as runner-up. She then won the Lacoste Ladies Open de France by eight shots for her first Ladies European Tour title and successfully defended her Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship crown in a three-way playoff.
Her 2021 season marked her true arrival. Korda won the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, claimed the Meijer LPGA Classic with a career-best 62, and won her first major at the Women’s PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club, sealing the title by three strokes over Lizette Salas. She then captured Olympic gold in Tokyo, becoming the first American woman to win individual golf gold since Margaret Abbott in 1900. Korda finished 2021 as world number one, with four LPGA Tour wins, the lowest scoring average on tour, and a victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship.
2022–2023: Setbacks and Return to Form
Korda opened 2022 by surpassing Stacy Lewis’s record for consecutive weeks as world number one by an American. In March, however, she announced a blood clot in her arm that forced her to withdraw from the Chevron Championship and undergo surgery. She returned for the U.S. Women’s Open and gradually rebuilt her form, winning her first event of the year at the Pelican Women’s Championship and briefly regaining the world number one ranking.
In 2023, Korda signed major endorsement deals with TaylorMade and Nike, joined Delta Air Lines, and added T-Mobile to her sponsor list. She finished runner-up at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, finished third at the Chevron Championship to regain the number one ranking, and won the Aramco Team Series at Centurion Club near London for her third Ladies European Tour title. At the 2023 Solheim Cup, she posted a 2–2–0 record as Europe retained the trophy.
2024: Five Straight Wins, Second Major, and Player of the Year
Korda’s 2024 season became one of the most dominant stretches in LPGA history. She won the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton with an eagle-birdie finish to defeat Lydia Ko in a playoff, then captured the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, the Ford Championship, and the T-Mobile Match Play in succession. Her fifth consecutive win came at the Chevron Championship, where a 13-under total delivered her second major title and joined Annika Sörenstam and Nancy Lopez as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA starts.
She added the Mizuho Americas Open in May and The Annika in November, finishing the year with seven LPGA Tour titles and three additional top-10 finishes. Korda also helped the United States defeat Europe 15.5–12.5 at the 2024 Solheim Cup, winning three of her four matches, and was named LPGA Tour Player of the Year for 2024.
2025 Season Performance
Korda’s 2025 season opened with a runner-up finish at the Tournament of Champions, two strokes behind Kim A-lim. She followed that with a tie for seventh at the LPGA Founders Cup and a tie for second at the U.S. Women’s Open, two strokes behind Maja Stark, in one of her strongest major showings of the year.
In June, Korda reached the landmark of 100 career weeks as world number one, becoming only the sixth female player to achieve that milestone. A tie for fifth at the Women’s Scottish Open kept her in contention, but a tie for 36th at the Women’s British Open in August ended a 71-week run at number one, with Atthaya Thitikul replacing her at the top. After a tie for fourth at the Lotte Championship in October, Korda withdrew from the U.S. team for the International Crown because of injury, then closed her LPGA Tour season with a third-place finish at the CME Group Tour Championship.
Notable Events and Milestones
Korda’s career is defined by signature moments that include her 2021 Olympic gold medal, her 2024 stretch of five consecutive LPGA Tour wins, and her second major title at the 2024 Chevron Championship. She became the first player since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 to win four straight starts, and the third player in LPGA history to win five consecutive tournaments. She has represented the United States at four Solheim Cups and was part of the winning team in 2024.
Nelly Korda Career Wins
Across her career, Korda has recorded 20 professional titles, including 15 LPGA Tour wins, three Ladies European Tour victories, one Symetra Tour title, and her Olympic gold medal. Her major championship wins came at the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship and the 2024 Chevron Championship.
LPGA Tour Highlights
Korda’s first LPGA Tour title came at the 2018 Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, where she won by two strokes. Her most prolific season was 2024, when she captured seven titles, including five consecutive wins from January through April. Her 2021 season produced four LPGA Tour wins, making her the first American to reach that mark in a single year since Stacy Lewis in 2012.
Other Wins and Performances
On the Ladies European Tour, Korda has three victories, including the 2019 Lacoste Ladies Open de France, the 2022 Aramco Team Series in Sotogrande, and the 2023 Aramco Team Series at Centurion Club. Her first professional victory came at the 2016 Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge on the Symetra Tour.
Nelly Korda Family
Family Background and Racing Lineage
Korda is the daughter of retired Czech professional tennis players Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová. Her father is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 1998 Australian Open in men’s singles, while her mother also had a career on the professional tennis circuit. Her younger brother, Sebastian, won the 2018 Australian Open boys’ singles title, and her older sister, Jessica Korda, plays on the LPGA Tour.
Personal Life
Korda has been in a relationship with professional ice hockey player Andreas Athanasiou since 2019. In 2021, she was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and in 2024, Sportico ranked her as the eighth-highest earning female athlete in the world with $14.4 million across prize money and endorsements. The American Junior Golf Association also named a junior tournament after her, the Nelly Invitational, held at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton.