Nelly Korda had a dominant – and strange – 2024

The last 12 months had it all – crazy winning streaks, great new champions, a major weekly arrest (!) and more. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are looking at the most memorable moments from 2024.

no. 15 – Charley Hull goes viral | no. 14 – LIV, CEO of the LPGA say goodbye | no. 13 – The Solheim Cup parking fiasco | no. 12 – Open Phoenix Chaos | no. 11 – Hall of Fame Revival of Lydia Ko | no. 10 – PGA Tour/Saudi PIF merger deadlock | no. 9 – Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain | no. 8 – Lexi Thompson left | No. 7 – Xander Schauffele’s big reveal | No. 6 – AK’s return to golf

Golf’s Greatest Moments of 2024 No. 5: The Year of Nelly Korda

If you’ve been paying attention to women’s golf in 2024, you know it was a BIG year for Nelly Korda.

Seven wins. A great title. Eleven ball 10. A Winning the Solheim Cup. Add it all up and you have a runaway Player of the Year winner – and a historic season. Since Yani Tseng in 2011, no one has won as many times in a season as Korda in 2024.

In a single season, the 26-year-old nearly doubled her career win total – and set a stranglehold on top spot in the Rolex rankings. By the end of the year, the gap between Korda and the world’s second-ranked player (Ruoning Yin) was the same as the gap between Yin and No. 117. This is a major Tiger Woods level of dominance.

“Never in a million years would I have thought that last year, 365 days ago, I would be here with seven wins in one season and another major championship,” Korda said after the LPGA Tour Championship. “Just motivated and eager to go again next year.”

Korda’s banner year wasn’t just limited to the golf course. She also excelled on the field of play. In May, she made a surprise appearance at the Met Gala, becoming the first golfer since Tiger Woods to appear at the event.

“It was just a dream come true,” said Korda. “It was really cool to step out of my comfort zone and do something like that.”

That step outside her comfort zone paid off. On the strength of her broad, mainstream appeal, Korda cashed many endorsement checks. At the end of the year, Korda was ranked i eight highest paid female athlete in the world.

On the surface, it seems like 2024 couldn’t have gone much better for the world No.1. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t ups and downs – or even downfalls.

Just two weeks after her win at the Mizuho America’s Open, Korda arrived at the US Women’s Open looking to win the biggest title in all of women’s golf. Her hold was broken before she could gain any momentum. On her third hole of the championship, she found the water three(!) times en route to 10. She shot 80 in that opening round and missed the cut the next day.

She missed the cut in her next start, too, before heading into the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship looking to regroup. Instead, her struggles only got worse. After an opening round of 69 at Sahalee Country Club, she exploded in Round 2 with an 81 – the worst score of her career.

“It’s just golf lately for me,” she said said. “There are no words for the way I’m playing right now … A lot went my way at the beginning of the year and I just gave it back.”

That Friday might have been the last for Korda 2024, but it wasn’t the end of her struggles. At the Olympics later in the summer, she arrived in Paris looking to win her second gold medal. Instead, she put in a poor performance on Sunday – including a flute – to finish outside the top 20.

With two more chances to add to his late-summer major total, Korda put in strong performances finishing T26 and T2, but in the end a summer that started with so much promise ended in a splash. By the time fall rolled around, Korda seemed physically — and emotionally — spent. When the LPGA headed to Asia for their fall swing, Korda chose to stay stateside to nurture a annoying neck injury.

“I’m disappointed to miss these events and I’m especially sorry for my fans who were looking forward to seeing me play,” she said at the time. “I’m resting and working with my team to improve.”

But, like all great players, Korda didn’t last long. When the tournament returned to Floria for the final part of the season, No. The World No. 1 was back to her normal self. In her first start back from injury, Korda scored her seventh win of the season at the Annika Sorenstam Tour in Tampa. The following week, she won the Player of the Year award.

“(I’m) proud of the way I came back from the middle of the year to win in Tampa,” she said. “And, yeah, just motivated and eager to go again next year.”

If Korda can play anything like that this year, we can expect 2025 to be another big year.

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