NAPLES, Fla. – Nelly Korda left the course in frustration Thursday and headed straight to the practice green.
A day of burnt edges and a season of being on the other side of golf’s “fine line” will have that effect. Korda hit the ball well during the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship, but finished the day seven shots behind leader Somi Lee in the opening round.
Hitting well and not taking anything out of her game was the common thread of a 2025 season defined by what Korda didn’t do: win.
Korda came to practice out of frustration and put Green to work, but she didn’t stay long. The world number 2 rolled the ball into the hole a few times and took off.
That was all she needed.
“I went to the putting green for five minutes and saw some balls actually roll into the hole, which was nice,” Korda said Friday at Tiburon Golf Club.
She arrived at the first tee Friday morning with a lot of ground to make up. In a season defined by what she hasn’t done, Korda poignantly reminded us that, if all is right, she is the dominant force in women’s golf.
Korda opened with back-to-back birdies and added another on the sixth before dropping a shot on the seventh. But she recovered with three consecutive birdies and then closed her round by birding three of her last four holes to shoot a second-round eight-under 64 and take the outright lead – a point world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul would eclipse an hour later en route to the 36-hole lead.
Korda hit all 14 fairways, hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and cleared the Greg Norman-designed course in 26 putts. The burnt edges that frustrated Korda on Thursday were replaced by bird cheers from the fans in Naples.
Friday’s round was one in which all of Korda’s adjustments came together to deliver a mesmerizing display of golf.
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She has worked to keep things simple. That can be difficult after a frustrating round at the end of a frustrating season. But Korda stuck to her routine and did not let a Thursday full of near misses throw her off balance. Korda switched irons last week, going to the larger and more forgiving TaylorMade P7CBs in the 6-PW. Korda, one of the best ball strikers in the world, was looking for more spin with her irons after a season in which her approach shots didn’t do what she thought they would once they hit the green.
“The irons came in just a little bit steeper and softer, which I’ve been playing well this year, and I’ve been landing the ball where I want it to,” Korda said Friday. “I just saw a little more release than normal.
“With different changes in conditions on golf courses, I mean, that’s just how it is. Last year, some of the courses we played were maybe a little softer, so I was able to hold it off. This year they were more on the firmer side, so they just let go. So I was a little frustrated when I didn’t see the ball reacting the way I wanted it to. I really like these irons. They go through the grass really well.”
Korda has also been working on not getting fired at the top of her golf swing this year. It’s hard to get too technical when you’re also trying to win a trophy. But the few weeks of rest Korda took due to a neck ailment also allowed her to work on her swing without having to worry about the numbers on a card.
That work seems to be paying off.
“I think you work on something every year,” Korda said. “That’s just a kind of golf. I mean, when you play several weeks in a row in different types of conditions, because I’m tall, and when I play in a lot of wind, it starts to throw me around a lot, so I kind of fall back into old tendencies. Just always dealing with old tendencies, that’s the fun of golf and also frustrating.”
“Frustrating” is a word that has appeared a lot in Korda’s press this season, especially during the second half as she chased her first win of the year. Her stats are similar to her dominant 2024 season, in which she won seven times, including five straight starts. She’s like one small out of here and a little out of there. The tee-to-green portion of her game was top-notch. She is second on the LPGA in Strokes Gained: Total, first off the tee and 17th in approach. Her play around the green has decreased slightly compared to 2024 (0.42 strokes gained to 0.09), but her putting has been a lot better (0.41 in 2024 to 0.60 in 2025).
To hear Korda tell it (and tell it, and tell it), the golf gods just weren’t on her side this year. Sometimes it’s just not your round, your tournament, your year.
“I am very competitive and what I want to do on Sunday is lift the trophy. Everyone in this field wants to do it,” Korda said during the Annika last week. “It’s definitely been a weird year, but I can’t compare this year to last year. … It’s just sports. It’s golf. You can’t expect to win. You can expect to put in 100%: 100% in your body, 100% in your routine, 100% in your training and not have any distractions. That’s what I can control and that’s what I will control. But everything else is more or less under my control.”
When asked before the tournament about a year where the stats said one thing and the win column said another, Korda smiled and laughed and noted that she sometimes has negative thoughts because she is both a human and a golfer. These two things always go hand in hand when the bounces aren’t going your way.
But frustration and disappointment are different. Korda probably feels the former more than she even lets on. But the world number 2 understands that in a match won and lost by razor-thin margins, sometimes the smallest thing can change everything.
“It’s a fine line, honestly,” Korda said Wednesday. “It comes down to one shot sometimes. It’s like sticking your lips out with one ball and you can’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf. I’m not disappointed with the season. Obviously like I would have liked to get some trophies.”
“I still have a week. You never know what will happen. But in golf it is literally about centimeters and things can go so differently.”
A year of frustration for Korda led her to Friday at Tiburon Golf Course, where everything finally clicked, allowing her to change the narrative and wash away a year of burnt edges, near misses and unanswerable questions.
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