Coming into 2025, there was little doubt about who the preseason favorite for Player of the Year was. Nelly Korda was coming off a season with a mind boggling seven wins, including her second major championship. The expectations were higher than ever for the player who was now the near unanimous biggest star in the sport.
2026 is a bit different. Korda is still the biggest name who demands the biggest crowds on the LPGA Tour. But now there are bigger question marks, at least from the general public. Korda didn’t win in 2025 and wasn’t in serious contention all that much. Even high finishes at the U.S. Women’s Open and CME Group Tour Championship weren’t necessarily close down the stretch.
When digging into the stats though, 2025 can be written off as a bit of a fluke. Where she got some good luck in 2024, bad luck came in last season. I would expect 2026 to even out a bit, and see Korda win 2-3 events.
Despite the zero in the win column, Korda still made every cut of the season for the first time in her career. She also had nine top-10 finishes in 19 starts. Korda finished No. 5 in the CME standings and had top-five finishes in four of her last six starts.
Korda was still No. 2 in strokes gained total. She led the Tour in strokes gained off the tee and was second in scoring average on the entire Tour. See what I’m saying about bad luck?
Korda wasn’t flawless though in 2025. Her putter was streaky, mostly acting up at inopportune times. While she ranked No. 19 in strokes gained putting, anyone who watched the LPGA Tour last year knows she struggled on the greens. She also dipped in what is traditionally one of the strongest aspects of her game, her chipping around the green. She ranked No. 45 in strokes gained around the green, a category she had never finished outside the top 30 in and ranked No. 4 in back in 2024.
Regardless of the mess that 2025 was, Korda is still one of the best players in the world, her stats back that up almost across the board. She has experience and as much poise as anyone on the Tour, which has led to 15 wins, two major championships and an Olympic Gold Medal. Expect her to get back to that type of form in 2026.
