The world No 1 is two wins from an LPGA Hall of Fame place and one from history — and is doing her best not to think about either.

Nelly Korda arrived at Hazeltine National Golf Club on Wednesday having won the season’s first two majors, taken a media tour of New York City, played in a team event at the Dow Championship and then driven straight back to the range. She is chasing something that has only been done twice in women’s golf. She’d rather not think about it.

“I’m just out here trying to play golf,” she said at her pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. “I have a very in-the-moment mindset this year. Good golf kind of solves everything, and that’s my main focus.”

The history she won’t chase

Win at Hazeltine this week and Korda becomes the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to take three consecutive majors to start a season — a feat that has been achieved only twice in the history of women’s golf. She was actually in the field that week in 2013, as a 14-year-old qualifier, and has an appropriately teenage memory of it.

“I was so mesmerised by being there,” she said. “I remember making the cut on the number. There was a fog delay and I had a really good first day. I remember there was a par-4 that was moved up and I hit a driver to five feet — I made that putt, and that eagle donated some money to a children’s hospital, and I got interviewed and I said, ‘you just got to risk it to get the biscuit.’ That was my first ever quote. Now I look back at it and I’m like, oh my God. I am a dork. I’ve always been a dork.”

The Hall of Fame sits alongside the history chase as something she is managing carefully. She needs two more points for induction and knows she’s close, but has deliberately kept herself in the dark on the details. When told the threshold is 27 points, she responded: “How many? 27. Okay, perfect — so that tells you.” When asked how many she has, the answer was: “I know I’m close. I don’t know much more than that. I kind of like to be oblivious.”

“The game of golf is already hard enough,” she said. “If I add more pressure on myself it’s going to be even harder. It would be one of the best achievements of my career — but is it a motivating factor? No. I just want to compete well in tournaments.”

A 27-year-old who is working out who she is

Part of what makes Korda compelling right now is that the dominance on the course is running alongside something less expected off it: she seems to be genuinely enjoying herself. The left-handed shot video she posted from Hazeltine this week, the twirl clip, the candour in press conferences — it is all deliberate.

“I also want to show everyone my personality,” she said. “I do laugh and I’m a little bit of a dork. On the golf course I am really serious, but it has been fun — especially with the platform I have — to share my personality a little bit more. The biggest change I’ve told myself I’m going to make is I’m just going to be authentic and be who I am. Either that comes across great or it doesn’t, but I just want to be genuine.”

The New York trip the Monday after the US Women’s Open — the Stock Exchange, Times Square — was part of the same impulse. “It’s fun to be on a different stage in front of different people doing something that helps the game of golf and puts us on a broader stage,” she said.

The course, the purse, and what she’s actually focused on

Korda played Hazeltine in 2019, finishing third, but says she’d largely forgotten the layout until she walked it this week. Her read on the challenge is precise: fast, bare greens with significant undulation, thick rough especially around the putting surfaces, and a premium on accuracy off the tee.

“It’s very much a placement golf course on the fairway and on the greens,” she said. “Distance control and speed are a really big defence here because there is a lot of undulation and it is fast. A premium on every part of your game — which I love in major championships.”

The 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship carries a purse of $13 million, the largest in women’s golf history, with the winner collecting $1.95 million. Korda was asked about the evolution of prize money; one of Patty Berg’s leading earning years was $16,000. “To see the evolution of where the women’s game was to what it is now — it is quite incredible,” she said. “We are just really grateful for our partners continuously raising the bar.”

The championship runs 25–28 June at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.

View the full interview HERE

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