Nelly Korda's March Toward Golf Immortality

At just 27 years old, Nelly Korda has already built one of the most impressive resumes in modern women's golf...and it kind of feels like she's just getting started.

With 19 wins, including four major championships, an Olympic gold medal, a 2024 season that resulted in one of the most undebatable Player of the Year awards ever—Korda is racking up her Hall of Fame points like infinity stones. So now, the question is no longer if she'll reach golf immortality but just how soon it will happen.

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The LPGA Hall of Fame is one of the most difficult halls of fame to reach in professional sports. Unlike many other sports, where players are elected by a voting committee, LPGA players must meet a strict set of on-course achievements and accumulate enough HOF points to earn induction.

To qualify, a player must earn 27 Hall of Fame points and have won at least one major championship, Vare Trophy, or Rolex Player of the Year award. Points are awarded for career achievements: one point for each official LPGA Tour victory, two points for each major championship victory, one point for each Vare Trophy, one point for each Rolex Player of the Year award, and one point for an Olympic gold medal.

Only 34 women have been named to the Tour's Hall of Fame, 23 of which played their way in via the criteria listed above, Lydia Ko doing so most recently, and the other 11 were granted honorary admission like the founders and the legendary Dinah Shore.

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But after finally claiming her long-awaited U.S. Women's Open title, Korda finds herself knocking on the door which happened rather quickly. From 2018 to 2023, Korda had collected 10 points over the course of her first few seasons—she earned nine in 2024 alone. It feels like suddenly, the World No.1 not only became the face of the LPGA but is so close to etching her name into history forever.

Korda's First Win

In her sophomore season on the LPGA, a then 20-year-old Korda won her first title in October 2018 at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, with caddie Jason McDede on the bag. (Fun fact: McDede has been the only caddie she's ever won with.)

Her Breakout Year: First Major and Gold Medal

A couple of years later came Korda's breakout season, which wasn't just about earning titles—it was about winning on the biggest stages. In 2021, she claimed her first major championship, earned Olympic gold, reached World No. 1, and won three other LPGA titles, cementing herself as one of the game's defining players of this new decade.

Lucky Number 7 (Wins!!!)

If 2021 declared Nelly Korda as a superstar, 2024 cemented her place among the game's all-time greats. Korda won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including an extraordinary stretch of five consecutive victories and a second major championship at the Chevron Championship.

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The dominant season, capitalized by her POTY award, accelerated her march toward the Hall of Fame and put together one of the most impressive single-year runs in recent memory.

This Season

I've said all year that this season feels different from what we witnessed in '24. We're seeing a different, more matured Nelly who is playing with so much freedom, and now that she's conquered the one event that she craved more than anything, and had left her with plenty of scar tissue, there's no telling what her threshold is.

RELATED: Delayed, Not Denied—Nelly Korda Finally Gets Her Hollywood Ending

In a lot of ways, this feels like the year that will define her. Capturing the first two majors, with the Career Grand Slam and HOF on the line is a pretty impressive gauntlet to be facing, just ask Lydia Ko. While Korda was doing the unthinkable in 2024, so was Ko, who needed just one point to get her in, and it took nearly a year to get it done.

So as epic as seeing Nelly Korda do something so impressive, there's also an insane about of pressure that comes along with achievements of this magnitude.

A Hall of Fame induction would typically mark the closing chapter of a legendary career. For Nelly Korda, it could come while she's still squarely in her prime. Reaching the LPGA Hall of Fame this season would underscore just how extraordinary her rise has been—and suggest that some of the biggest accomplishments of her career may still be ahead of her.