NAPLES, Fla. – Nelly Korda’s last full swing of the 2025 LPGA season came from the middle of the 18th fairway on Tiburon Golf Club. The shot was clean, a slight spin of the club ensued and the ball landed 25 yards from the pin. Her birdie attempt was tracking to the center of the cup but died at the very last second, leaving her to finish with par in a fashion that perfectly encapsulated a winless season.
Nelly Korda was good in 2025, but not to the level many expected after a seven-win 2024.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year I would say,” Korda said in her pre-tournament press conference at the CME Group Tour Championship. “There’s been good ones; there’s been really good shots; there’s been shots that I don’t know what happened. Overall I’d say it’s just kind of golf. Going off last year, it’s always going to be hard to back that up.”
It would be easy to focus on just one number when it comes to Korda. Going from seven wins to zero while dropping to No. 2 in the world would suggest on the surface that her game took a step back. That the LPGA’s dominant star returned in 2025. But using wins as the sole barometer in an individual sport can be misleading.
“It’s honestly a fine line,” Korda said. “Sometimes it comes down to one shot. It’s like a lip putt outside and you don’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf.
“I don’t necessarily think I’m a worse golfer or a better golfer. I would say maybe last year a few other things were going my way. That’s golf. I’m never going to have a regret party and I’m never going to be like, oh, why is it at this split or why did I get that bad swing. And good breaks and sometimes not.”
Korda’s stats this season took a slight dip, but not in a way that meant her game dropped.
She finished the 2025 season with a better scoring average, better shots: Off the tee, better birdie or percentage, and better gravel drive numbers than in 2024. Her approach game was about even and her putting numbers were better. Her numbers around the green were the only ones to drop significantly, going from 0.42 strokes to 0.13. Her Par 4 score was the same and her Par 5 score was just one point worse at 4.55, down from 4.50. She still led the LPGA in that category.
“She has better stats than last year, but she hasn’t won and she won seven, eight times last year,” Lydia Ko said of Korda. “Sometimes the stats aren’t like that. If you did that, you’d think, OK, you’re going to win X amount of times. There are so many variables and you’re playing against 143 other players. It’s just a lot.”
This week in Naples, Korda repeatedly used the line “that’s golf” to explain a winless season. She called it a “scratch.” But the world number 2 also revealed that a disappointing season saw him come to an end runner-up at the US Women’s Open and not reaching the winner’s circle had given her something important.
Professional golf can be isolating. A season of burnt edges and bad rebounds would cause many people to turn inward and fight, to subtract about a lost year. But Korda instead took this season — and her last — as a reminder that she doesn’t have to carry everything on her shoulders. That those who are closest to her are of incalculable value.
“I would say you get a lot more criticism when you’re at the top of your game and having a tight circle, you’re very grateful for the people around you,” Korda said. “The circle gets a little smaller, but I think I have a great circle. I would say I’m extremely, extremely lucky for the people I have around me. At the end of the day, the life that we live and perform in front of people, it’s extremely important to have that stability in your life.
“I would say what I learned about myself this year is that it’s okay to lean on others when things don’t go well,” Korda added. “In every way possible. It doesn’t matter if it’s showing up for me, taking a call, texting me, FaceTiming me, it doesn’t matter. They’ve just shown up every day, which I’m so grateful for.”
This season made Korda express herself, no doubt sometimes too much, to those in her circle. But their perspective was invaluable in helping him see the big picture of a winless season.
“They’re also a great reminder,” Korda said of her team. “They see things differently than I might. And they’ve been around me for so long. I’ve had pretty much the same team my whole career. I think that’s when you get a whole new perspective when you talk to your team that’s been around for so long.”
That perspective made Korda happy with the improvement she’s seen in parts of her game, her relatively clean state of health, and the totality of what she’s poured into her game and body, even if the desired result never came.
“When it comes to the level of effort I give this game, I’d say I’ll probably give it more this year — every year I give it more and more. I think about it more and more,” Korda said. “There is no lack of effort for sure in any department.”
When Korda made par Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club, she ended her season in third place, six shots behind world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, the same margin as when the day began. Korda entered on Sunday wanting to go as low as possible to capture Thitikul. She carded a one-over 37 before racking up three birdies and an eagle on the back nine to close out her season.
As has been the case since her Sunday foray into the season-opening Tournament of Champions came a while ago, Nelly Korda’s best arrived but did not last. He made an appearance to remind us how great it can be, then left to reveal a season of good golf and disappointing results.
But as shocking as Korda’s winless season is, it’s nothing more than the ebb and flow of professional golf.
In 2017, Rory McIlroy, who had won seven times in two years, went winless and fell to 11th in the world. He said he played through a rib injury, but he still finished T7 at the Masters and T4 at the Open, so he was good enough to compete; he just didn’t win. From November 2019 to May 2021, McIlroy went winless in 25 events and fell to No. 9 in the world. He recovered to return to world No. 1 and has since won 12 times worldwide.
Korda will almost certainly be back. The wins will surely come again. The talent and incentive are too great for them not to. And the 2025 season could end up being a catalyst for Korda’s next flood, for the fire it lit and the simple reminder it provided — that Nelly Korda doesn’t have to do it alone.
“Honestly, it worked out,” Korda said of the season. “I played really great golf. I played weird golf. You think it’s every year.
;)
