Nelly Korda comes from a family of champions. Her father won the Australian Open, her mother played professional tennis, and both her siblings compete professionally. Yet she still admits to being a little superstitious. A fan of The Office, Korda has borrowed the show’s “‘stitious” bit to describe her own pre-round routines, though she’s kept the specifics to herself.

Here’s a closer look at the golfer behind the World No. 1 ranking, as she turns 28 on July 28.

Her family is all about sports

To say Korda is from a sports-oriented family would be an understatement.

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Both her parents, Petr and Regina, were tennis players, with her dad having won the 1998 Australian Open. She also has two siblings, Jessica, a six-time LPGA winner, and Sebastian. Just like their parents, Sebastian is a professional tennis player and has three ATP titles to his name.

The love started early

You might have heard her say this after her win at the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship: “This is something I have worked for since I was fourteen, since I played in my first one I wanted to be a major champion…” But her love for golf really started at the age of six. In fact, she was so invested, she would frequently have lessons three to four times a week.

But golf isn’t the only sport she plays

Since Korda is from a sporting family, it was a given that she’d get involved with it in some form. She did. At the 2024 PNC Championship, she revealed, “We skied in the winters. I figure skated. I did gymnastics. We kind of dabbled a little bit in everything.” She misses skiing the most, but her hobbies still include tennis and ice hockey.

The unnerving puking incident

Korda’s first win came with a bit of vomiting. When she was nine, she was vacationing with her family in the Czech Republic. There happened to be some peach trees near the area they stayed at, and Korda, like kids of her age, started eating them one by one. But when it came to playing the golf tournament, the nerves kicked in, and she started vomiting all over the driving range. Still, it did not interfere with her game.

Jack Nicklaus sealed the deal

In early 2012, at age 12, Korda joined her older sister to go play nine holes at The Bear’s Club in Florida, where Jack Nicklaus was present. As per LPGA, Nicklaus helped them use their lower body more to enhance their swings’ longevity, adding, “They are two terrific talents.”

Indeed, history would prove so.

The big stage debut at 14

Nelly Korda made her U.S. Women’s Open debut as an amateur in 2013, aged just 13. At that time, she made the cut and finished T64. She was pretty daring, in fact. As per ESPN, she stated after R1, “It was nice; I didn’t get nervous on the first hole, which was a big surprise.”

Three years later, she made the field again and finished even better at T59. This season, aged 27, she won the major.

Promising star since the beginning

Korda was selected to represent her country at the 2015 Junior Solheim Cup alongside Megan Khang. That year, the USA won by 13-11, becoming the first team to win the tournament away from home in history. She also won the PING Invitational the same year, moving her to the top 10 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

No college for Korda

Just like her sister, Jessica, Nelly decided not to go to college. Instead, she turned professional at 18 and joined the Symetra Tour (now Epson Tour), the LPGA’s developmental tour, since she was too young to join the LPGA.

The decision was different than Jessica’s, who joined the Q-School first before earning her LPGA card.

But it was a pretty good decision

Having joined the Symetra Tour, Korda won her first pro title at the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge, moving to 11th in the money list. It wasn’t until she finished T6 at the Epson Tour Championship that same season that she ranked 9th on the money list. That earned her the LPGA Tour card.

Grabs her first LPGA title

In her pro debut on the LPGA at the 2017 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic (now defunct), she finished T5. But it wasn’t until the following year that she won her first title with a two-stroke victory at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship. It made Jessica and her the third pair of sisters to claim Tour wins.

A song lyric helps Korda bounce back

“Last night I took an L but tonight I bounced back,” goes the line of Big Sean’s “Bounce Back.” Korda was struggling in R3 of the 2019 CME Group Tour Championship when she hummed the lyrics to herself. She eventually did bounce back, finishing T5.

Korda’s first gold medal came at a delayed Olympics

Delayed a year by COVID-19, the Tokyo Olympics gave Korda her first shot at gold, and she took it, becoming the first American in 121 years to win the event. With that win, she became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in golf since 1900. She defeated Mone Inami by a single shot.

Climbs to number one ranking for the first time

“A major championship and No. 1 in the world; is this week even real?” said Korda to Golf Channel after winning her first major title at the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

She not only defeated Lizette Salas by three shots but also climbed to the number one ranking in the world, unseating Jin Young Ko. Korda was also only the third American to do so.

Plays her first Solheim Cup

In 2019, Korda represented her country at the Solheim Cup for the first of four times overall. That year at Gleneagles, she went 3-0-1, partnering sister Jessica to two dominant foursomes wins on her debut. The United States, however, lost that year. Korda has been part of a winning team only once.

