Nelly Korda is an American professional golfer and one of the most decorated players on the LPGA Tour.
A three-time major champion, Olympic gold medalist, and multiple-time World No. 1, Korda capped an already historic career with a genuinely rare achievement in 2024: five consecutive tournament victories, a feat matched only by Annika Sörenstam and Nancy Lopez over the past several decades.
As of April 2026, she has reclaimed the World No. 1 ranking after winning her third major championship at the Chevron Championship, leaving her just five points short of qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Nelly Korda Biography
She was born on July 28, 1998, in Bradenton, Florida. Nelly Korda comes from a genuinely elite sporting family.
Her father, Petr Korda, is a former professional tennis player who won the 1998 Australian Open men’s singles title, while her mother, Regina Rajchrtová, also competed professionally in tennis.
Nelly has two siblings who have followed similarly accomplished athletic paths. Her older sister, Jessica Korda, is an LPGA Tour winner, and her younger brother, Sebastian Korda, is a professional tennis player who won the boys’ singles title at the 2018 Australian Open.
In a remarkable family coincidence, Petr and all three Korda siblings have won titles at the Australian Open in their respective sports, a milestone commonly referred to as the family’s “Australian Slam.”
Nelly has said her parents encouraged all of their children to pursue athletics from a young age but never pressured them to choose a particular sport, allowing each of them to find their own path.
Career
Nelly Korda showed early promise as a junior golfer, making the cut at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open at just 14 years old and earning AJGA Rolex Junior All-American honors in 2015.
She turned professional in 2016, winning her first professional title at the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge on the Symetra Tour. She earned her LPGA Tour card for the 2017 season by finishing ninth on the Symetra Tour money list.
Korda claimed her first LPGA Tour title at the 2018 Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, making her and her sister Jessica the third pair of sisters in LPGA history to win the same tournament. In February 2019, she won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
This victory completed the family’s “Australian Slam” alongside her father’s and brother’s Australian Open titles. It propelled her into the top 10 of the Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time.
Major Championships and World No. 1 Ranking
Nelly Korda won her first major championship at the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship, a breakthrough that helped propel her to the top of the Women’s World Golf Rankings later that year.
She also won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual golf event at the Tokyo Olympics, one of the signature achievements of her career.
Korda’s most dominant stretch came in 2024, when she won seven LPGA Tour events, including five consecutive tournament victories between March and April.
That run has been matched in the modern era only by Annika Sörenstam’s streak in 2004–05 and Nancy Lopez’s in 1978. It included her second major championship at the 2024 Chevron Championship.
Her historic 2024 season earned her LPGA Tour Player of the Year honors, the Rolex Annika Major Award, and the Race to the CME Globe title, and she finished the year ranked World No. 1.
After a winless 2025 season, during which she briefly dropped to World No. 2 behind Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul, Korda opened 2026 by winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
She followed that with a dominant wire-to-wire victory at the 2026 Chevron Championship in April, capturing her third career major championship and 21st professional title overall.
The five-stroke victory returned her to the top of the world rankings for the seventh time in her career.
She has now spent more than 108 weeks as World No. 1. Following the win, Korda noted that she was just five points short of qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame, with the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open presenting another opportunity to reach the milestone.
Relationship
Nelly Korda was previously in a long-term relationship with Canadian NHL forward Andreas Athanasiou, beginning in 2019.
The two kept their relationship largely private while occasionally supporting each other publicly at tournaments and games.
In November 2025, Korda announced her engagement, sharing the news along with photos of her fiancé, Casey Gunderson.
Details about Gunderson and the couple’s relationship timeline have not been widely disclosed, consistent with Korda’s longstanding preference for keeping her personal life private and separate from her highly public golf career.
