HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 29, 2026

Nelly Korda

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Dwight Freeney, thank you for joining us today.

NELLY KORDA: Thank you for having me.

Q. Great playing out there. You're tied for third. Mardy Fish and Aaron Hicks are ahead of you. Only two players ahead of you in the field. Talk about your day, please.

NELLY KORDA: Well, I had fun today. Usually in my first round it's usually just a disaster. Usually just like oh, my goodness. I got nerves, I'm doing this, doing that.

But today was a better day because I was finding ways to get up and down. That's a good feeling to have. When you can get up and down, you're hitting the ball terribly, but you find ways to get up and down you have a place to go, now I know, okay, let me see if I can get on the green in regulation tomorrow.

So the putter was working. I had fun.

Q. Yeah, that's great. If you could just talk about this tournament in general and how it's unique playing with the LPGA players and what's special about that.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, it's an awesome tournament. To be honest, you sit there and you watch you ladies hit the ball and you're like, how is that even possible? Look how far it's going; it's so smooth; I'll never be able to swing like that; may be in my next life.

Those are the thoughts that come when you're out there watching these girls play. But it's also great from a competitive perspective. You know, retired athlete, you have a chance to kind of trigger those emotions and those feelings of getting after it a little bit.

So when you're going out there and playing, playing against people that you played against maybe in the field in football for me, but also get a chance to see other players from different sports and entertainment, which is also great.

Q. That's great. Talk about the game of golf a little bit and what you like about golf.

NELLY KORDA: You know what? The thing I would say is this: It's nobody else's fault but your own. That's the part that I love. You don't need anybody else to go out there. You can go out there, drop a ball, and just work on it all day if you want. You can kind of figure it out.

No other sport's like that. Football obviously you need to have 11 guys out there with you. Basketball you can shoot free throws and jumpers, but it's not the same.

I think this is one of the only type of sports you can go out there and just spend five hours just working on chipping and putting and just kind of do the whole grinding thing and you can go out there and do it by yourself.

Q. When did you get bit by the golf bug?

NELLY KORDA: It happened probably earlier in my football career. I would say early 2000s. You know, Indianapolis, I love Indianapolis, but ain't much to do Indianapolis, so I had to pick something up. It was one of those things, like I said, it was just go out there, I didn't need anybody else, grab some clubs, just hack away, kill some grass.

Eventually kind of figured certain things out, and then you have people teach you along the way. That's how my journey started, but it's just the competitive part about it, that it's nobody else's fault but your own why this ball doesn't go where you want it to go is what hooked me.

Q. Where did you play in Indianapolis and where do you play now?

NELLY KORDA: Favorite course in Indianapolis, I shed tears because they shut it down, was Wolf Run. Wolf Run was a jewel, a gem. There was no course like that, so when that shutdown, you know, I kind of -- now I just stop in at -- Crooked Stick is there. I love that course. Some other great courses. Meridian Hills. But Wolf Run was my heart. Right now I'm a member of Ballensisles in Palm Beach Gardens, and a member at The Grove in Hobe Sound.

Nelly.

Q. Very please to be joined by Nelly Korda after her first round at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Very solid start for you today. Just take us through the round.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, started off birdie, birdie. Overall it was solid. The greens are slick. I made a couple mistakes coming in, one three-putt and missed the green on 17.

Overall happy with my round. Just Thursday, so hopefully I can continue building momentum going into the next three days.

But, yeah, can't complain.

Q. How does the game feel getting a full round under your belt?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, feels good. I've been working on a couple things, especially with my posture, the fundamentals of golf. You're kind of constantly no matter what level you're at feel like it's super important to always work on those.

It was nice to kind of see those things in action today.

Q. And then you've had a lot of good success at this tournament; runner-up finish last year. What brings out the strengths in your game.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, honestly it reminds me a little bit of Concession, my home courses. I'm just comfortable. I have my family in the crowd. Some friends out here, too. Overall I think it's also just a comfort thing.

I grew up on bermuda, so, you know, I love playing out here.

Q. I know people may have forgot you won the 2021 Gainbridge out here. Do you think back to that win and it kind of gives you a boost? And I think you've had five Top 5s in this tournament.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, of course. I mean, it's a good confidence boost knowing that I've played well on this golf course. You know, you really have to be dialed in off the tee, but the greens are really tricky out here.

You have to really dial into the spots you want to hit it on. I think that's what makes it so tough, but also so fun for me, because you really have to be precise to be on the right parts of the green.

So overall, yeah, the confidence helps, but you also have to execute the shots, and that's what I really like about Lake Nona.

Q. The wind off this water is obviously super cold; also makes golf shots a little bit challenging to hit.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah.

Q. How do you adjust playing with that, especially when it's cold out?

NELLY KORDA: Well, today it was only cold for probably the first couple holes. I was expecting the wind to be a little bit higher than it was. It was actually pretty calm and really nice out, so you were able to be a little bit more aggressive.

I know that the wind is projected to kind of increase every single day as the tournament goes on, so you're really going to have to dial in and be confident in your start lines. It's not just that it affects your tee shots and shots into the greens, it really affects your putts as well.

So just making sure that in the back of your head you're reiterating that it's windy and it's going to affect your shots is really important.

Q. I know the Korda sisters are close with Austin Ernst.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah.

Q. How cool is it to see her back out here?

NELLY KORDA: It was great. I went to dinner with her on Monday. It's so funny, because she hasn't been on Tour in almost three years. She's like, I'm back and I'm back at the Tournament of Champions.

So it was -- it's really nice just to kind of see the old faces that the people that you used to hang out with, to catch up on life. She is in a different part of her life with a baby, Charlie, but it's so exciting to hear the milestones for her. And, yeah, it's been fun to hang out with her this week again.

Hopefully more times this year. You never know.

Q. The putter was hot early in the round. Compare the greens here in terms of speed and difficulty to what you typically see week to week on the LPGA?

NELLY KORDA: Yes, definitely I would say speed-wise they remind me a lot of Pelican. So Pelican gets to kind of almost 13 to 14. I would say it's pretty -- very close to that here.

So it's more about the lag putts because there is so much undulation. It looks like it's uphill and then all of a sudden kind of like the ball picks up a lot of speed and it kind of goes back downhill. Those are like the Lake Nona putts where they're like up and down.

So those are the ones that are really difficult to get the speed of greens, but I would say this tournament and Pelican, they're very similar speed-wise. Definitely faster than our average probably on Tour. Just depends on like where we are.

When we are up north in the summer those greens are pure as well. I would say everything depends on the weather that they have had in the winter to get ready for our event, but these greens are definitely very slick.

Q. Given your success at both venues, I'm going guess you enjoy this, the challenge?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, it's very challenging. It's always about like placement. Obviously you have to be -- I think you have to just dial in a little bit more to make sure like, okay, I don't want a downhill left-to-righter. Okay, I'm going to aim maybe to the right of this pin. Or making sure that I'm actually in the right quadrants of the green for that hole location.

Q. Swanky new locker room this year.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah.

Q. What's it like on the inside?

NELLY KORDA: It's great. Very, very pretty. Also the gym upstairs a great. It's definitely been a good new addition to just Lake Nona I would say.

Q. You mentioned that it's different with your driver when you get in competition. You have a journal. Did you notice any differences compared to the range?

NELLY KORDA: I really liked it. Obviously a lot of good feedback from today. I saw that my stats said like that I had low amount of fairways hit, but there were like an inch or two, sometimes in the first cut.

So I don't really go off my stats. The way that it felt was really nice.