No grand slam for Nelly Korda, however immortality nonetheless attainable at Evian

Nelly Korda’s pursuit of the calendar Grand Slam may no longer be on the table, but she remains on the verge of multiple prestigious achievements.

One more major victory will give her the final two qualifying points she needs to trigger LPGA Hall of Fame membership. And a fifth career major title would push her up the all-time leaderboard, tying the likes of Korean great Se Ri Pak.

But Korda is the Scottie Scheffler of women’s golf in more ways than one. Not only is she a dominant World No. 1 player, she consistently insists she doesn’t think about legacy, pressure or external factors.

Korda headlines another strong women’s major field when the sport kicks off a European swing at the Evian Championship, beginning Thursday in Evian-les-Bains, France.

“For my mindset every week, it’s just, like, see how it goes,” Korda said. “Like, there is no (real) advantage to being World No. 1 when it comes to golf. I don’t get a better draw. I don’t have a bye. It’s just that you’re playing good golf, the best golf right now. That’s all that it is.”

Korda’s best finish at the Evian was a T8 in 2022. This and the Women’s Open are the only major trophies she has yet to collect.

She has won four tournaments this year, including the first two majors, but her major streak ended when South Korea’s Haeran Ryu raced out to a massive lead and captured the Women’s PGA Championship two weeks ago.

It was Ryu’s first major title, and she feels primed for more.

“I think everything going to be good, because every major championship is more thinking, more sensitive and more thinking harder, so always I got more stressful on the major week,” Ryu said. “But after (winning the Women’s PGA), I feel like more free and is less stressful for me.”

The Champions Course at Evian Resort will present a few new wrinkles to players this year. Chief among them is the pair of fairway bunkers strategically placed on the par-5 18th hole.

On that hole last year, Australian Grace Kim made eagle on Sunday to tie Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul and force a playoff. Kim then chipped in for birdie on the same hole to win the playoff; she had never finished in the top 10 of a major before that breakthrough.

There’s now a plaque marking the spot where Kim had her chip-in.

“It is a very cool thing for Evian Resort to put up for it, so I’m really grateful for it,” Kim said. “It makes me feel like, you know, a bit (of a) legendary moment, so, yeah, I’m really, really grateful for that.”

At the same time, it was a heartbreaking way for Thitikul to lose. Though just 23, the World No. 2 continues to face questions about when she will finish the job and win her first major. She has four top-10 finishes at the Evian in the past five years.

“It’s always going to be in my mind whatever is happened (is) last year, but I feel like it’s had a good and a bad … and then you can’t let it go,” Thitikul said.

“Like you can’t, like, ‘Oh, I’m just going to let it go and I don’t want think what happening,’ because if you really don’t and then tell yourself not to, it’s always going to be stuck in your mind. But I feel like what has been happening in last year or couple years later on in this tournament, it’s made me who I am today, so it’s just stick to the positive one then.”

–Field Level Media