latest feud between nelly Korda and Lydia Ko raises concerns as USA nelly Korda repeatedly questions the KIWI involvement in professional golf that’s causes her to reply back furiously.

was a showdown of epic proportions. Lydia Ko, a generational talent who had just won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions the week before, versus Nelly Korda, one of the game’s top stars who hadn’t captured an LPGA Tour victory since November 2022, duking it out in a sudden-death playoff at Bradenton Country Club for the LPGA Drive On Championship title.

 

Ko had carded a fairly steady 2-under 69 in the final round, recovering from a couple of late hiccups with an eagle on 17 to post the clubhouse lead. Korda, on the other hand, had struggled mightily on the back nine, going bogey, double-bogey, bogey on holes 14, 15 and 16 to slip back to 8-under. But the hometown favorite dug deep late, and after a little tough love from her caddie Jason McDede, she went eagle-birdie on 17 and 18 in Bradenton, Fla., to tie Ko and force extra holes.

 

The first playoff hole saw the pair record matching pars after Ko got up and down from the left side of the green and Korda two-putted the 18th green. Then, on the second extra hole, Korda knocked her approach over the green, while Ko found the putting surface with her second shot to seemingly have the upper hand on Korda as things came down to the wire.

 

But the Bradenton native chipped her third to roughly four feet, and when Ko’s cleanup for par lipped out, serendipity was knocking for Korda as she stood over a nervy putt for an up and down that would give the local hero her first win in over a year on Tour.

 

A roar went up when Korda’s ball tumbled over the edge of the cup, a cheer that would wind up being the first of many she would experience throughout the 2024 season, but one that meant just a little bit more than those in the past because of where she was when she heard it. There is nothing like winning in front of a hometown crowd, and while Korda had triumphed in Florida plenty of times before, she had never done so in Bradenton, where she was born, raised and currently resides.

 

“The amount of support I received this week was unbelievable,” said Korda in her winning press conference. “I’m so grateful for it and so surprised with how many people came out and watched. They kept me in it. I didn’t think I even had a chance, and then, making the eagle on 17, I knew that I needed a birdie on 18 to even have a chance to get into a playoff.

 

“Just wow. Good ole Nelly fashion making it dramatic.”

 

That playoff was certainly a turning point for Ko and Korda for a variety of reasons, one that bolstered both of their confidence levels ahead of a long year on Tour. However, few could have predicted how a playoff at the second tournament of the 2024 season would foretell two of the biggest stories that would eventually come out over the last 11 months on the LPGA Tour.

 

Everyone knows how far Nelly’s star rose after her victory at Bradenton Country Club. She won the next four tournaments in which she teed it up, becoming just the third player since 1978 to take home five titles in five consecutive starts, joining an elite list that only includes Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez.