It is only when you spend a solid five hours in the company of Nelly Korda that you realize exactly why she’s the best in the world.
The location is Orlando, Florida, and the occasion is the LPGA’s traditional season opener, Hilton Grand Vacations’ Tournament of Champions.
The Daily Mail has been given the rare opportunity to step inside the ropes and witness an entire round with the two-time major champion. And boy, did we get lucky.
It is day three and as we tee off, Korda is back among the chasing pack, tied for eighth and three shots off the pace of leader Lydia Ko.
Fast forward to the 18th green, Florida winds swirling, and the hunter has become the hunted. From three back to three ahead of the field, and a near-course record in the process.
Not that Korda was aware, of course. In the end she shot 64, just two off the best-ever score on this track, and had the conditions not changed she would surely have matched, or even beaten, it. But it was just another day for this 15-time LPGA Tour winner.
Nelly Korda plays her first tee shot of the day, on her way to a remarkable 64 at Lake Nona
The Daily Mail was inside the ropes, watching from close quarters as Korda raced to the lead
‘I will tell you honestly, I’m not even aware, I’m just so focused,’ Korda tells the Daily Mail in the relative warmth of the media center immediately after stepping off the course.
Through 15 holes, she was nine-under-par, one shot away from the record. As the day progressed, crowds around her group had swelled, surely an indication that fans were out to witness a potential piece of history.
‘I’m so diligent when I do my scorecard that I put the score in right after the hole… [but] there was like three or four holes when I wasn’t even doing it, so I wasn’t even really aware of my score throughout the day,’ she explains.
While hard to believe, Korda’s demeanor is so relaxed that it does make sense. In fact, the word ‘pressure’ doesn’t seem to be in her vocabulary.
‘Yeah, I started off great,’ she says of her day, doing absolutely no justice to the mesmeric golf she played on the front nine at Lake Nona.
Birdie, birdie, eagle was how the first three holes looked on the scorecard, her shot of the day coming from the rough on the right-hand side of the fairway on three.
Despite the high-pressure situation, Korda was calm, chatty and laid-back throughout
On the 17th tee, the winds made for an extremely difficult tee shot for all three players
‘I had a 50-degree wedge in my hand and I landed it maybe two feet past and it just kind of spun back into the hole,’ was Korda’s – again undersold – account.
The comment from the Orlando policeman tasked with looking after Korda throughout the weekend perhaps summed it up better. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ he said.
At the turn, Korda had produced another two birdies, heading to the back nine six-under for the day.
As we walked between holes, it would have been understandable for her to turn down autographs and photos, given the task in hand and the $2.1 million purse on offer.
Korda, though, is treating this like a practice round. She poses for selfies with her adoring young fans as she waits to tee off, no kid missing out on a special moment with their hero.
One quirk of this tournament is that each LPGA pro is partnered with two celebrities, and Korda spends most of the day chewing the fat with baseball legends Albert Pujols and Jon Lester.
When the wind picked up on the back nine, she at one point even used the considerable frame of Lester as a shield from the wind, the group laughing and joking all the way around the course.
It was a privilege to see Korda in full flow, playing at such a high level, but without a single ounce of stress – on the outside at least.
One main ingredient for that is her long-time caddie Jason McDede, who himself oozes calm. It is clear to see how well the pair get on, and he deserves much of the credit for helping Korda get her game to where it is today.
The only blot on a near-perfect Saturday for the Korda clan was the late change in the weather, with winds reaching such high speeds that play was suspended soon after the group walked off the 18th green.
On the 18th, Korda found herself in deep rough, but still managed to save par despite the wind
From three shots back, Korda raced to three shots ahead of the rest of the field in Orlando
Had the Gods been kinder, this was heading for history. In truth, though, I don’t think Korda will give it a second thought.
All eyes are now on Sunday, and a chance for her to record a much-needed win.
Despite an impressive 2025, she didn’t lift a trophy all year, with her 15th and last Tour title coming in November 2024.
Will Sunday bring No 16? ‘We’ll see’, is the response. If she plays like she did today, though, they can start engraving her name on the trophy now.
