CHASKA, Minn. – Nelly Korda admits she’s a bit of a dork.
The fact that she called herself a dork three times during her pre-tournament press conference ahead of the KPMG Women’s PGA is testament to a decision she made to show the world more of her personality this year.
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That change has come at exactly the right time, as Korda puts the tour on her statuesque frame in a march toward history.
Nelly Korda talks to media in a press conference ahead of the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
“Obviously in 2024, it was all very new to me, right?,” said Korda of season that saw her win seven times. “So at the end of the day, I feel like in everything that you do in life, if you’re in the finance world, if you’re doing this, the more you put yourself into that position the more comfortable you get.
“I think the biggest change that I told myself I’m going to make is I’m just going to be authentic and be who I am. Either that comes across great or it doesn’t, but I just want to be genuine.”
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Korda, 27, comes into Hazeltine National looking to win a third consecutive major, something that has only been done twice on the LPGA: Babe Zarahias (1959) and Inbee Park (2013).
Nelly Korda hits a tee shot on the first hole during a practice round prior to the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
A 14-year-old Korda made her major championship debut in 2013 at the U.S. Women’s Open at Sebonack when Park won her third in a row. She was too young at the time to appreciate what Park was doing, but she does remember driving a par 4 and making eagle from 5 feet.
“I made that putt, and that eagle like donated some money to a children’s hospital and I got interviewed after and I said in this interview, ‘You just got to risk it to get the biscuit.’ That was my first, like, quote.
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“Now, I look back at it and I’m like, ‘oh, my God. I am a dork’. I’ve always been a dork.”
Korda can play her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame this week with a victory, but don’t ask her for any details. She knows it’s one of the toughest Halls in all of sports, but she’s not really sure how many points are required to get in (27), nor does she know how many she has accumulated (25).
“I kind of like to be oblivious about it in that way,” she said.
Juli Inkster was the last American to play her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1999. The LPGA hasn’t had an American superstar dominate the tour since Nancy Lopez burst onto the scene in the late 70s and captured the hearts of sports fans across the country.
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Korda isn’t yet in that realm of fame, but she’s getting more comfortable with her role as the face of the tour, looking more at ease on a recent New York City media tour.
“I think I realized how good I was at that time,” said Lopez, “and I think she’s realizing how good she is. When I was her pod leader (at the Solheim Cup), I did tell (my husband) Ed, ‘She’s going to be a great player when she figures out that she is really great. She’s going to start winning a lot. I just saw the way that she focused. … There was a maturity there that you don’t always see in a player her age.”
Nelly Korda appears on NBC’s Today after her U.S. Women’s Open victory.
A four-time winner on tour this season, Korda dominates throughout her bag, gaining a full stroke off the tee, in approach and around the green.
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“The distance between Nelly and No. 2 in strokes gained tee to green is the same as the distance between No. 10 and No. 95,” said golf status guru Justin Ray during a recent Golf Channel interview.
In eight stroke-play starts this season, Korda has faced a combined field count of 883 players and been beaten 10 times. Ray notes that she has a head-to-head winning percentage of 98.5 percent.
“It’s pretty unheard of in this day and age,” said LPGA Hall of Famer Lydia Ko. “Scottie Scheffler probably is the only other player that has kind of had that streak.”
Former No. 1 and two-time major champion Stacy Lewis, like Korda, is a natural introvert. It takes time, Lewis said, for players like Korda to build relationships and feel comfortable in front of the camera.
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“I think her game is a little bit more complete now,” said Lewis, who captained Korda twice on Solheim Cup teams. “Her short game has always been very underrated. To watch her hit pitch shots and chip shots, it’s just textbook. I’d send any junior player to watch her.”
The last time the KPMG was held at stout Hazeltine, a course that favors approach play, Korda took a share of third, but she doesn’t remember much about the place. She recently went through her camera roll to see if pictures could jog her memory and came across a video of her hitting a left-handed shot on the watery 16th. She made a mental note to recreate the scene during Monday’s practice round.
“It was fun to do that,” said Korda. “And then I don’t know, I also want to show everyone my personality. Like I do laugh and I’m a little bit of a dork. On the golf course, I am really serious obviously, but it has been fun, especially with the platform that I have, to kind of share my personality a little bit more.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Nelly Korda calls herself a dork ahead of the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA
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