When Nelly Korda tees it up at this week’s Cognizant Founders Cup in Clifton, New Jersey, at Upper Montclair Country Club, she seeks to accomplish something that’s never been done on the LPGA – win a sixth consecutive start.
Only two other players have won five consecutive starts on the LPGA: Nancy Lopez in her magical rookie season of 1978 and Annika Sörenstam, spanning from the end of the 2004 season to the first three events of 2005.
In their sixth starts, Sorenstam tied for 12th at the Michelob Open at Kingsmill in 2005, while Lopez took a share of 13th at the Lady Keystone Open.
After her victory at the season’s first major, the Chevron Championship, Korda became the first American to win five tournaments in one year since Juli Inkster in 1999.
When it comes to world rankings, Korda leads the tour by a country mile. Her 12.30 points average in the Rolex Rankings is nearly double that of No. 2 Lilia Vu’s average of 6.54.
In the Race to CME Globe Season standings, Korda’s 2,702 points total is more than double that of second place Lydia Ko at 1,142. Korda, by the way, took off the entire spring Asian swing during a seven-week break from the tour.
The Big Pickle podcast: Beth Ann Nichols, Grant Boone on Nelly’s hot streak
There are so many ways to measure Korda’s dominance. Here are a few more:
Nelly Korda celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2024 Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Korda’s record in six LPGA starts this season is a staggering 507-20-1 in stroke-play events. (She also went 3-0 in the match-play portion of the T-Mobile event at Shadow Creek in Vegas.)
Korda lost to 15 players at the season-opening Tournament of Champions and finished sixth in the stroke-play portion of T-Mobile after 54 holes. The top eight players advanced to match play.
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)
Since starting her streak at the LPGA Drive On, Korda has gained a whopping 3.60 strokes per round on the competition, according to KPMG Performance Insights. That does not include her three match-play victories in Las Vegas.
For the season, she leads the tour in strokes gained around the greens and greens in regulation, hitting 76 percent.
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