Nelly Korda Links Up With Player Ranked Outside World's Top 170 For Dow Championship

Nelly Korda at the Kroger Queen City Championship — Nelly Korda is teaming up with Olivia Cowan at the tournament

(Image credit: Getty Images)

After a winless 2025, Nelly Korda has stormed back to her best form this season, with three wins and three runner-up finishes, taking her back to the top of the world rankings.

Korda, who placed T8 in her latest outing at the Kroger Queen City Championship in mid-May, returns to action at the LPGA Tour team event, the Dow Championship.

At the tournament, which will be held at Midland Country Club in Michigan, 72 teams of two will tee it up, with Korda looking to continue her brilliant season.

Helping her bid for her 19th LPGA Tour title will be the player ranked 178th in the world, Olivia Cowan.

Despite her comparatively low world ranking, the German is still enjoying a successful professional career, with four wins, including victory at the LET’s Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2022.

Olivia Cowan at The Annika Driven By Gainbridge At Pelican — Olivia Cowan has one LET win, but has yet to claim an LPGA Tour title

She also has a top-10 finish in a Major, having placed T9 at the AIG Women’s Open in 2023.

However, unlike her teammate this week, she has yet to win on the LPGA Tour.

If Cowan is to accomplish that at the Dow Championship, she will need to work in tandem with Korda in an event that bears strong similarities to the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Like that event, the Dow Championship features two rounds of foursomes and two rounds of four-ball.

The two won’t need much time to get acquainted, though, as they are already friends. One example came in 2025, when Cowan posted an Instagram Stories photo of herself enjoying coffee with Korda and Steph Kyriacou, which Korda later shared herself.

Jessica Korda and her sister, Nelly — Previously, Nelly has teamed up with her sister, Jessica

The two will be up against a strong field at the event, including defending champions Somi Lee and Jin Hee Im. Other standout teams include Lydia Ko and Danielle Kang, and Alison Lee and Lilia Vu.

In previous years, Korda has teamed up with her sister Jessica, who is pregnant with her second child, at the event. However, she hasn’t played since the Aramco Championship in early April.

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Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.