Nelly Korda's 2025 season was about more than going winless
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NAPLES, Fla. — Nelly Korda’s final full swing of the 2025 LPGA season came from the middle of the 18th fairway at Tiburon Golf Club. The strike was pure, a slight club twirl followed and the ball landed 25 feet away from the pin. Her birdie attempt was tracking for the center of the cup, but died right at the last second, leaving her to finish with a par in a way that perfectly encapsulated a winless season.
Nelly Korda was good in 2025, but not at the level many expected after a seven-win 2024.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year I would say,” Korda said in her pre-tournament press conference at the CME Group Tour Championship. “There has been good; there has been flashes of really good; there has been flashes of I don’t know what just happened. I would say overall that’s just kind of golf. Coming off last year, it’s kind of always going to be difficult to back that up.”
It would be easy to focus on the one number when it comes to Korda. Going from seven wins to zero while dropping to No. 2 in the world would suggest on the surface that her game took a step back. That the dominant star of the LPGA fell back to the pack in 2025. But using wins as the lone barometer in an individual sport can be deceiving.
“It’s honestly a fine line,” Korda said. “It comes down to sometimes one shot. It’s like one putt lips out and you don’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf.
“I don’t necessarily think that I’m a worse golfer or a better golfer. I would say that maybe last year few more things were going my way. That’s just kind of how golf is. I’ve never going to have a pity party and never going to be like, oh, why is it in this divot or why did I get that bad bounce. It’s just sports. That’s just how they are. Sometimes you get a wave of good bounces and good breaks and sometimes you don’t.”
Korda’s stats this season did take a slight dip, but not in a way that says her game fell off.
She finished the 2025 season with a better scoring average, better Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, better birdie or better percentage and better bogey avoidance numbers than in 2024. Her approach play was almost even, and her putting numbers were better. Her around-the-green numbers were the only ones that significantly fell off, going from 0.42 strokes gained to 0.13. Her Par 4 scoring was the same and her Par 5 scoring was just a tick worse at 4.55, down from 4.50. She still led the LPGA in that category.
“She has better stats than last year, but she hasn’t won and won seven, eight times last year,” Lydia Ko said of Korda. “Sometimes stats isn’t it. Like if you did that you would think, okay, you would win X amount of times. There so many variables and you’re playing against 143 other players. It’s just a lot of things.”
This week in Naples, Korda repeatedly used the “that’s golf” line to explain a winless season. She called it a “grind.” But the World No. 2 also revealed that a frustrating season that saw her finish runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open and fail to reach the winner’s circle had given her something important.
Professional golf can be isolating. A season of burned edges and bad bounces would cause many to turn inward and stew, to get down about a wasted year. But Korda instead took this season — and last — as a reminder that she doesn’t have to carry everything on her shoulders. That those closest to her have an incalculable value.
“I would say that you receive a lot more criticism when you’re on top of the game, and having a tight-knit circle, you’re very grateful for the people you have around,” Korda said. “The circle does get a little smaller, but I think I have an amazing circle. I would say I’m extremely, extremely lucky for the people that I have around me. At the end of the day, the life that we live and performing in front of people, it is super important to have that stability in your life.
“I would say that what I learned about myself this year is that it’s okay to lean on others when stuff isn’t going well,” Korda added. “In every way possible. Doesn’t matter if it’s showing up for me, taking a call, texting me, FaceTiming me, it doesn’t matter. They’ve just shown up every single day, which I’m very grateful for.”
This season led Korda to vent, admittedly sometimes too much, to those in her circle. But their perspective was invaluable in helping her see the whole picture of a season that didn’t come with a win.
“They’re also a great reminder,” Korda said of her team. “They see stuff differently than maybe what I see. And they’ve been around me for so long. I’ve had pretty much the same team my entire career. I think then you get a whole new perspective when you talk to your team who have been around for so long.”
That perspective led Korda to be pleased with the improvement she has seen in parts of her game, her relatively clean bill of health and the totality of what she has poured into her game and body, even if the desired result never arrived.
“When it comes to the level of effort that I give this game I would say I probably give it more this year — every year I give it more and more and more. I think about it more and more,” Korda said. “There is not a lack of effort for sure in any department.”
When Korda tapped in for par on Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club, she finished her season in third place, six shots behind World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, the same margin as when the day started. Korda entered Sunday needing to go as low as possible to catch Thitikul. She went out in one-over 37 before racking up three birdies and a hole-out eagle on the back nine to close out her season.
As has been the case since her Sunday charge at the season-opening Tournament of Champions came up just short, Nelly Korda’s best arrived but didn’t stick around. It made a cameo to remind us of how great she can be, then exited to reveal a season of good golf and disappointing results.
But as shocking as Korda’s winless season is, it’s nothing more than the ebb and flow of professional golf.
In 2017, Rory McIlroy, who had won seven times in two years, went winless and dropped to 11th in the world. He said he played through a rib injury, but he still finished T7 at the Masters and T4 at the Open, so he was good enough to compete; he just didn’t win. From November 2019 to May 2021, McIlroy went winless across 25 events and fell to No. 9 in the world. He rebounded to get back to No. 1 in the world and has won 12 times worldwide since.
Korda will almost certainly bounce back. The wins are sure to come again. The talent and drive are too great for them not to. And the 2025 season might wind up being a catalyst for Korda’s next deluge, for the fire it fueled and the simple reminder it delivered — that Nelly Korda doesn’t have to do it alone.
“It just blew by, honestly,” Korda said of the season. “I played really great golf. Played some iffy golf. Think that’s every year.
Josh Schrock is a writer and reporter for Golf.com. Before joining GOLF, Josh was the Chicago Bears insider for NBC Sports Chicago. He previously covered the 49ers and Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area. A native Oregonian and UO alum, Josh spends his free time hiking with his wife and dog, thinking of how the Ducks will break his heart again, and trying to become semi-proficient at chipping. A true romantic for golf, Josh will never stop trying to break 90 and never lose faith that Rory McIlroy’s major drought will end (updated: he did it). Josh Schrock can be reached at josh.schrock@golf.com.
