What Is the Reason Behind Nelly Korda’s Love to Only Pair Up With Lydia Ko and Jin Young Ko?

Nelly Korda will tee off with defending champions Lilia Vu and Minjee Lee at the season’s first major. It’s rare for the Bradenton resident, considering the 12-time LPGA Tour winner mostly gets paired up with two ‘Ko’s’ on the Tour. Lydia Ko and Jing Young Ko have been her playing mates for the better part of her career.

In fact, Ko and Korda were in the mix in Phoenix as well. It has become so comfortable that they even have a nickname for the pairing. Ko revealed more about her American counterpart, who thwarted her Hall of Fame entry just weeks ago.

The ‘Ko-Orda’ pairing that both look forward to

Lydia Ko reveals that she and Korda have been paired a number of times. So much so that even the current world no. 1 feels more comfortable in that group, even though Ko and Korda often fight for the title. Moreover, Ko jokingly called the group the ‘Ko-Orda’ pairing. It’s gotten to the point that the 25-year-old told the Kiwi, “She says, yeah, I’m playing with you or Jin Young, so she can’t get away from the Ko’s.”

On a serious note, the 20-time LPGA Tour winner shows three reasons behind Korda’s astounding dominance. Firstly, Korda hits long and is accurate. The Florida native averages around 263 yards on drives. Whereas Ko hits at 252 yards. Korda is also excellent with her approaches. And, to top that off, her putter has also turned hot. Overall, Lydia Ko feels her LPGA peer has a balanced game, which puts her miles ahead of the rest.

“So it sounds like a very accomplished combination, and I think even when she is maybe not at the top of her game for the week, I think she’s always so consistent, and that’s why she’s always put thing herself there.” Ko also believes that Nelly Korda’s four-in-a-row run might be the best someone has played in the last decade.

Lydia Ko hails Korda as one of the best to grace the greens

Nelly Korda is in Texas, hoping to match Nancy Lopez’s record of five consecutive victories on the LPGA Tour. Annika Sorenstam is another player who has done it before, in 2005. Interestingly, her fifth title came in the same major, although it was known by a different moniker then. Lydia Ko reveals how it feels to compete against someone who is on such a dominant run.

“This is definitely one of the best stretches I think a player has played in my 11 years on tour. I saw that was it like May and Annika were maybe the last two that had won three, four events in a row. The max I’ve done is two, and I was like, This is pretty cool to be able to win back-to-back weeks. For her to win the second event of the year and have eight weeks off and win the next three, I was like, man, I shouldn’t have played; we were all playing for second place,” Lydia Ko said in the pre-tournament press conference.

Alluding to Scottie Scheffler, who is exerting a similar dominance on the men’s side, Ko said it would definitely draw more eyeballs to the women’s golf. Although Ko and Korda haven’t been paired together this time, both are looking forward to being part of the final-round pairing.