The first meeting with Tiger

Perhaps no one is a bigger fan of Tiger Woods than Korda, inarguably. On Saturday at the 2021 PNC Championship, she got the opportunity to meet him for the first time, and so she did. After the round, she nervously approached Woods, saying “Hi, Tiger” before asking for an autograph. Tiger smiled and returned with his own, “Nelly! Yes! You got it! Done deal!”

The video has become somewhat of a lore in the golf world.

A battle with a blood clot

In March 2022, Korda first talked of a blood clot in her arm, requiring surgery. She skipped the Chevron Championship, but returned to play in June at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she finished T8. At the end of the month, she reached the three-way playoff of the Meijer LPGA Classic, but did not win. In November, she won her first title of the season at the Pelican Women’s Championship.

Only the third in history to do one thing

In 2024, Korda’s five back-to-back wins on LPGA came to an end at the Chevron Championship, her second major title. She defeated Maja Stark by two strokes for a total score of 275. With that win, Korda became only the third golfer to win five consecutive titles, alongside Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) and Nancy Lopez (1978).

The awesome MET Gala debut

In 2024, Korda became the first LPGA player to attend the MET Gala, an event held in the first week of May to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. She was dressed in an ankle-length floral dress. She was also the first golfer to do so since Tiger Woods did it in 2013.

Korda and the Sports Illustrated ‘Swimsuit Issue’

Weeks after her MET Gala debut, Korda was photographed by Sports Illustrated’s Ben Horton for her appearance in the Swimsuit Issue to be released in May of the following year. Though it was well outside her comfort zone, as admitted by Korda herself, “I think that’s what’s great about these opportunities, is that you do get to step outside your comfort zone and do something different.”

The route to… becoming a lawyer

Having won the T-Mobile Match Play, Korda was asked if she weren’t a pro golfer, what career she would have chosen. The answer came with a laugh when she replied, “Lawyer, because I like to argue with people.”

Well, she at least entertained the idea!

Golf can get pretty hurtful

Korda had an amazing 2024 season, and pretty much everyone knows that. But the pressure to build on that year in the following season, where she remained winless, was admittedly hurtful. In an interview, Korda admitted she had a supportive team, yet “outside noise definitely does hurt sometimes.” Multiple LPGA players have admitted the same.

A Happy Gilmore 2 cameo

Happy Gilmore 2 was a major success. As per updates, approximately 46.7M viewers streamed it on Netflix in just three days, the biggest U.S. opening in Netflix’s history. It was no happy coincidence. Korda had a cameo role, just like Charley Hull, Nicklaus, Rory McIlroy, and others.

Korda said, as per Golfweek, “It was so cool getting to meet Adam Sandler, getting to be part of that process, and actually seeing how difficult acting is from that point of view.”

Youngest to win 18 LPGA titles

With a win at the 2026 Riviera Maya Open, Korda became the youngest American athlete to win 18 LPGA Tour titles since Nancy Lopez did it in 1980. She also became only the 26th American to win 18 or more titles and the first since Christie Kerr in 2015.

Rubbing shoulders with Sorenstam

Having started her 2026 season with six back-to-back top-2 finishes, including a win at the Riviera Maya Open, Korda became the first golfer since Sorenstam to do so and the second player since 1980 overall. Sorenstam achieved the feat in 2001 when she posted eight consecutive top-2 finishes.

Most weeks spent at the top

Jin Young Ko holds the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the world ranking with 163 weeks since the inception of the Rolex Rankings in 2006. Korda trails far behind, but she has a collective record of 109 weeks.

Third-highest-earning golfer on the LPGA

This season, Korda has earned around $5,712,524 through 12 events she has played. This adds to her total over $21M in career earnings, moving her just behind Lydia Ko ($21.8M) and Sorenstam ($22.5M) in the money list. She is also only the fifth LPGA player to do so.

Hall of Fame recognition on the way

It is not easy to earn a place in the LPGA Hall of Fame, where you get in wholly based on your performance. Others cannot vote you in, as it happens in basketball. One of the ways to get in is to have 27 points accumulated via LPGA wins. Korda currently has 25 points.

Korda gets engaged to Casey Gunderson

Casey Gunderson and Korda, who studied high school together, got engaged in November 2025 and are set to marry in 2027. Gunderson played college football; however, he now works in an engineering company.

Following the engagement, Korda told Access Hollywood, “Everyone loves [Casey]. My parents adore him. He’s amazing. He’s the best support system. He always has my back.”

Korda sits at 25 of the 27 Hall of Fame points, so a couple more wins, not a full season, gets her in. Her earnings gap to Ko and Sorenstam is closer than it looks too, with over $5.7 million banked this season alone. Off the course, 2027 brings her wedding to Casey Gunderson, though nothing suggests she’s slowing down for it. The real throughline, from a nine-year-old vomiting through nerves to a 27-year-old admitting outside noise still gets to her, is that Korda’s toughest opponent has rarely been the field. It’s her own head. The next year will show whether she can quiet that voice with that milestone this close.