With no missed cuts this year, Nelly Korda was always close but never fully there. The fear of a winless repeat in the upcoming LPGA season now clouds her mind. She does seem to have a plan in sight, but not something her dad, Petr Korda, quite agrees with. Speaking recently at the PNC Championship’s presser, Korda revealed that she has set a limit for herself.

“…18 to 20 is my…perfect number, where it kind of…flows,” Korda shared. “I like being on max three in a row. I will not do four in a row. I’ve seen my body deteriorate over that.” For Korda, an injury seems imminent once her body passes that threshold. Her dad, on the other hand, is skeptical about it.

“No. I have a different number,” he told the media. “But I agree with her, balance is important.” For Petr, the worry is a classic dad thing to do. But a balance is indeed required.

For someone who rode on perhaps her career’s best year in 2024, a downward spiral in the subsequent year would certainly be off-putting, especially if the reason behind it remains quite unknown. Nelly Korda had better stats all around if one compares them to last year. Whether in terms of birdie percentage or even bogey avoidance. Yet, the win remained elusive.

Part reason could be the emergence of new, younger talents on the circuit. The LPGA Tour saw 29 different winners this year, a record. Another reason, on which Korda seems more focused, is fatigue. Honestly, the combination of both seems to be the culprit.

Korda’s troubles started late last year when she suffered a neck injury. The issue forced her to withdraw from the entire Asian swing, something she would repeat this year, too. In June and October, the injury resurfaced, the latter leading her to her last-minute WD from the International Crown.

In her defense, Korda was trying to avoid this situation all this time. Just weeks before the South Korean event, she shared her plans for a potential break to avoid fatigue. But before she could take it, her body’s exhaustion got to her. She’s played 17 events by then.

“…One thing…I have learned this year …is…like, ‘Okay, where is my max?’ Right?, she tells the media. “It’s okay to push it, but you want to kind of be freshest in some periods of the season.”

That period — the middle of the season — that gets packed with events requires her to be the best, as it includes the LPGA’s Majors.

Starting from May’s Mizuho Americas Open, the events go continuously until the end of June with the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The swing then resumes from July and goes till early August, ending with the AIG Women’s Open. Korda played in all of these, her best result being a solo second at the US Women’s Open.

Overall, 19 events played with zero cuts, Korda thinks her age is a factor that should compel her to look after her body. The discovery of a blood clot in her arm back in 2022 validates such fears. Hence, scaling back, very similar to what Lexi Thompson did, seems the perfect decision.

“I want to give everything always 110%. 110 percent to my practice, 110% to my tournaments,” Korda mulls. “If my body is not 100%, it’s very hard for me to give that 110%.”

With a plan in place (without Petr’s agreement, though), Nelly Korda seems prepared for the 2026 season. But is the plan actually perfect?

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The magic number of 18-20 events

The crux of the disagreement between the dad and daughter is the 18-20 number Korda has put forward. Petr believes it should be far less. But at 27, Nelly, who obviously knows her sport and her body better, the idea seems workable.

With 19 events played overall, the 20th she’s set to participate in this week (PNC Championship), Nelly Korda had 9 top-10 finishes. The last of the stretches saw her come quite close to the leaderboard, with a solo third at the CME Group Tour Championship, and a T4 at the LOTTE Championship.

Eventually, she ended her year as the world’s second-best female golfer.

Overtaking her was Jeeno Thitikul, who also played 20 events, with a missed cut. If Korda heeds to her dad, and plays, let’s say, 13-15 events a year, she cannot realistically assume her No. 1 rank back.

If she played only 15, the major championship would take five from them, leaving only ten events. With the Solheim Cup obligation and any unforeseen sickness or injury, the number of events might make her world ranking drop significantly.

“She balanced…well, this year. So as I said, my number is slightly different, but hopefully she will be able to manage…the way she did this year,” Petr conceded in the end.