Nelly Korda had a dominant — and strange — 2024

The past 12 months had it all — crazy winning streaks, new major champs, a major-week arrest (!) and more. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are looking back at the most memorable moments from 2024.

No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral | No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye | No. 13— Solheim Cup parking fiasco | No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos | No. 11 — Lydia Ko’s Hall of Fame resurgence | No. 10 — PGA Tour/Saudi PIF merger stalemate | No. 9 — Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain | No. 8 — Lexi Thompson stepped away | No. 7 — Xander Schauffele’s major breakthrough | No. 6 – AK’s return to golf

Biggest golf moments of 2024 No. 5: The year of Nelly Korda

If you paid any attention to women’s golf in 2024, you know it was a BIG year for Nelly Korda.

Seven wins. One major title. Eleven top 10s. A Solheim Cup victory. Sum it all up and you’ve got a runaway Player of the Year winner — and a historic season. Not since Yani Tseng in 2011 has anyone won as many times in a season as Korda did in 2024.

In a single season, the 26-year-old nearly doubled her career win total — and put a stranglehold on the top spot in the Rolex Rankings. By year’s end, the margin between Korda and the world’s second-ranked player (Ruoning Yin) was the same as the gap between Yin and No. 117. That’s some prime-Tiger Woods level of domination.

“Never in a million years would I have thought last year, 365 days ago, I would be here with seven wins in one season and another major championship,” Korda said after the LPGA Tour Championship. “Just motivated and eager to get next year going again.”

Korda’s banner year wasn’t just limited to the golf course. She shined away from the playing field as well. Back in May, she made a surprise appearance at the Met Gala, becoming the first golfer since Tiger Woods to appear at the event.

“It was just a dream come true,” Korda said. “It was really, really neat to step outside of my comfort zone and do something like that.”

That step outside her comfort zone paid off. On the strength of her broad, mainstream appeal, Korda cashed plenty of endorsement checks. By year’s end, Korda ranked as the eight-highest-paid female athlete in the world.

On the surface level, it appears 2024 couldn’t have gone much better for the World No. 1. However, that’s not to say there wasn’t adversity — or even slumps.

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Just two weeks after her win at the Mizuho America’s Open, Korda arrived at the U.S. Women’s Open looking to win the biggest title in all of women’s golf. Her conquest was derailed before it could even gain any momentum. On her third hole of the championship, she found the water three(!) times en route to a 10. She fired 80 in that opening round and missed the cut the following day.

She missed the cut in her next start, too, before heading to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship looking to regroup. Instead, her struggles got even worse. After an opening-round 69 at Sahalee Country Club, she imploded in Round 2 with an 81 — the worst score of her career.

“It’s just golf recently for me,” she said. “No words for how I’m playing right now … A lot went my way at the beginning part of the year and just giving it back.” 

That Friday might’ve been rock bottom for Korda’s 2024, but it wasn’t the end of her struggles. At the Olympics later in the summer, she arrived in Paris looking to win her second gold medal. Instead, she turned in a lackluster Sunday performance — including a shank — to finish outside the top 20.

With two more chances at adding to her major total at the end of the summer, Korda turned in spirited performances finishing T26 and T2, but ultimately a summer that started with so much promise ended in a sputter. By the time the fall rolled around, Korda seemed physically — and emotionally — spent. When the LPGA headed to Asia for their fall swing, Korda opted to stay stateside to nurse a nagging neck injury.

“I’m disappointed to miss these events and am especially sorry to my fans who were looking forward to seeing me play,” she said at the time. “I’m currently resting and working with my team to get better.”

Like all great players, though, Korda did not stay down long. When the Tour arrived back in Floria for the season’s final stretch, the World No. 1 looked back to her normal self. In her first start back from injury, Korda nabbed her seventh victory of the season at Annika Sorenstam’s tournament in Tampa. The following week, she clinched Player of the Year honors.

“[I’m] proud of the way I bounced back after the middle of the year to win in Tampa,” she said. “And, yeah, just motivated and eager to get next year going again.”

If Korda can play anything like she did this year, we can expect 2025 to be another big year.