Nelly’s elegance puts her one up on Scheffler
The golfer with the best swing in the world is rapidly compiling a CV to match. While Scottie Scheffler fell a few inches short of lifting a trio of PGA Tour titles on the trot in Texas on Sunday, a few states away, Nelly Korda achieved the elusive hat-trick.
The 25-year-old’s two-shot victory in the Ford Championship in Arizona meant she became the first LPGA Tour player in eight years to win three straight starts and secured the American’s status as world No1.
If Scheffler is at prohibitive odds to don a second Green Jacket at next week’s Masters, Korda must be an even narrower favourite to prevail at the Chevron Championship, the season’s first female major, which immediately follows Augusta.
At this juncture, the pair bestride their respective fairways like colossi. The sport is lucky to have them at the top, especially during an era besmirched by self-interest and sullied by outrageous cash grabs.
Korda and Scheffler are great role models. Both are underspoken. Both are as gracious in defeat as in victory. Both wear Nike and play with Taylormade. And both are fantastic to watch.
However, with respect to Scheffler, when it comes to the aesthetic, he is no match for Korda. Granted, the scorecards do not include pictures and, indeed, instructors are waking up to the realisation that “The Scheffler Shuffle” – that unique motion, most notably with the driver, when both of his feet jump and slightly slide backwards on impact – makes sense from a technical viewpoint. But it is not attractive.
In contrast, Korda’s swing is the Mona Lisa of golf, a multilayered action of simplistic beauty.
There is a reason why a headline writer a couple of years ago felt inspired to coin her “Nelly
The Elegant”. That was during Korda’s first rise to the top of the rankings.
The daughter of Petr Korda, the former Australian Open tennis champion, and Regina Rajchrtova, another professional tennis player, and the sister of Jess, herself a garlanded golfer, and Seb, a quarter-finalist at last year’s Australian Open tennis, Nelly Korda swept on to the scene and threatened to take control with that seemingly magical mix of artistry and audacity.
Then, her long-time coach explained what made her special. “She is definitely the best driver of the ball I have ever seen,” said David Whelan, the former European Tour pro from Sunderland. “She’s so accurate.
And as pretty as it all is, she has the will as well and is not frightened to win. Nelly is dominating and I do not see it stopping any time soon.”
Except sport, and especially golf, has a habit of making a mockery of projection. Illness and injuries stymied the staggering ascent. In early 2022, she was diagnosed with a blood clot in an arm and in those worrying moments before and after surgery, her career was clearly not the primary concern.
Blessedly, she returned unhindered, but the experience took its toll. Korda never tumbled further than fifth in the world and the swing has remained adorable. But there has been only one top five in the majors since her glory at the 2021 US Women’s PGA and that year’s Olympics.
She was plagued by back issues last year, a consequence of the torque in her swing. What looks pleasing on the eye is not always kindly on the spine. She has refined her set-up and on the evidence of 2024, is back to her best. In fact, Whelan believes the very best is yet to come. “She has all that is required,” he said. “I’m not sure anything in this game is beyond her.”
Korda is wary of competing with her former self. She is more mature and feels stronger because of gym work, but that garlanded year will take some eclipsing. “It’s easy to compare, but hopefully the golf I’m playing now leads me to the year that I had in 2021, or better,” she said.
Majors are everything to the likes of Scheffler and Korda (although, to the latter, her Olympic defence in Paris this summer is plainly on the same level). These runs in regular events have their own intrinsic value, but without the validation of the biggest tournaments of all, they are but the sizzle without the sausage. For Korda, as for Scheffler, the challenge in these next few weeks is to transfer the award-winning brilliance from the wings to the centre of the stage.*