Arguably the biggest story in women’s golf in 2025 was Nelly Korda, coming off one of the greatest seasons of all time in 2024, not winning on the LPGA Tour. Is there a real explanation for this disappointing season? Or can it be treated as a fluke? Let’s take a look at the evidence:
THE BACKGROUND
Before 2024, Nelly Korda was already one of the biggest names in women’s golf. She came from a prominent sports family, including her sister Jessica who was a star in her own right on the Tour, and had plenty of success. She nearly won LPGA Tour Player of the Year thanks to her 2021 season where she won four times, including a major championship, and she won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. She dealt with some scary health issues in 2022 but won The Annika driven by Gainbridge at the end of the season. In 2023, she had a season much like her 2025, she didn’t win, but she had nine top-10 finishes and really rounded into form late in the year.
In 2024, she got started right off the bat with a thrilling victory over Lydia Ko in her hometown of Bradenton. That was the setup to an incredible streak of five consecutive wins, including her second major championship at Chevron. When her streak was eventually broken, she came back the next week and won again, bringing her total up to six wins in eight starts. Korda hit a rough patch in the middle of the season, including the U.S. Women’s Open where she had a 10 on her third hole of the week, but came back strong at the end of the season, once again winning The Annika.
Entering 2025, she was undoubtedly the face of the LPGA Tour, and was expected to continue her dominance.
THE RESULTS
Korda, of course, finished with no wins, but she did have a good season by almost any other player’s standards. Korda made every cut of the season for the first time in her career, going a perfect 19/19. She had nine top-10 finishes, which were the most by any player without a win. She had seven top-five finishes, meaning she was near the top of the leaderboard in over a third of her starts. She had two runner-up finishes, including at a major, the U.S. Women’s Open. She finished the season strong, and ended up fifth in the Race to the CME Globe. While she lost her No. 1 ranking, she is still firmly and securely No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings.
THE STATS
The first thing to look at digging deeper is the statistics. As usual, Korda excelled in ball striking. She was first in strokes gained off the tee and fourth on the tour tee-to-green. Interestingly, one place she struggled was around the green, ranking No. 43. While many have pointed to Korda’s putting as the closest thing she has to a weakness, she is known for her incredible chipping, especially off tight lies near the green.
Speaking of putting, that is probably where most people would point to for why she didn’t get in the win column. While the eye test, and watching the actual events, would back up that claim, statistically it doesn’t bear out. Korda gained .60 strokes putting in 2025 ranking No. 22 on the LPGA Tour. It was up from her .41 strokes gained on the greens in 2024, which ranked No. 34. The analytics say she had her best season putting of her career since they started tracking in 2021. None of this is done out of context, and Korda ranked poorly putting over the weekend, with her putts per round going up significantly on Saturday and Sunday, but still, she hit enough putts to counteract some of the struggles with short putting and pressure putting.
All this led to Korda being third on the LPGA Tour in total strokes gained and she was second in scoring average. She led the Tour in par 5 scoring and was second in birdie percentage and in birdie or better percentage. It seems impossible to not have at least one win with these numbers.
THE CONCLUSION
At first glance, it might be fairly obvious why Korda didn’t win in 2025, and it was the initial thought I had before writing, Korda played untimely bad golf.
In 2025, Korda ranked No. 51 in round four scoring. For a player who was second on the Tour in scoring average overall, that is obviously a bad number. Korda shot 70 or over in 11/17 fourth rounds she played. She was over par in four of those. Her putting in the fourth round really was the catalyst for it, she put up her worst putting numbers in the final round, ranking No. 87 on the Tour in putts per round on Sunday.
When digging deeper though, I don’t think the round four scoring is the explanation here. Most of her bad final rounds, she probably didn’t have much of a chance to win anyway. In her two runner-up finishes, she shot 65 and 71 (at a major) on the last day. Her final round at the Scottish Open wasn’t strong, but she likely needed to shoot 62 to win after Lottie Woad’s dominant performance. She shot 73 the final day at Mizuho, but probably needed a 66 to beat Jeeno Thitikul, who won that event by four strokes.
The true answer, as frustrating as it may be, is Korda ran into bad luck. It happens in golf. The weeks Korda was on her game, she ran into a special performance. That happened at The Tournament of Champions, The U.S. Women’s Open, The Mizuho Americas Open, The Scottish Open and The CME Group Tour Championship. The Tour is deeper than it ever has been, and Korda fell to some amazing golf. She had some tournaments go her way in 2024 that didn’t go her way in 2025.
I see this season as a true fluke, a statistical anomaly, and I wouldn’t expect it to repeat in 2026. The 2024 and 2025 luck should even out, and I see her as a player who can win 2-3 times in any given season, even with the incredibly parity of the LPGA Tour.
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