Seventh heaven for Nelly Korda

Rolex Women’s World Number one Nelly Korda collected her seventh 2024 title in thrilling fashion on Sunday at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, becoming the first player since Yani Tseng in 2011 to win seven times in a single season on the LPGA Tour and the first American to do so since Beth Daniel won seven LPGA Tour titles in 1990.

Korda began the day in a tie for second with Weiwei Zhang at 11-under, one shot behind Englishwoman Charley Hull, who held the solo 54-hole lead at 12-under. Hull made an immediate birdie on the par-4 1st hole to move to 13-under and then erased that effort with a bogey on two to drop back to 12-under once again. Korda also bogeyed the second and Zhang bogeyed the third, leaving both players two shots behind Hull at 10-under alongside Jin Hee Im, who birdied the par-4 2nd in the penultimate group to move to 10-under.

A Hull bogey on the third hole dropped the two-time LPGA Tour winner back to 11-under, but she cleaned up that mistake with a birdie on the par-4 4th hole to climb back to 12-under total and again sit two shots ahead. Hull made another bogey on six to slip to 11-under, but Korda also bogeyed the same hole to drop to 9-under and help Hull maintain her two-shot cushion.

Watch final round highlights from The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican

Korda erased her mistake on six with a birdie on the par-5 7th hole and then bogeyed the eighth to sit at nine-under and two shots back of Hull before making the turn. Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai tried to make things interesting on the closing nine, making four birdies in her first 11 holes to vault into a tie for the lead with Hull at 11-under after 11, but two late bogeys caused her to fall away, and she ultimately finished in solo seventh.

Nelly Korda makes her move

The par-4 11th hole is where things started to swing in Korda’s favour, as the 26-year-old made a birdie to get back to 10-under, now one back of the lead. She made another birdie on the par-3 12th hole to move to 11-under, tying the lead with Hull and Meechai, and after Meechai bogeyed 13 and Korda made a birdie on the same hole in the final group, the world No. 1 took the lead with five holes to go, now sitting one ahead at 12-under-par.

The two-time Major champion made her fifth birdie of the round on the par-5 14th hole to climb to 13-under and sit one shot ahead of Hull, who also birdied 14 to get back to 12-under. But Korda landed another birdie on the par-3 15th hole to move to 14-under, now holding a two-shot lead with three holes to play at Pelican Golf Club.

Charley Hull can't hold on

Korda made a critical save on the par-4 16th after her tee shot found a divot and she made a lengthy par putt, with Hull matching that effort to remain two shots back and still very much in the conversation with only two holes to go. But after the Englishwoman made a bogey on the par-4 17th hole to slip back to 11-under and into a three-way tie for second, the tournament was ultimately Korda’s to win or lose on the difficult par-4 18th hole. And as she has done for much of the week at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, Korda once again made a challenge look easy, handily finding the fairway off the tee, knocking her approach shot on the green and two-putting her way to her seventh 2024 victory and 15th career LPGA Tour title.

“It's so nice to play in front of friends and family so close to home. I think that's what makes me so comfortable out here,” said Korda. “I didn't start the day the way I wanted to, but it's not how you start, it's how you finish. To have that run that I did on those five holes, I kept myself in it all day. I didn't make big mistakes but couldn't get really anything going. To go on that run that I did feels really nice.”

First win with her brother in support

While earning her seventh 2024 victory was an incredibly special moment for Korda, what made it even more so was that her brother, Sebastian, was on-site to witness the moment. Before Sunday at The ANNIKA, Nelly had never captured an LPGA Tour title in front of her younger sibling, making her triumph in Belleair, Fla., that much more memorable for the 26-year-old.

“I didn't know (Sebastian) was there on the last three. I saw him on 18 when I made that last putt,” Korda said. “Never won in front of him, but family is so important to me. It's not that close from my parents’ house, hour and 40. For him to drive an hour 40 with three holes remaining, one, he was very confident in me, and two, really nice to have his support. We haven't seen each other since the middle of summer, and to hug him, it was really, really nice.”

Hull ready to end the season on a high

Hull’s tied second performance is her fourth top-10 result of the 2024 LPGA Tour season and her first since she finished solo fifth at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. The final result was, of course, disappointing for the Englishwoman, but she is chalking up her one-over final round as tough luck and can now set her sights on next week’s CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club, a venue at which she won at in 2016.

“I feel like I played pretty solid. Today, I didn't feel like I had the luck kind of going my way,” said Hull. “On the front nine, I felt like my adrenaline was quite high, and I flew the green on, I think it was the sixth hole. Then, the seventh hole, again, rocketed that shot. Steady on the back nine, but on 17, I was in the middle of the fairway in a drainage ditch. Where I dropped, it was a really horrible lie, way above my feet on a slope like that, and it was quite scruffy around there, and it just popped up high and came up short. I didn't feel like I had the luck going my way, but Nelly played great, and it was a lot of fun out there.”

Im and Zhang also tied for second alongside Hull at 11-under, with LPGA Tour winners Linn Grant and Rose Zhang rounding out the top five in a tie for fifth at 10-under overall. Defending champion Lilia Vu finished in a tie for 34th at 1-under total at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

The LPGA stays in Florida but heads south to Naples for the season finale at the CME Group Tour Championship at CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club at Ritz Carlton Golf Resort.