Nelly Korda made golf history Sunday winning her fifth straight LPGA event while simultaneously locking up the second major of her career. Korda won the 2024 Chevron Championship by two shots over Maja Stark and three shots over Natalie Coughlin and Brooke Henderson, continuing her amazing undefeated streak that dates back to the middle of January.
While Scottie Scheffler has been making headlines for his incredible level of play on the men's side, Korda is doing him one better on the women's side. Scheffler has won three of the last four events he's played and is seeking to go four of five on Sunday at the 2024 RBC Heritage.
In clinching her fifth straight victory, Korda now stands alongside Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the only golfers to accomplish such a feat on the LPGA Tour. She will have an opportunity to break the mark at her next event, which may come as soon as next week's LA Championship.
Korda led the first women's major of the year across most of a weekend that was put on hold amid inclement weather in Woodlands, Texas, just outside of Houston. She shot 68-69-69 over the first three rounds and seemed to absorb a run at the top of the leaderboard by a different player on every day. Sunday's run came from Stark, who birdied her last two holes to get to 11 under and apply a bit of pressure to Korda.
It was not easy. Korda hit her tee shot on the 15th into the water before escaping with bogey as her lead moved from four to three. That's the benefit of building four-shot leads early in a weekend; it gives one room to make a few mistakes coming down the stretch. With Stark ahead of her making birdies, Korda nearly hit the pin on No. 17 and then made a final birdie on No. 18 to clinch the victory.
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 21, 2024
"I can finally breathe now," she told NBC. "That back nine felt like the longest back nine of my entire life. 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," she added, having made more bogeys on the back nine than she had made in the previous 27 holes combined. "The nerves setting in. It's a major. It's everything I've always wanted as a little girl -- to lift that major trophy. As I said, I can finally breathe now and just enjoy the moment because I was definitely really nervous. I feel sick to my stomach."
Korda captured her first major since the 2021 Women's PGA Championship. Since then, she had four top 10s but no wins.
It's been an extraordinary 2024 for the No. 1 player in the world, who basically put together a career's worth of achievements over the last couple of months. On Sunday, she brought home the top prize at the Chevron Championship, a purse increased 50% from last year to $7.9 million for the field.
| Event | Finish | Winnings |
|---|---|---|
| Tournament of Champions |
T16 |
$24,216 |
| LPGA Drive on Championship |
1st |
$262,500 |
| Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship |
1st |
$300,000 |
| Ford Championship |
1st |
$337,500 |
| T-Mobile Match Play |
1st |
$300,000 |
| Chevron Championship* |
1st |
$1.2 million |
"There's a key in the simplicity that I have when I play it," she said. "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."
Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Patrick McDonald and Greg DuCharme discuss Scottie Scheffler's hold on the RBC Heritage, Nelly Korda's fifth straight victory and Miles Russell finishing top 25 as a 15 year old. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
