Jessica Korda set to defend Tournament of Champions title

The LPGA Tour was a lonely and insecure place for 17-year-old Jessica Korda.

The women’s game was global, yet not overly inclusive or collegial. The Tour was in transition with an uncertain future.

Fast forward to Korda’s defense of this week’s season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, where the 28-year-old will be among many recognizable stars on a tour where youth, kinship and stability now prevail.

“The Tour has just changed a lot over the years,” Korda told The Orlando Sentinel. “Hopefully that shows. The girls just have fun with it. The Tour’s in a really good place.

“We just have so many great storylines and so many great players.”

Many will be on hand Thursday through Sunday at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club.

Korda and her sister, world No. 1 Nelly Korda, will tee it up with fan favorite Michelle Wie West, who exercised her prolonged eligibility to get into the field. The Kordas are among 11 of the world’s top-25 players expected in an event featuring 28 tournament winners from 2020-21 competing over 72 holes in no-cut stroke play for a $1.5 million purse.

Retired Hall of Fame Annika Sorenstam, a Lake Nona member, is among the former athletes and celebrities expected. NFL legends Marcus Allen and Charles Woodson, Cy Young Award winners Roger Clemens and John Smoltz, the 2019 and 2020 winner, will compete for $500,000 using a modified Stableford format.

“It’s such a cool environment. It’s very relaxed,” Korda said. “It’s a great celebration of golf week, and it also brings different fans to the LPGA Tour ... because their favorite athlete is there.

“I love the event and obviously a huge goal is to be in the event every time they have it.”

During her second appearance in the Tournament of Champions last January, Korda drained a 25-foot birdie on the first playoff hole to defeat Danielle King at Orlando’s Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club. Korda’s third-round 11-under-par 60 helped her chase down Kang, who led after each of the first three rounds.

But in 2020, Korda struggled to find her rhythm playing in the distinctive format grouping LPGA pros with celebrities.

“Pro-ams are so different because you do it for the people you are playing with and less for yourself,” Korda said. “I was like, ‘It’s still a tournament and you just can’t have fun.’ The balance of it was a learning experience because you’re literally playing with athletes you see on TV.

“You want to pick their brains; you want to know more about them.”

Korda, the world’s 22nd-ranked player and a six-time LPGA winner, herself generates fascination and fanfare.

The 5-foot-11 Korda’s elegant and powerful swing is enviable, and her family tree is singular.

Korda is the oldest of three children of retired Czechoslovakian professional tennis players Petr Korda, the 1998 Australian Open winner, and Regina Rajchrtova. The sisters are two of the highest ranked American golfers in the world while their 21-year-old brother Sebastian ranks in the top 50.

“It’s always cool to see anyone living out their dreams,” Jessica Korda said. “But for us it’s even more special because it’s something that we’ve wanted since we were kids. You see how much work we put behind it. What people don’t see is the lows and all of us lifting each other up. Everyone just sees the tip of the iceberg of the success and the happiness.

“What is really cool is to see how it all comes together with the struggles and the type of effort and type of grind that goes into the success that everybody else sees.”

Korda has gladly paved the way while cheering on her 23-year-old sister’s success, including the Olympic gold medal and four victories in 2021.

“It’s been awesome what Nelly has been able to achieve,” Korda said. “You dream of that, right? Or maybe you don’t even dream of it because it’s so crazy.”

Korda’s experiences as a globe-trotting teen and 18-year-old winner — at the 2012 Australian Open — provided her younger sister a template for travel, time-management and triumph.

The Korda sisters, and Jessica’s 4-year-old goldendoodle Charlie, often are inseparable away from their Bradenton homes.

“Being able to travel the world with one of your best friends is always fun,” Korda said. “We don’t get to see as much, but just the ease of it is much nicer than being all alone.”

Korda’s solitary days early in her career followed some dark ones for the LPGA Tour.

Michael Whan replaced Carolyn Bivens as commissioner in October 2009, inheriting a tour with with 20% fewer events and a third less prize money than the previous season. The 2022 schedule features 34 events, up from 23 in 2010, and a record $90 million in purses.

Whan left last summer to become CEO of the USGA. Successor Mollie Marcoux Samaan steps in on the heels of seminal changes in the women’s game Korda personally experienced.

Korda now approaches her 12th season with perspective and plenty of optimism about her game and her sport.

“I was one of the youngest girls out there, trying to figure everything out and make friends and all this stuff in an environment I wasn’t used to. It’s a grind,” Korda recalled. “Now the Tour is so young, it’s so easy to make friends. We all have fun and we want to see girls succeed.

“You just kind of vibe off each other because at the end of the day you want to be entertaining; you want to inspire the next generation.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.