ORLANDO, Fla. – Petr and Regina Korda sat on their fold-up chairs on the grassy hill that overlooked the 18th green at Lake Nona as their youngest daughter, Nelly, won the Gainbridge LPGA, her first tour victory on home soil. That it marked the first time they’ve seen Nelly, 22, win on the LPGA says a lot considering that it marked her fourth career title.
It was a similar story last month at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions when eldest daughter Jessica won her sixth LPGA title in a playoff over Danielle Kang. That too was the first time Jessica had won in front of her parents.
What’s it like watching your daughters win in back-to-back tournaments on the LPGA in their home state of Florida?
“Nerve-wracking,” said a proud Petr.
The only two parents who know the feeling happened to be on hand for the celebration. Tom and Gunilla Sorenstam live at Lake Nona and walked all 72 holes this week as their 50-year-old daughter, Annika, competed in her first LPGA event in nearly 13 years. Annika and her sister Charlotta won in back-to-back weeks on the LGPA in 2000.
“If we can follow in their footsteps,” said Nelly, “in Annika’s footsteps, that would be absurd.”
The Korda sisters have swept the first two events of the season. First sisters to go back-to-back since the Sorenstams in 2000. pic.twitter.com/Tkv7v4I2em
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) February 28, 2021
The Kordas’ younger brother Sebastian, a hotshot tennis player, was flying in from Europe as a tearful Nelly sealed the championship with a closing 69, finishing at 16 under and three shots ahead of Lexi Thompson and Lake Nona resident Lydia Ko. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko came in solo fourth.
Petr and Regina, two world-class tennis players who have raised three world-class athletes, don’t follow their children to the ends of the earth every week. They log a lot of miles – on foot and by air – but the Korda kids have a lot of independence too.
It’s a tight, supportive family unit.
Nelly Korda poses with her family and the trophy following the final round of the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club on February 28, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
After Nelly and Jessica played together on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions, the pair talked about what they’d observed in each other’s games that final round. Jessica won but Nelly shot the day’s lowest round, a 64, and came two shots shy of the playoff.
“She told me some stuff and I told her some stuff,” said Jessica. “That’s what’s pretty special about having your sister with you and being under the highest pressure that you can be to win a golf tournament.”
Jessica pointed out some small adjustments in Nelly’s putting that she focused on during the month-long break. Nelly also put a new driver in the bag, a Titleist TSi1. She’d had the same Callaway Epic in the bag since the first tournament of her rookie season in 2017. The paint was flaking off and it was pretty tattered, said Nelly’s caddie Jason McDede.
Nelly and McDede are at the start of their fourth season together and on a day like today, when she was frustrated with her ball-striking and feeling uneasy, McDede kept her in the game.
“I really grinded today, and my caddie was definitely a big part of why I’m here right now holding the trophy up – without the trophy,” she joked as the trophy didn’t actually make it over to the interview area.
“He kept me calm and is someone I can vent to. He even said, ‘If you need to snap on someone, snap on me.’ So sometimes it’s really good to get it out. He’s such a great team player. I owe a lot of my success to him.”
While the top of the leaderboard was a star-studded affair, Sorenstam’s presence all week was magical for the younger generations.
“I would say I’m quite tired, I’m exhausted,” said Sorenstam, who shot 79-76 over the weekend to finish 74th.
“I gave it my all. Takes a lot of effort when you miss greens and chipping around these greens is really, really difficult,” she said. “So put a lot of energy into that and obviously just with everybody around it’s been fantastic. It really has. The more I think about it, and once it sinks in, I think it’s going to be a big smile on my face.”
Sorenstam, a 10-time major winner, was the face of the tour for so many years, winning 72 titles before starting a family with husband Mike McGee. There hasn’t been a dominant player on the LPGA in years, but the powerful and statuesque Korda sisters winning back-to-back events builds incredible momentum.
“Everybody right now sees, I call it the glamour, lifting the trophy,” said Petr. “That’s the stuff we see as parents, those sacrifices, it’s not easy. This is just a little piece of it.”
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