Nelly Korda of the United States lines up a putt on the ninth green during the second round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions 2025 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club on January 31, 2025 in Orlando, Florida.
After winning seven times in 2024, Nelly Korda is getting right back after it at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 followed up a quiet, first-round 71 with an almost flawless 5-under 67 on Friday in Orlando, Fla., a score that has moved the 15-time LPGA Tour winner into a share of third with 36 holes to play at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.
Korda began her day on the 10th hole and got off to a slow start, making three pars and a bogey on her first four holes to slip back to even par for the tournament. She recovered with a pair of back-to-back birdies on holes 14 and 15 and then moved to 3-under after picking up another birdie on the par-4 18th hole to turn at 3-under overall.
The Bradenton, Fla. native kept her card clean the rest of the way around Lake Nona, collecting three more birdies in her final nine holes on the par-5 2nd, par-3 4th and par-4 8th holes to post a 67, leaving Korda four shots behind 36-hole leader A Lim Kim, who is sitting at 10-under through two rounds.
“I capitalized a little bit more, made some more putts, hit a few more solid shots today,” said Korda. “It’s definitely playing a little softer and longer compared to years past. I hit some really solid shots and just capitalized on them today.”
This is Korda’s seventh straight appearance at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and she will be searching for either her first win or sixth career top-10 finish at this event over the weekend. Korda has won at Lake Nona before, taking home the Gainbridge LPGA title in 2021 when that tournament was contested at this venue, and will be working to recreate that performance with two rounds left at the first event of the year.
After an incredibly successful 2024 season, one that saw her tie decades-old records and match the performances of some of the game’s modern greats, many wondered how Korda would follow that type of year up in 2025 after firmly establishing herself as one of the more dominant presences in professional golf and solidifying her spot among some of the greatest to ever play on the LPGA Tour.
It’s obviously much too early to tell at this juncture with only two competitive rounds under her belt so far in the new year, but Korda shared in her pre-tournament press conference that she learned a lot of invaluable lessons last season, most of which involved self-confidence, something that translates to her life both on and off the golf course.
“I think it was being more confident in who I am as a person. Like not conforming to what people want me to be. Be who I want to be,” said Korda on Tuesday when asked where she saw the most personal growth last year. “Just seeing more confidence in myself and also knowing that I have an amazing group of people around me that I appreciate so much.
“It was a year of definitely learning. I learned more about myself. I put myself in uncomfortable positions, but I saw a lot of growth in that.”
Korda isn’t letting herself linger in the past, however. She didn’t take too much time off after the CME Group Tour Championship last fall, electing to tee it up in both the Grant Thornton Invitational and the PNC Championship in December and then pretty quickly starting her Tournament of Champions prep work after that, fine-tuning just a few things with her coaches Jamie Mulligan and David Whelan before competing this week at Lake Nona.
Korda has a lengthy competitive break coming up after next week’s Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands so that will likely serve as her off-season, allowing the world No. 1 a bit more time to rest, reflect and reset for the year to come on the LPGA Tour.
So, for now, Korda will just take some notes about things she wants to work on these next two months and enjoy the rest of the experience competing alongside celebrities for 36 more holes in Orlando, Fla., as she works to make up the four-stroke deficit that stands between her and the top of the leaderboard.
“There is no better tournament than this tournament to come back,” Korda said. “New season, it’s more easygoing, playing with someone like Kevin Millar and (Derek) Lowe where you’ve known them for so long. This is my (seventh) year playing this event, so friendships have formed. It’s a little bit more easygoing, and it’s so fun to play alongside them.”
