NAPLES, Fla. – Nelly Korda had a simple explanation for her winless 2025 season as the LPGA year ended Sunday in Naples.
“It was a grind,” Korda said of the follow-up campaign to her seven wins in 2024. “Success is never linear.”
While that’s true, every decision and change Korda made in 2025 played a role in the final outcome, creating a frustrating season for the LPGA’s biggest star. One shot in particular still sticks in Korda’s mind. It ended up being the defining shot of her season, just not in the way she had hoped.
“Exactly number 18 at the US Open,” Korda said on Sunday about her last full swing at Erin Hills. “I actually hit that shot so well. I probably hit that shot the best I’ve done all year, and just because of the adrenaline I probably hit it, I don’t know, ten yards too long and a little bit too left; it was in the spot where on Monday at the beginning of the week I thought, I can’t be here, and I was there. So if I could get one shot back, that would be it.”
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Korda entered the week at Erin Hills preaching patience. The US Women’s Open is the tournament she most desires. It is also the one that has caused her the most trouble throughout her career. Korda finished the final round of the 2023 US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach with an 80. She scored the same score during the opening round of the 2024 edition at Lancaster Country Club. The premier event in women’s golf has her tormented, but she showed up in Wisconsin with a plan to get into contention and change the narrative.
“If you want to feel it, you will feel it,” Korda said of the pressure that comes with being expected to compete and win. “But I think it’s really important that you stick to your game plan and really focus on what you’re doing at the moment, and that really helped me.”
Korda stuck with her patient approach at Erin Hills, and it paid off when she led the weeklong tournament in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. But when she reached the par-5 18th hole on Sunday, there was no time for patience. Korda was still three behind Maja Stark and had to make something happen to increase the pressure on Stark as she went down the stretch. She split the fairway with her tee shot and then hit her second toward the flag. The shot landed a hole high, but bounced over the green and into a valley. She eventually made a bogey and finished in a tie for second place.
“When you get that close and you feel the adrenaline rushing down, all you want to do is hold the trophy at the end of the day,” Korda said that day in Wisconsin. ‘And I’m not.
“Just an absolute heartbreaker,” Korda said. “But that’s golf.”
Korda’s 2025 mirrored her four days at Erin Hills. Statistically she was very, very good. She was better off the tee and with the putter in 2025 than she was during her historic 2024 season. Her approach numbers are the same, and only her play around the green was worse.
And yet all that would have been moot had Korda’s final full swing at Erin Hills landed safely on the putting surface and given her an eagle eye view. She still would have had to make the putt — she ranked 52nd in putting that week — and needed Stark to stumble when he got home to have a chance. Crazier things have happened in golf than someone blowing a one or two stroke lead trying to close out their first major.
A successful comeback attempt at the US Women’s Open would have been the defining moment of Korda’s career so far. A victory that would have meant more than any trophy she lifted in 2024. The rest of 2025 would have been house money.
But Korda’s adrenaline-fueled approach dashed any hope she had, and she left Wisconsin still searching for the major championship trophy she craved most.
The rest of her season was a combination of good golf and mediocre results. Korda played no part in the other major championships and she finished the season third in the Tour Championship, six shots behind Jeeno Thitikul, who overtook Korda as world No. 1 in August.
For Nelly Korda it was a year that was difficult to explain. She mainly attributed it to being on the wrong side of golf’s “fine line.” The big picture of a winless season gave Korda a sense of pride in how she stayed healthy and threw herself into improving her game. That it all came down to zero trophies being added to Korda’s cause is nothing more than the reality of life in an individual sport.
“The highlights are probably like the big flashes in my game where I’m really excited about the work I’ve put in,” Korda said. “And some of the low points are like any girl here can say, any professional can say: you put so much time and effort into your craft and you just don’t play well. You just do it over and over again. Sometimes you just go a little crazy.”
Korda went winless in 2023 and responded with seven wins in 2024, including five wins in a row. The 2025 season could have been draining for Korda, but it served as a reminder to lean on those around her to gain a different perspective and focus on what she can control.
“I would just say expectations, listening to outside noise, really just sticking to what I know best, and that is to keep everything simple,” Korda said.
Ultimately, 2025 brought questions and regrets for Nelly Korda. That could have helped change everything.
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