Nelly Korda’s Solheim Cup play reminds us of her potent firepower

GAINESVILLE, Va. — As Nelly Korda lined up her approach shot on the par-5 14th at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Friday afternoon, the outcome of her four-ball match was in little doubt. At 5 up with five holes to play, she and Megan Khang were all but assured of a victory. The only suspense left was how Korda would punctuate her day’s play.

What followed was an exclamation point.

Korda lofted a hybrid high and out to the right of the tucked pin and watched as her ball drifted back toward the flagstick. Her ball dropped from the sky right next to the hole, taking a few hops before stopping 12 feet behind the cup. A few moments later, she rolled in the eagle putt — her second in three holes — to close out her 6-and-4 win over Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire.

“We’ve got world No. 1,” U.S. captain Stacy Lewis said. “And it’s very helpful when she plays well.”

Korda has been ranked as the top player in the women’s game for the entirety of 2024 — and on Day 1 at the Solheim Cup, she played like it.

Over the course of two sessions — foursomes in the morning and four-balls in the afternoon — Korda won two full points for Team USA. She and teammate Alisen Corpuz dispatched of Charley Hull and Esther Henseleit 3 and 2 in the first match of the day before Korda returned in the leadoff spot for the afternoon session en route to a 6-2 American advantage after Day 1.

According to the stats crew for Team USA, Korda gained 7.5 strokes on the field during her afternoon four-ball match in which she went eight under through 14 holes.

“It’s the highest [the stats team has] ever seen a single session that they have worked,” Lewis said. “Pretty impressive this afternoon.”

Of the 30 holes Korda played on Friday, she won 16. According to Elias Sports Bureau, that number is the most holes won over a single day in the Solheim Cup since at least 2015. The second-most in that timeframe was 15, by her sister, Jessica, in 2019.

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Korda was especially dynamic on the four par-5s during the two Friday sessions as she won each of the eight she played on the day, the last of which was the eagle on the 14th that sent the crowd on the surrounding amphitheater into a frenzy.

“I think you kind of thrive off of the crowds,” Korda said.

When she and Khang teed off in their four-ball match, they made it a point to engage the spectators and set the tone for the Americans in the afternoon. The best-friend duo did that — and then some — by dancing, cheering and birdieing their way around the course all afternoon long.

“To kind of get the crowd going in the afternoon was so, so fun and something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Korda said. “It just puts like a little bit of an exclamation point getting to do it with Megan too in the afternoon.”

Added Khang: “Nelly and I, our friendship goes back to Junior Solheim Cup days — that’s how we got really close. Ever since that pairing back then I know we wanted to play on the actual Solheim Cup team as partners.”

Korda and Khang played on the winning side of that Junior Solheim Cup team back in 2015, but appearances as teammates in the actual Solheim Cup have not been quite so fruitful. The duo has not played on a winning team in their three cups together, most recently last summer at Finca Cortesin as Team USA tied with Team Europe.

“We got some unfinished business,” Korda said.

If there were ever a year for Team USA to ride its thoroughbred superstar to victory, it’s this one. Korda’s 2024 season has been a historic one as she notched six wins, including a major, over the first five months of the year. And although she’s not won a tournament since early summer, her play on the opening day of the Solheim Cup reminded us that when she’s soaring at top speed, there’s nobody who can catch her.