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Major Preview
Whoa,Nelly!
Superstar Korda headlines field for KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee June 20-23 MAJOR
BOB SHERWIN • CG STAFF WRITER
This year has witnessed a female athlete — high-scoring basketball guard Caitlin Clark — command unprecedented media attention and enormous commercial appeal, earning rarified status generally reserved only for the most elite male athletes. Clark has been described as an extraordinary athlete we might be lucky to see just once in a lifetime.
Well, life is short apparently, because we have two once-in-a-generation female sensations now.
Nelly Korda, a seven-year LPGA Tour Professional from Jupiter, Florida, is shaking up the golfing world as Clark did on the basketball court. Korda started the season like few other female golfers we’ve ever seen, and Seattle area golf fans can witness her prowess this summer when the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship comes to Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish.
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be the LPGA’s third (of five) Majors on the LPGA Tour this season. The first one, the Chevron Championship, was played April 18-21 at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, and Korda won it by two strokes. It was her second Major Championship and her 13th career victory, with 60 top 10 finishes.
Remarkably, it was her fifth consecutive victory on the LPGA Tour this season. She joined Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05), two LPGA Hall of Famers, as the only players ever to win five straight starts in LPGA Tour history. Those five victories gave Korda $2.4 million in earnings, nearly triple the second-best money-earner so far this year. We are seeing a veritable coronation to the LPGA throne.
The LPGA Tour schedule list six tournaments after the Chevron Championship, and before Sahalee Country Club hosts this year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. If Korda continues to build on her success, she’s on pace to be the year’s second phenomenon, much like Clark did leading her Iowa team to the NCAA title game in March.
As Korda and Clark continue to make headlines in the same way as former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe, gymnast Simone Biles, and tennis star Serena Williams have; it will continue to generate more attention and financial support for women’s sports. For example, this season the LPGA Tour offers $116.55 million in total prize money, the highest in history and a 69 percent increase from just three years ago.
Nelly has been untouchable on the LPGA Tour in 2024. She is leading the LPGA in scoring average (69.22), eagles (six), rounds in the 60s (16), and greens in regulation (75.85 percent). Korda's main rival for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship trophy is a player who already has one. Brooke Henderson won the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship as an 18-year-old when it was last played at Sahalee Country Club. She was the wunderkind of her day, becoming the second youngest to win an LPGA Major at 18 years, 10 months. She beat another 18-year-old, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, with a birdie on the first playoff hole. Ko was then the No. 1 player in the world.
The careers for both Henderson and Korda are remarkably similar. By the end of April, both had 13 career wins, with two Majors each. At the time of this writing, Henderson is second to Korda in many LPGA statistical categories this season, including the all-important scoring average, 69.22 to 69.87.
There’s little that separates those two from Ko, who has won 20 LPGA events, including two Majors. Ko was the youngest ever to win a Major, the 2015 Evian Championship, when she was 18 years, four months and 20 days. Leading into her Major Championship win, Ko was the youngest player ever to earn the No. 1 ranking in the world in 2014 at 17 years, nine months, and nine days.
Emphasizing the theme of empowering women, KPMG will be hosting the KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit onsite during the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee, where they bring together women from around the country who are leaders in business, politics, and sports. It is designed to inspire women to reach the C-suite and further develop and advance in their careers. The KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit will be held onsite at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on Wednesday, June 19, the day before the Championship begins. The Summit is a private, invite only event; however, it will be live streamed to the general public.
Hosting significant golf events has been part of Sahalee’s core mission and in addition to hosting the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, they have hosted the 1998 PGA Championship (won by Vijay Singh), the 2002 NEC World Golf Championship (won by Craig Parry), and the 2010 USGA Senior Open (won by Bernhard Langer.)
General admission tickets for the Championship, along with corporate hospitality experiences are available through the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship website. For additional information on the Championship, or to purchase tickets, visit kpmgwomenspga.com/tickets.
