‘Lived 9 Lives’: Afraid of Making Mistakes, Nelly Korda Reveals Difficulties of Surviving the Public ‘Microscope’

Nelly Korda was in outstanding form during the first four months of the season, stringing together a five-event winning streak that culminated in her second major victory at the Chevron Championship in April. She continued her dominance with a sixth win in seven starts at the Mizuho Americas Open in May. However, the 26-year-old struggled in the following two majors, failing to make the weekend.

She shot an 80 at the U.S. Women’s Open, which included a septuple-bogey seven on the par-three 12th, and followed it up with an 81 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. And well, not to forget the fact that she has not been able to play for over two months due to her neck injury. She was last seen playing at the Kroger Queen City Championship in September. Now she is teeing off at the Annika. But being under the public microscope is what appears scary to her.
The official Instagram page of the LPGA Tour shared snippets of a recent interview with Nelly Korda at the Pelican. While talking about the ups and downs of her 2024 season, the Rolex No. 1 player said, “I feel like I’ve lived nine lives since January.” She added that despite having crossed so many records, she has also been tested many times, and every year the game of golf only keeps trying her. She then mentioned how different golf is from a team sport and how much pressure a player faces when they’re on top of it, “the main difference between, I think maybe a team sport vs an individual is like when you’re on top of your game and you’re ranked high and you’re playing well, you’re just under such a microscope so if you have a bad day, like, it’s magnified.”