After racking up seven wins last season, Nelly Korda is still looking for her first win of the 2025 season. This weekend at TPC Boston, she finds herself in contention once again.
Paired with Minjee Lee and Brooke Henderson, Korda’s appearance at the FM Championship might be the perfect place for her to take home the number one spot and move up the rankings back into first place, a position she lost earlier this month.
This year’s LPGA season is full of fierce competition, and has seen 23 different winners, with no golfer taking home more than one first place finish.
Putter Change-Up
Ahead of the FM Championship, Korda made the switch from a Titleist model to a TaylorMade putter. She also showcased a new grip, a Super Stroke. When asked about the changes on Thursday, Korda said,
“Just something else than I’ve been feeling. Just something new. I had so much success with that head and I hit a couple before [last week’s tournament in] Toronto. Golf courses right now in Florida aren’t the best.”
“Like the golf courses that I’m at just opened after being closed for a month. So there was a lot of sand on them. Wasn’t really sure how I really liked the putter, but I just went with it. I knew I had so much success with that kind of putter and felt confident with [TaylorMade]; obviously it’s a different grip, too. It’s a SuperStroke. I just picked it out of the group of putters that I had and that I liked, and kind of went with it.”
Change in Ranking
Unfortunately, back on August 3rd, 2025 Korda lost her number one spot to Jeeno Thitikul. Impressively, Korda maintained the top spot for 71-weeks, and the switch-up came after a T36 finish at the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. Thitikul tied for 30th, 6 spots ahead of Korda, and closed the gap between them, a mere 0.1861 lead.
A key stat to make note of ahead of the remainder of the FM Championship is Korda’s round-to-round performance. Historically, the golfer has performed better in the first (69.77 scoring average) and second (68.31 scoring average) rounds than she has over the weekend (Round 3 scoring average of 70.39 Round 4 scoring average of 71.00).
At the FM Championship, Korda finished Round 1 with a 67. After a first-hole bogey, the American went on to shoot 7 seven birdies, Korda trails two shots behind round leaders Allisen Corpuz, Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Sei Young Kim. When asked about the round, Korda said,
“It was great. Had a great crowd following us too. Obviously, with Brooke winning last week and Minjee playing so well this year, it was a lot of fun to play against them and play with them, especially with the caliber of golf they have been playing. It was overall a solid day. No complaints.”
Nelly Korda is a 15-time winner on the LPGA Tour. Despite no first place finishes yet this year, she has made every cut in her 14 tournament appearances. Fans can watch this weekend as she searches for her 2025 win on the LPGA Tour.
Nelly Korda in Contention After First Round of FM Championship