The most dominant player in women’s golf spent a year questioning everything. Then she won a major by five.

Imagine being this untouchable…seven even wins in a year, a record-tying five consecutive victories…did you read that right? She won five in a row! Not only that, she even won a major. Rank at number 1 player in the world, she was operating in a different zip code than everyone else. Something was clicking… let me re-emphasize that. EVERYTHING was clicking.

Then, 2025 happened. Nothing. Zero wins. And eventually, lost her number 1 world ranking. What is going on?

People started to question, and negativity filled her thoughts on the golf course. When 2025 finally concluded, she knew something needed to change…

Then 2026 starts…and it gets worse? She comes back this season hungry. Playing some of the best ball of her life. Final group, every single tournament. And what happens?

Second place. Second place. Second place.

Three consecutive runner-up finishes. The golf world starts whispering again. Her sister Jessica heard every word of it. “She played incredibly through all the crap that people have talked about her not being able to finish the last couple of weeks or always finishing second.”

If you’re Nelly Korda, you’ve gone from seven wins… to zero wins… to finishing runner-up three times in a row. At some point, you have to wonder… is this ever going to happen again?

Then Houston happened. The Chevron Championship. A Major, nevertheless.

Wire-to-wire. She never trailed. She led by as many as eight shots. And she won by five. The mindset that carried her? Stop panicking and play golf. That’s it. No complicated swing theory. No reinventing the wheel. Just… trust yourself, figure it out, move on. Easy to say. Brutally hard to actually do after a winless year and three straight runner-ups. But she did it.

What Korda did wasn’t just a win. It was a statement:

• Wire-to-wire, five-shot victory… the third player in the last 50 years to win a major leading by multiple shots after every single round, joining Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991)
• Hit 40 of 52 fairways and 59 greens in regulation… she didn’t just win, she dismantled the course
• The 7th American woman ever to win three majors before the age of 28, joining Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, and Amy Alcott
• Only 2 players have beaten her all season… in five starts
• 3rd woman since 1980 to record five consecutive top-2 finishes to start a season, joining Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb
• 17th LPGA Tour win, 3rd major championship, back to World No. 1
• Now at 22 Hall of Fame points… five away from the 27 required for automatic induction. At 27 years old.

How about them apples?

“What I was telling myself was that I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s okay to miss short putts and still win a major championship. You’re going to make mistakes… but mentally, you still have to be at 100 percent. I wanted to show it to myself and also anyone else looking up to me.”

She went from seven wins… to zero… to three straight runner-ups… and then walked into Houston and won a major by five.

Seven wins to zero wins to second place three times in a row… and you thought the story was over? Nah…it’s just the beginning.