It seems Nelly Korda is a quintessential younger sibling. One of the reasons for her flourishing career was not her passion for the sport but just an innocent wish to follow her elder sibling around. Even though her parents were tennis stars, the 2022 Pelican Women’s Championship winner chose to carry on another Korda legacy that was established by her oldest sister, Jessica Korda, in the world of golf.
After seven years of becoming a professional golfer, the eight-time LPGA Tour winner revealed the reason behind her interest in golf—exactly when she grabbed a club to start her journey to where she stands now—and how golf has become a family thing.
Nelly Korda’s tale of picking the first club of her life
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It has been more than a month since the PNC Championship ended. Nelly Korda had partnered with her father, Petr Korda, for the family event. During the event, she took some time out and sat with The Scoop with Claire Rogers for a tête-à-tête. While munching on cookie dough ice cream, Korda revealed her childhood story of becoming a golfer.
Rogers asked Korda, despite coming from a tennis legacy, why the 25-year-old decided to pursue golf. The Olympic winner answered truthfully by calling herself an “annoying little sister,” who wanted to follow everything that her older sister did. Korda then recounted the age when Jessica Korda started playing golf and how it had affected her.
She said, “She [Jessica Korda] started taking lessons around the age of seven. So I was around two years old. So I was hitting balls right beside her with my plastic clubs.” Although at first it was a game to impersonate her older sister, later it became a family affair. After Korda’s father had stopped playing tennis, he to hit the greens as well.
Unlike the Korda sisters, the youngest Korda sibling, Sebastian Korda, chose the tennis court over the golfing greens. The 1x major champion described how, after a while, instead of golf, tennis became the odd one out. She said, “My brother was the odd man out he was the one bouncing balls on concrete and hitting hit them in the air.” Now, after many years, even though Sebastian Korda finds golf “boring” because of his family’s interest, he has started to appreciate it more. Although the 25-year-old’s golfing journey started with following her sister, Jessica Korda had other hopes and wishes for Jr. Korda’s golfing career.
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Jessica Korda’s one wish for Nelly Korda
In 2018, the Korda sisters made a special appearance on the Drop Zone Podcast and spilled the beans about the ins and outs of their lives. The 8-time LPGA Tour winner wanted to follow her older sister. But Jessica Korda wanted her little sister to make her own mark in the golf world. She said, “My whole thing is when she came out, I wanted her to be her own person…I want her to be Nelly.”
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Eventually, Nelly Korda made a name for herself among the best of America’s top golfers. The Korda duo are now following different paths in life. While the younger is preparing for a new season, the oldest is waiting to welcome her firstborn soon.
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