Nelly Korda historic chase at Cognizant Founders Cup off to strong start

Korda posted another round in the 60s as her hunt for six in a row began at the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Nelly Korda fired off a 3-under 69 to start her Cognizant Founders Cup tournament. It put her in the hunt for yet another victory in 2024. As of this writing, she is tied for sixth on a stacked leaderboard.

Korda is riding a five-tournament win streak, which is tied with Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam for the most ever.

Despite her strong start, Korda is four shots off the leader, Madelene Sagström, who fired off a 7-under 65. Nevertheless, she is in good spirits.

“I made four birdies and one bogey, so overall, a solid day,” Korda said after her round. “Didn’t make too many mistakes, and if I did — this golf course is very narrow off the tee —I gave myself a good chance at par. So, I got bailed out with my short game a couple of times. Overall, it was a solid day.”

The No. 1 player in the world had one blemish on her card at the par 4 13th when she made bogey. After that slip-up, though, she got back on track and stayed the course.

At her ninth hole, the 18th, she made her second her second birdie of the day. Korda would make two more on her back nine, including the par-5 9th, to finish her day on a high note.

Despite a challenging history at this track, Korda’s quest for a sixth consecutive win is off to a promising beginning. Her resilience and determination are evident as she prepares to face the Upper Montclair Country Club, a course that hasn't always been favorable to her.

She missed last year's cut after going 72-74 to finish at 2-over.

However, this year, her five consecutive wins have all come on different types of tracks.

“You have to stay present and know you have the game to play on anything,” she said. “Making those four, five footers for par are big confidence boosters. You have to lean on all the stuff you have practiced and capitalize on your opportunities. Everyone is in the same boat. Everyone is playing the same golf courses every week.”

She tends to get more aggressive as the tournament progresses each week. Yet, Korda knows when she needs to play smart golf because winning the event on Day 1 is impossible; losing it is not.

“There are still three more days... I know the weather is not supposed to be great and there is just different factors that go into the rest of the tournament,” Korda said. “So it’s nice to get a good round in. You know, still a long, long way away from Sunday.”

She will tee off in the afternoon wave on Friday for the second round as Korda attempts to make history and win her sixth straight LPGA Tour event.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.