LPGA needed a superstar like Scottie Scheffler. Now they have one

If the iconic 12th at Augusta National is the “Mona Lisa” of golf holes, Nelly Korda surely deserves the same distinction.

Korda has long graced the game with the sweetest of swings and the 25-year-old is now in the midst of one of its most dominant spells of success.

Forget Scottie Scheffler for a moment. Granted, that might be difficult after the Texan’s masterclass that saw him storm to a second Green Jacket. But the best golfer on the planet right now is the women’s world No.1.

Scheffler’s win at Augusta was his third in four events, but Korda is chasing her fifth straight title at the Chevron Championship. She heads to the first LPGA major of the season at The Woodlands in Texas with a shot at a rare piece of history.

Only Nancy Lopez, in 1978, and Annika Sorenstam, in 2005, have won five in a row on the LPGA Tour, yet the younger Korda sister could join that exclusive club this week. Coincidentally, both Lopez and Sorenstam reached the fantastic five with triumphs in majors.

Korda’s first victory of the season was at the LPGA Drive On, in Florida in January. She returned from a lengthy break to win three times in as many weeks, most recently at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas. Not even a drastic change in format can throw Korda off course.

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It’s not always been plain sailing, though. Korda required surgery for a blood clot during a turbulent 2022. She was hampered by a lower back injury throughout last season and still only has one top-five finish in a major since breaking her duck at the Women’s PGA Championship in 2021.

However, a change in approach with a new fitness regime is now reaping big rewards.

“I don’t want to train like a golfer, I want to train like an athlete,” Korda stressed, as she looks to combine elegance with power. “Thankfully my team and I, we all have the same outlook on it.”

A happy, healthy Nelly Korda is ominous for her rivals.

“I just love competing,” she said. “I love golf, I hopefully am inspiring the next generation.”

That last point is perhaps the most pertinent. The LPGA has needed a superstar to gain traction with new fans and there are few better role models in golf than the softly spoken Floridian.

“We’ve needed an American to really rise up and get all the interest back in,” the legendary JoAnne Carner told Golfweek before the first major of the season.

The LPGA has long made concerted efforts to boost its profile. A $70 million total prize fund has become more than $120 million in just two seasons. Last year’s US Women’s Open was played at Pebble Beach for the very first time and viewing figures soared.

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Prestigious venues attract casual fans, but so do genuine superstars. There are 22 events on the LPGA Tour’s 2024 schedule that take place Stateside and American viewers now have the game’s leading player to get behind.

And for the women’s game to build momentum, the biggest stars need to win the biggest tournaments.

It’s hard to ignore the strikingly similar narratives between Korda and Scheffler before the first majors of the season. Both still only had one major to their name in the build-up, despite being imperious on their respective fairways.

Scheffler’s odds at the Masters were as short as we have seen since the best days of Tiger Woods. Korda has not quite reached that level just yet at 5/1 for this week’s Chevron Championship, but the fact that second favourites Lydia Ko and Atthaya Thitikul are out at 25/1 tells you everything about the gulf in class.

Scottie got his job done in style with a second major title in Georgia. For Korda to become that transcendent figure the women’s game needs, the feeling is that she’ll soon have to do the same.

Over to you, Nelly.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.