Nelly Korda feels like she has another weapon in her arsenal as she attempts to keep her most recent hot streak going into the brunt of the LPGA Tour schedule — her mindset.
Korda has won three of her first six events in 2026 while finishing runner-up in the other three. That has vaulted her back into the No. 1 spot in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings as the tour makes its stop in Cincinnati for this week’s Queen City Championship.
It comes on the heels of a frustrating 2025 season that ended without a single victory.
After winning the first major of the season at the Chevron Championship, Korda kept her commitment to play in Mexico. She won that event, too, before taking last week off.
“You need to give your body a break because you played two weeks in a row with all the travel, too,” Korda said on Wednesday. “You’re getting ready for a big summer ahead, so it’s like you can’t rest too much or the body doesn’t feel 100%.
“I think everyone gets into that middle of the season when you travel a lot, play a lot. You don’t have too many weeks where you can rest, especially going into kind of the part of the season right now where we have kind of all the majors stacked up.”
Korda won six times in a seven-event stretch early in 2024. She then missed the cut in three consecutive events, including two majors. After an additional mediocre result, Korda finally got back into form with a runner-up finish at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.
It feels eerily similar two years later, with a red-hot Korda planning for the second major of the year at the U.S. Women’s Open to begin June. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship closes out the month three weeks later before the tour heads to Europe for the Evian Championship ahead of the Women’s Open.
Korda, 27, feels like she is better prepared to keep her strong form going this time around.
“My patience, for sure,” Korda said when asked what the best part of her game is right now. “Mentally being on the golf course, just really enjoying it, knowing that I am going to make mistakes and that it’s OK. It’s not going to ruin my round. That it’s OK to bounce back.
“In the past I’ve been very scared to make mistakes, and that’s locked me up a little bit. So just kind of trying to stay free on the golf course, knowing my swing is not going to be perfect every week. Maybe to the outside they don’t see as precise of what I see, the detailing of my golf swing.
“For me, as long as I stay mentally fresh, that’s the most important.”
Korda headlines a 144-player field at the Maketewah Country Club this week. The course’s design includes par-3s to close out both nines.
“It’s definitely a very unique golf course,” Korda said. “But it’s also fun to sometimes switch it up and play something you normally don’t.”
