Nelly Korda: Chevron Championship winner making waves in women’s golf with record-equalling LPGA win streak

Her father, Petr Korda, was a former tennis player from the Czech Republic, who won the Australian Open in 1998, suffered a quarter-final exit to a certain Tim Henman at Wimbledon that same year and was runner-up at the French Open in 1992.

Her mother, Regina Rajchrtova, also a Czech tennis pro, reached a world-ranking career-high of 26 in 1991 but retired two years later at the age of 24 with the birth of their eldest daughter Jessica in Florida, who paved the path for Nelly into the world of golf.

Jessica, older by five years, turned professional in 2010, with Nelly following suit in 2016. The pair became the first sisters to be partnered together at the Solheim Cup in 2019, going the week undefeated and winning the two foursomes matches for which they specifically teamed up.

But despite the sisters’ best efforts, the USA would lose the Solheim Cup to Europe that year, and again in 2021 as, this time, the siblings would lose their only match when paired together. Jessica was pregnant and so missed out as Europe once more retained the trophy last year.

The Korda’s younger brother, 22-year-old Sebastian, has, meanwhile, turned his hand to tennis. A Junior Boys champion at the 2018 Australian Open, the current world No. 26 had his best Grand Slam run as a pro when reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne last year.

What has prompted Korda’s remarkable run in 2024?

Korda claimed her first win on tour at the Taiwan Championship in 2018, while 2021 was truly her breakout season as she secured four LPGA titles, including a first major success at the Women’s PGA Championship.

That victory, by three strokes over Lizette Salas at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia, catapulted Korda to world No. 1 for the first time and, just a mere two months later, she won gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Her progress was hampered, however, by the revelation of a blood clot in her arm in March 2022 that would see her miss out on that year’s Chevron Championship, while persistent back problems also limited Korda’s success on tour to just one victory in over two years before her sudden win streak to kick-start 2024.

But her recent run is far from a fluke. Following the first of her victories at the LPGA Drive On Championship, when squeezing over the line in a play-off with Lydia Ko after bogeying her final two holes, Korda opted to take the next seven weeks off to dedicate herself to a new fitness regime.

“That was an aspect that I really wanted to work on and it’s been paying off quite well,” Korda has said of her self-imposed break.

“I don’t want to train like a golfer, I want to train like an athlete. Thankfully my team and I, we all have the same outlook on it.”