Nelly Korda is an Olympic gold medalist, in 2021. Korda won after holding off Japan’s Mone Inami and Lydia Ko of New Zealand in the Women’s Individual Golf Competition.
Before being reintroduced in 2016, Women’s Olympic golf only featured once as an Olympic sport in 1900. That was also the last year a woman from the USA would win gold in the Women’s Individual Golf Tournament.
That was until Friday night when Korda joined Margaret Abbott; as the only other USA woman to take home gold in the Olympic golf tourney.
Korda came into the final round with a 3 stroke lead. But saw it evaporate on hole 7 when she double-bogeyed; this allowed India’s Aditi Ashok and New Zealand’s Ko to climb back into the contest and would tie Korda heading into hole 8.
Korda regrouped and birdied on 3 consecutive holes; even nailing a 20-foot putt on hole 8 to keep her in the three-way tie with Ko and Aditi.
After an hour of rain delay, Inami who was in a group ahead of Korda, sunk a 13-foot putt for birdie. That putt put her in a tie for the lead with Korda heading into her last hole.
Ultimately, Inami putted for double bogey on hole 18, giving Korda the advantage once and for all. With a short putt, Korda became a gold medalist.
By winning gold, Korda didn’t only end the USA drought in women’s golf. But also places her in the history books. Korda is the first player, man or woman, to win an Olympic gold medal and a major in the same year.
Just two months before the Olympics Nelly would win her first-ever KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Coming into this tournament, Korda was ranked the No. 1 women’s golfer in the world. With her calm and collected demeanor, she overcame every test that was thrown her way.
2021 will always be remembered as the year of Nelly Korda.
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