LPGA sisters Jessica and Nelly Korda held a joint press conference at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup on Tuesday, and they ended their session by talking about Tiger Woods’s return — and how stoked they were when they found out he knew of them.
Jessica, 25, told the media about the time she ran into Woods and Rory McIlroy at Medalist last year. Woods was apparently aware of the sisters’ bet on who would finish higher on the money list.
“I geeked out so hard when I saw him after the season ended,” Jessica said. “We were playing on Thanksgiving and I walked into the halfway house and he was like, ‘So, who won the bet between you two?’ I was like, ‘You talking to me?'”
“He was like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘I did. I won.’ He goes, ‘What did you win?’ I go, ‘a purse,'” she said. “Rory goes, ‘That’s exactly what we played for, right Tiger?’ I was like, okay, this is awkward.
“I called Nelly. I was like, Tiger knows who we are. So like you geek out totally. It’s really, really cool because this is your golfing hero. Same thing when we went and spent some time with Jack Nicklaus, play golf with him. You like totally geek out because these are your golfing heroes.”
Nelly, 19, said she was “glued to the TV” during the Valspar. “You just have like a completely different feeling when you’re watching Tiger on TV,” she said. “I can’t even describe it.”
“We’re Tiger’s kids basically,” Jessica said. “We’ve watched him play. We watched him hit those shots. Like he is our idol.”
Woods is the favorite at Bay Hill this week, an event he’s won eight times.
Nelly finished T2 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship two weeks ago. Jessica Korda was T10 at the same tournament, but won a week earlier in Thailand.
