Golf Analyst Sophie Walker On Nelly Korda's 2026 Outlook

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In 2024 Nelly Korda recorded seven victories on the LPGA Tour and finished the year as the clear World No. 1. She doubled her Major tally with a two-shot win at the Chevron Championship and six of her wins had come by the middle of May.

Now she sits in second place in the world, well clear of Minjee Lee but a long way back of Jeeno Thitikul. She finished second at the US Women's Open, two back of Maja Stark, but her other Major efforts never really got out of first gear. The 27-year-old did make all 19 cuts but there were no more wins.

Sophie Walker

After retiring from the Ladies European Tour in 2018, Sophie Walker started a career in broadcasting, serving as a golf analyst for Sky Sports, BBC and other outlets.

Nelly obviously had an amazing 2024 and she was never going to win seven times again but to draw a blank was a big surprise.

Her stats, looking from a Data Golf perspective, are as good as last year so it's not as if her game has dropped away too much and she recently finished third at the Tour Championship. These days you generally need a low one on Sunday to get you over the line and Nelly hasn't quite been managing that.

At the Tour Championship she closed with a 68 but she was one over for her first nine holes. She was paired with Jeeno Thitikul and we thought this would be great as Nelly would make an early charge but it never quite happened. She did hole out at the 12th but Jeeno was so far clear by that point.

At the US Women's Open she closed with a 71 around Erin Hills but she didn't get herself into more of a threatening position and Maja Stark would have been incredibly nervous as had never been in that position before at a US Open.

So it's the timing of her runs that have just not been there in 2025 and that's probably a slight issue for her in the sense of what she looks like to improve for the forthcoming season.

Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul both made the highest-paid sportswoman list in 2025 — Jeeno Thitikul claimed the World No.1 spot from Nelly Korda in 2025

She doesn't generally play the Asian Swing at the start of the year but the season starts in Florida at the end of January and, if she can knock that one off at Lake Nona, then that would really set her up. In 2024 she beat Lydia Ko in a play-off and that really set up her season. Whereas in 2025, she didn't have that platform to build off.

You don't need to rip up the book, you don't need to start again, because everything's good, but it's just a very small change here and there.

If you've had a bad season, you might consider sacking the caddy or getting a new coach but none of that needs to happen. She's now got engaged so I don't think it's anything off the course that is affecting her.

It's a little bit of luck here and there and, I don't want to say killer instinct because she clearly has that, but it's making the run at the right time.

Nelly's now 27, she's won 15 times including two Majors and that seems about right for this stage of her career.

Nelly Korda posts pictures on Instagram of her engagement to long-term boyfriend Andreas Athanasiou — Nelly Korda is now engaged to long-term boyfriend Andreas Athanasiou

Minjee Lee has just won her third Major, the same number as Lydia Ko and Anna Nordqvist, and Nelly's level with Brooke Henderson which feels the right number for now. To move to three, feels like a great career whatever else then happens.

Four of this year's five Major winners were 24 and first-time champions which is a good reflection of the difference with the men's game. We had a 16-year-old, Anna Huang, win twice on the LET this year and there is an element of having to go big early in the women's game.

The men seem to settle down when they have kids, and they get better at golf, whereas it's pretty different for the women.

Another factor that might help Nelly is that Jeeno is the clear World No. 1 and it can be incredibly lonely and uncomfortable at the top. We're yet to discover where the opening Major of 2026 will be taking place but it would be a fantastic way to start her year and make the big move to three big ones.

Nelly Korda's Two Previous Seasons

2024

Starts 16
Cuts 13
Top 10s 11
Wins 7
Low Round 65
Ranking 1
Earnings $4.4m

2025

Starts 19
Cuts 19
Top 10s 9
Wins 0
Low Round 63
Ranking 2
Earnings $2.8m

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Mark has worked in golf for over 20 years having started off his journalistic life at the Press Association and BBC Sport before moving to Sky Sports where he became their golf editor on skysports.com. He then worked at National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer where he was the deputy editor and he has interviewed many of the leading names in the game, both male and female, ghosted columns for the likes of Robert Rock, Charley Hull and Dame Laura Davies, as well as playing the vast majority of our Top 100 GB&I courses. He loves links golf with a particular love of Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns. He is now a freelance, also working for the PGA and Robert Rock. Loves tour golf, both men and women and he remains the long-standing owner of an horrific short game. He plays at Moortown with a handicap of 6.

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