Nelly Korda to defend her gold medal at Paris 2024

World number one Korda continued her remarkable year, clinching her sixth win on the LPGA Tour with victory at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National.

Korda’s place as one of the sport’s most prominent and popular figures was already secure at the start of 2024, but a superlative solo season has seen the 25-year-old rise to new heights. It began in her home town of Bradenton, Florida in January, a play-off victory over Lydia Ko in the Drive-On Championship sparking a remarkable run.

It was the first of five successive victories on the LPGA Tour, a run that encompassed four wins in five weekends in March and April and a second major title at the Chevron Championship. That Texas triumph emulated the streaks of Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez. The setbacks soon came, missed cuts at the next two majors, in a notoriously unpredictable sport but Korda had established herself again as the LPGA’s dominant force.

Sporting success runs in the family. Father Petr Korda was a regular Grand Slam challenger in the late 1990s, winning the 1998 Australian Open, while mother Regina Rajchrtova reached the world’s top 30 in her own impressive career on the court. Younger brother Sebastian followed his parents into the tennis trade and is threatening the top ten; elder sister Jessica has six LPGA Tour titles on a crowded mantelpiece at the Korda family home.

The LPGA Tour win

Korda duelled with Australian Hannah Green throughout the final round in Jersey City but Green made bogey on the final hole. Her one-under round of 71 was enough for the one stroke victory.

The 25-year-old American missed out on what would have been a record sixth straight title at the Founders Cup last week. But despite a shaky front nine, where she made three bogeys and a birdie, Korda recovered with birdies on the 10th, 13th and 15th. It came down to the final hole with the leading pair level, Green found the left rough after pulling her tee shot while Korda safely hit the fairway.

Green’s second shot ended in the rough by the greenside bunker and she then found the green but left herself a 15-foot putt. Korda’s putt for birdie was just inches away, leaving Green to make her putt to force a playoff which the Australian was unable to do as she made bogey.