EDMONTON — Nelly Korda is a hockey fan.
But despite being in the city of champions this week, she’s steadfast in her support of one particular squad.
“Boston Bruins,” Korda said with a laugh.
“I mean,” she added, “you guys have a good team.”
While the Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup drought has stretched to almost 40 years, Korda is seeing no such streak. The game’s No. 1-ranked player has won four times already this season, including two majors, and besides Brooke Henderson, she’s the star of the show this week at the CPKC Women’s Open.
Korda blasted out of the gate this season on the LPGA Tour, winning three of her first six starts. The other three results during that stretch? Second place.
Korda has, perhaps somewhat oddly, gone into a ‘down’ time through the summer. She missed her first cut of the season at the Amundi Evian Championship and then ended up over-par and tied for 16th at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. She finished tied for fourth — and in the process clinched the Rolex Annika Major Award — at the AIG Women’s Open but was basically a non-factor through the week.
Still, Korda said Wednesday she was “very happy” with her year.
“There has been some incredible highs […] Evian maybe a little bit questionable. But that's just kind of how golf is. You sometimes ride the wave of the highs and then sometimes golf humbles you. Sometimes, maybe sometimes a lot, too,” Korda said. “But overall, just very happy with my year, my team, and the way my body has held up so far.”
Korda said the key to her success through the early part of the year was attributed to how she managed herself mentally. Everyone hits bad shots and goes through tough times inside the ropes but, Korda said, acknowledging that and leaning into a good game plan has been something she’s learned as she’s matured.
“I think when you're just thinking about just hitting one shot at a time and not necessarily draining so much mental energy on, like, what's going wrong during your round, it just kind of frees you up and also gives you good mental freeness on, like, being able to attack the next hole and knowing there is always another shot or another opportunity,” Korda said.
Just play, we’ll handle the rest
Genesis delivers five years of complimentary scheduled maintenance, whether at your doorstep or beside the fairway, so every drive remains effortless.
Learn more
Alongside Korda this week at Royal Mayfair Golf Club are five of the top 10 golfers in the world including multi-time winners Hyo Joo Kim and Hannah Green. Canada’s lone LPGA Tour stop has long earned a solid reputation amongst the best in women’s golf, with it travelling to some of the best courses in the country — next year the tournament will be played at Royal Ottawa Golf Club while it’s likely to return to another venerable club in Vancouver in 2028 — but there certainly could be some conversations around elevating the event even more.
In 2019 the tournament had a purse of US$2.25 million, which was the highest of a tournament that wasn’t a major (or the CME Group Tour Championship season finale). The purse has increased in the years since, but it is just $2.75 million for 2026. The Classic, a tournament in Corning, N.Y., was just announced this year as a new addition to the 2027 schedule and its purse will be $5 million. Back in 2019, the tournament boasted 98 of the top 100 golfers in the world. This year it’s closer to 70.
Still, with Henderson as the defending champion and Korda ready to tee it up looking to kickstart a late summertime run akin to her season-opening stretch, there’s also a great group of some of the best in the game looking for their own big break this week.
Korda, who is just 28, knows that time at the top is fleeting. She’s eager to take advantage of her good play as long as she can.
“I’m obviously getting older. There are new girls coming in. It’s also good because it makes me want to raise my level,” Korda said. “You know, I think that's just what sports are. You're relevant, relevant, relevant until that new generation comes in and kind of sweeps in and starts to dominate, too. It's just kind of like the evolution of sports. But I find it as fuel, too, because obviously they're younger. They, I would say, don't have as much scar tissue as maybe the veterans have on tour. But it's also motivational fuel.
“At the end of the day it's just great for the Tour, great for the fans to have new and upcoming amazing talent out here.”
While new talent is on the way, Korda is currently the top talent in women’s golf. And despite her perhaps questionable taste in hockey teams — at least according to most in Edmonton this week — she’ll have a great opportunity this week to get back on a winning track.
