Early on in Beth Daniel’s career, Mickey Wright said in a press conference that if you think Nancy Lopez is great, wait until you see Beth Daniel. Wright’s words, though flattering, weighed heavily on Daniel, who joined the LPGA in 1979, one year after Lopez won nine times as a rookie and was immediately hailed as a rival. It’s the reason Daniel is careful with her words about current LPGA players.
Now that Nelly Korda is in the midst of a dominating streak, Daniel is comfortable saying that this is what everyone expected of her all along.
“But you hate to put that on somebody,” she quickly added.
Korda, 25, comes into the LPGA’s first major of the season, this week’s Chevron Championship, on a streak of four consecutive titles. She took a seven-week break after winning her first title of the season, the LPGA Drive On, in her hometown of Bradenton, Florida, and then won three titles in the span of three weeks. The LPGA was off last week during the Masters.
Nelly Korda holds up four fingers for her fourth win in a row after winning the 2024 T-Mobile Match Play at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
The women’s game hasn’t seen a player win four consecutive starts since Lorena Ochoa won four in four weeks in 2008. Korda is the first player to enter a major coming off four wins in consecutive starts since Annika Sorenstam did so between the end of the 2004 season and the start of 2005.
“Gosh, I can’t even wrap my head around it honestly,” said Korda in the aftermath of her 12th career LPGA title at the T-Mobile Match Play at Shadow Creek, where the weather was so brutal the cut for the stroke-play portion fell at 9 over.
Major champion Karen Stupples has covered Korda’s streak as part of the broadcast crew for Golf Channel and marvels at the adversity the young American has overcome, winning two of those titles in a playoff (forcing one with an eagle-birdie finish) with challenging weather and match play thrown in.
“What we’re seeing now,” said Stupples, “is there’s a lot more self-belief. She trusts that she’s going to win.”
When Lopez won five consecutive starts during that magical rookie season in 1978, she thrived off the attention. Lopez felt like she was riding on a cloud.
“Every player is different,” said Lopez, “but, for me, it was a blessing for me to be comfortable like that.”
Lopez’s experience in the spotlight stands in stark contrast to what Daniel felt when…
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