U.S. Girls’s Open: Nelly Korda unveils priceless life classes

You’ll be able to be taught lots from watching Nelly Korda play golf.

Her swing is picture-perfect. Her tempo, flawless. Her potential to bounce again after a mishit, additionally spectacular.

However she struck a chord on the U.S. Girls’s Open on Tuesday, when she fielded a query about expectations and priorities.

“I don’t assume some [expectations] annoy me. I believe, clearly, with the place I’m in, there are going to be expectations,” Korda stated.

“I don’t wish to lose who I’m. I’m going to all the time keep true to who I’m as a result of on the finish of the day after I fall asleep, I must be happy with who I’m.”

Korda has received six of her final seven occasions on the LPGA Tour, with one coming on the Chevron Championship, the season’s first main. She most lately received on the Mizuho Americas Open, regardless of having her “C and D” sport throughout Sunday’s remaining spherical.

So she has each motive to really feel happy with herself and her accomplishments this 12 months, which solely Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez have ever completed earlier than her.

Picture by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Pictures

She might even bask within the glory of all of it, particularly on the heels of her Met Gala look. No person would blame her. However that isn’t who she is.

As a substitute, Korda doesn’t care what others assume. She cares about herself, her well-being, and her household—just like how Scottie Scheffler has operated all through his profession and historic 2024 season.

“For me, I would like to offer one hundred pc of myself each single day to not simply my golf, my household, my exercises, and life exterior of golf,” Korda stated.

“That’s the primary factor for me.”

Korda has a life exterior of golf that she cherishes. She is shut together with her household, usually spending extended intervals with them.

After her most up-to-date victory at Liberty Nationwide, instantly following her successful press convention, Korda went straight to the airport to catch a flight house—to get straight to her household.

She additionally took two months off earlier this 12 months.

That absence was not on account of harm. As a substitute, she frolicked together with her family members, traveled with them, and cherished each second.

“I like to get away and spend quite a lot of time with my household,” Korda added.

“As a child, my mother and father actually instilled that household values and hanging round our household and simply disconnecting from the world has actually been vital to us.”

Within the age of social media, by which individuals evaluate one another to 1 one other on a regular basis—primarily for self-deprecating causes—everybody ought to embrace Korda’s sentiments.

She has no expectations of herself and goes at her personal velocity.

Dustin Satloff/USGA

She focuses on what she believes in: having a holistic lifestyle that revolves round her household.

However life has its obstacles. Anybody who has ever picked up a golf membership can relate to that.

With the burden of the LPGA now on her shoulders, Korda could face these quickly sufficient.

Others actually have earlier than. Earlier than Korda emerged because the LPGA’s largest star, individuals positioned a tsunami of expectations on Michelle Wie West and Lexi Thompson. Pundits dubbed each prodigies as the celebrities of the longer term, however they went on to win a mixed two main championships, far lower than what anybody predicted.

That’s to not say that they failed. Each gamers had remarkably profitable careers.

Their values don’t differ drastically from Korda’s, both. Thompson even spoke concerning the significance of her family members on Tuesday when she introduced her retirement on the U.S. Girls’s Open.

However being below the highlight isn’t any straightforward activity, particularly in immediately’s day and age.

The lights are all the time on, the cameras are continually rolling, and any individual, someplace, all the time has an opinion and an expectation of another person.

Maybe that’s the reason Korda doesn’t have any herself.

“I’m going into each week eager to win, however there’s a sense that generally that’s not sensible,” Korda defined.

“I don’t assume I’ve any expectations. I simply attempt to be very, very pure and really, very trustworthy with everybody round me, and I hope that they see that I’m happy with the individual that I’m on the finish of the day, and that’s how I hope that I develop the sport.”

Listening to what Korda stated speaks volumes about her character and dignity.

But it surely additionally sheds gentle on why she has had a lot success.

Who is aware of what number of extra trophies Korda will carry house to her household, an achieved set of athletes in their very own proper.

Nonetheless, one factor stays sure: her values communicate for themselves. Everybody ought to look to her not as a barometer of expectations on the course however as a beacon of morals that revolve across the people who matter most: household.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. You’ll want to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.