HOUSTON (AP) — Rory McIlroy spent 17 years trying to win the Masters, and when he faced the media for the first time wearing his green jacket, he asked, “What are we going to talk about next year?”
It wasn't that bad for Nelly Korda, even if it felt that way.
The questions about a lifetime goal she was chasing didn't come every year at one tournament. They were crammed into a single season, asking whether she could live up to the past.
Korda won seven times in 2024, the most on the LPGA Tour in 17 years. And then last year she didn't win at all, even though her statistics were similar, if not better in some areas.
“A super frustrating year,” she said. “I would come into a room like this and everyone would be like, ‘Your stats are great, better than last year, but you have zero trophies under your name this year.’ I'm like, ‘I see that, yes.’ It wears on you because that's what you're working for.”
Frustration led to too much thinking, too much analyzing. She wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, but her wheels were spinning without going anywhere.
“That was paralyzing me," she said. “I told myself I don't ever want to feel like that on a golf course.”
Korda looked nothing like that over four days at Memorial Park when she won The Chevron Championship with a dominance not seen at an LPGA major in 35 years.
She looked free, a powerful place to be when possessing one of the most athletic swings in the game. Korda won by five shots, a margin that could have been anything had she not aimed for the fat of the green over the last three hours to get to the finish line and cannonball into the pool.
Korda had the lead for the last 57 holes of the tournament. Not since Amy Alcott in the 1991 Nabisco Dinah Shore has a player led by two shots or more after each of the four rounds at a major.
What are we going to talk about now?
Korda is back to No. 1 in women's golf and already back to work, on the course Tuesday at Mayakoba for the next tournament.
She already has two wins this year - the first one when the final round was canceled because of extreme cold in Florida, the last one her third career major. In between were a trio of runner-up finishes. She has played in the final group at all five tournaments she has played.
Comparisons with 2024 are becoming inevitable, even though Korda cares little about them.
That's the maturity the 27-year-old American has brought into this year, lessons from a most frustrating 2025.
“I would say the only thing that’s similar is when do you get into a zone like this you’re kind of in your own little bubble,” she said. “And that’s what I was feeling in 2024. I was in my own little bubble. But as for the way that I am mentally in 2024 versus what I am mentally right now, they’re almost two different people.”
If there was a weakness in her game it was short putting. She missed a trio of 4-footers - one for birdie, two for par - on Saturday that kept The Chevron from being a blowout.
“I'm going to make mistakes and miss short putts,” she said. “The lesson I learned on Saturday is that I started thinking like last year a little bit where I started overanalyzing. And I kind of popped my bubble myself. I needed to get back into that bubble.”
She had a little of that in the final round when Korda played ultra conservative with a five-shot lead and began aiming to safe spots on the green. That left her long putts, and then a few 6-foot par putts. She missed one of them and the lead was down to four with six holes to play.
Strange things can happen in golf, particularly between the ears. Korda never let anyone get closer than four shots of her the entire weekend, but miss one putt and the lead can seem smaller.
Doubts began to creep in. She recalls telling her caddie: “I don't want to feel like I felt on Saturday. I want to go out and play golf.” And then she opted against a safe shot on the 13th and fired a wedge at the pin, leaving her a tap-in birdie.
Back in the bubble.
And now the race is on, even if she doesn't have any real targets beyond the next tournament, which this week is the Mexico Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba. She is the only player from the top 10 in the world in the field, and the only other players from the top 20 are defending champion Chizzy Iwai and her twin sister, Akie.
Korda is more about putting in the work, looking only at the next tournament. She speaks from the same vein as Scottie Scheffler, who is dominating men's golf. Her concern is putting in time on the course and in the gym to be at her best, nothing more.
She took a big leap for that cannonball into the makeshift pool in Houston. Everything else about Korda is small steps. A bubble doesn't leave room for much else.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
