TEEING UP WITH RICHARD MILLE
Nelly Korda joins cristie Kerr and diana Luna as the newest addition to richard Mille’s stable of formidable female golfing partners.
AMERICAN golfing sensation Nelly Korda, who now now proudly wears an RM 007 Titanium on her wrist, is the newest golfing partner to Richard Mille, which recently announced how it has welcomed the strikingly young golfer to its fold – she’s 20!
Korda joins her father, brother and older sister, as an Australian Open champion. The rising star last month competed at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide to clinch a two-shot victory over defending champion Jin-Young Ko of South Korea. It was Korda’s second LPGA victory, only five months after her first, the 2018 Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship.
Korda’s parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová, are former international tennis stars; her younger brother Sebastian is a professional tennis player and her older sister Jessica is a professional golfer like her.
In 2017, Korda was named the LPGA’s rookie of the year, and her current earnings are said to be US$1,877,607 (RM7.6mil). Hailing from Florida, Korda’s professional career took off, when she won the Sioux Falls LPGA Golf Tournament leg of the Symetra Tour, and then went on to victory in the LPGA Taiwan in Taoyuan, claiming her first LPGA tour title. At only 15 years old, Korda was already playing in the US Women’s Open, before joining the US team in the Junior Solheim Cup, two years later.
Destined for great things in women’s golf, the young American fits right in with the other talented athletes who are involved in developing a resolutely sporty women’s collection for the brand.
Over the moon
In an article by World Tempus,
Italian golfer Diana Luna is reported to have said: “What made the difference with Richard Mille is that I can actually wear the watch when I play. I never take it off.”
Indeed the admiration is mutual. When Richard Mille decided he wanted to support a technical feminine sport, he looked to golf and Luna. Impressed by her personality and promising career, Mille chose Luna as the RM family’s first women’s sporting partner, confidently moving into the world of women’s golf in 2013.
Being a sport of precision, technique, endurance and concentration, Mille quite naturally drew parallels between golf, the calibre of extreme performance and his time keeping devices.
No. 1 in her country, Luna has been playing professionally since 2002 in the Ladies European Tour which she marked with five victories. Her story began in 2000, when she won four Italian championships and one European championship as part of a junior team. In 2004, she won her first title at the Tenerife Ladies Open, before going on to win two major tournaments in 2009 – the AIB Ladies Irish Open and the SAS Ladies Masters in Norway.
That same year, she scored again, becoming the first Italian in the history of golf to qualify for the Solheim Cup European team. Victory came once more in 2011 at the Ladies German Open. During the competition, Luna achieved a first in the history of women’s golf, playing 72 holes over four days with no bogeys.
Again in 2011, she won the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, before coming second the following year at the French Open (Lacoste Ladies Open). In her young career, Luna had achieved 31 top 10 finishes, five victories on the European circuit, five victories in the PGA of Italy.
On the green, Luna sports an RM 007 Titanium. As with other sporting partnerships, the alliance between Richard Mille and Luna allowed the watch company to test and develop a product that has been designed with adaptability under extreme conditions in mind, and Luna worked with Richard Mille engineers to develop a watch caliber with ergonomics, elegance and performance as key elements.
Big heart
Cristie Kerr was Richard Mille’s second female golfing partner. When she teamed up with the Richard Mille sports family in 2014, Kerr joined one of her golfing rivals, Diana Luna.
Commenting on her arrival in the Richard Mille world, the American made a concise summary of her perception of the brand for which she is now a partner: “art, know-how and excellence.”
Florida-born Kerr began playing at the age of nine and quickly emerged as one of the best in her age-group.
Her mastery and skill earned her a top state-rankher ing while playing on school boy’s golf team and progressed to a remarkable amateur career.
Kerr hit her first shots on the LPGA circuit as a professional player at the tender age of 18. In 2002 she scored her first triumph, winning the Long Drugs Challenge in California. This led to a string of victories until she walked off with her first major tournament, the US Women’s Open, in 2007, followed by a record victory at the LPGA championship a few years later.
Today she has 20 wins on the LPGA Tour, including two major championships, and over US$19mil (RM77.12mil) in career earnings. Kerr was the number one-ranked golfer in the Women’s World Golf Rankings for three time periods in 2010.
Despite being an accomplished sportswoman whose prowess is universally acknowledged, Kerr also never lost sight of her personal commitment to charity through the foundation she created in 2003.
The Birdies for Breast Cancer – Kerr donates US$50 (RM202) per birdie – supports women who are fighting against the disease, just like her mother was that very year.
Kerr’s talent and ability to go beyond expectations mentally and physically, coupled with her great generosity, immediately appealed to Richard Mille and has led to her sporting the RM 007 in titanium on her wrist as she strides across the world’s finest courses.