Tee Sheet: Will the Year of Nelly Carry Over Into 2025?

Today marks the official start to the 75th season of the LPGA Tour, the longest standing women's sports organization. The diamond anniversary of the Tour is starting off strong, with some of the Tour's biggest stars teeing it up in Orlando for the Tournament of Champions (TOC), alongside a mixed celebrity field.

It's a culmination of great golf, with 32 recent LPGA Tour winners, celebs, and incredible vibes—what could be better?

As a preview to this week's tournament, I touch on a few storylines to focus on this week—let's break them down.

Will Ko and Korda have an encore?

It's been talked about on numerous occasions (as it should), but 2024 was the Year of Nelly. When you go on such a historic run like she did, playing as well as she did, it's bound to be discussed over and over. Korda displayed dominance over the women's game in way that felt like Annika in her prime or vintage Nancy Lopez.

As one of the more prominent figures in women's golf, the game is better when she's playing. She's becoming, if not already, a household name—folks tune in when her name is on the leaderboard and we're all completely mesmerized by her swing.

But how will she back up such an incredible season? Micky Wright, one of the greatest female golfers of all time, set the record for 13 wins in a single season in 1963. She backed that up with 11 titles the following year.

Of course, times have changed. The women's game is the most competitive its ever been in my opinion, especially given how global it is now—but all eyes are on Korda to back up a great season with an even better one.

There's a level of anticipation and expectation for her to contend every single week she's playing—but for her she's taking it day by day. "I mean, last year is last year," said Korda in her presser on Tuesday.

"I try not to take that approach of I'm defending and just take the approach of this is a new week, new opportunity, and I'm prepared. I'm going to prepare my hardest and go into the week with a positive attitude."

On the other hand, they are players like Lydia Ko, who lurked in the shadows after the first two events of the season last year. She won TOC in 2024, meaning she's defending this week. The following week she went head-to-head in a playoff with Korda, which started that insane win streak; but after losing, Ko fell quiet. Not off, just quiet.

She had 18 made cuts in 20 starts, three wins—including a major at St. Andrews AND an Olympic gold medal btw— rounded out by eight top-10 finishes to secure her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame, making her the youngest female golfer to ever qualify.

It's been quite some time since we've seen Ko string together back-to-back seasons of high performance. She had an incredible 2022 season, which was statistically better than 2024 (no gold medal though), but failed to back it up in 2023.

"It would be a lie to say I didn't get worried or think about potentially 2022 being the end of my heights," Ko said recently to Sports Illustrated.

Ko's career has been turbulent at best. There are extreme highs, like becoming the youngest LPGA winner in history as a 15-year-old amateur and rising to No. 1 in the world less than two years of being pro. And there are major lows, like her 1,084-day winless drought between 2018-2021.

She knows it, how rocky her play can be. But it truly feels like this year, she can play stronger, more consistent golf, "After the year that I had last year and coming off from one of my worst years [in '23], I think I have the belief that even if I don't play well for a span of a few weeks, I don't need to get do down on myself because I know what direction I'm going and I have full confidence in my team.

I just believe that I can overcome my lulls, so I feel like I'm a much stronger player in that sense, and hopefully I do get off to a good start."

These two golfers, both under 30 have already re-shaped the history of women's golf and what it means to be competitive in the modern era. So even if (and it's a HUGE if), they've hit the pinnacle of their careers, we're all witnesses to their greatness. But I get the feeling, that they are literally just getting started, there's still a whole lot left on the table for the tour's biggest stars.

Golf X Culture on Display

Speaking of big stars—you might as well roll out the red carpet with all this star power hitting Lake Nona Golf and Country Club this weekend. From NFL and NBA all-stars to our favorite TV and movie characters, the celebrity field at TOC is pretty damn cool.

Once upon a time, events like this were made up of retired athletes who picked up the game after their careers, but now the field has a mixed bag of talent and it feels more youthful and energized. From former Bachelor contestants to popular golf media personalities, these types of events are catering to broader fandoms and pulling in attention from different entertainment buckets.

Women's golf is the perfect platform for more cultural moments like this to happen. It's like when celebs are seated court-side. You get style stories and fashion moments, and the organic reactions of talented people in awe of other talented people.

Don't be too cool for school, join the party and enjoy the fun.

75 Years

Fun fact! The LPGA Tour actually pre-dates the PGA TOUR. Sure, men's golf has had an institution in place since 1916, but you're thinking of the PGA of America. But in the late 1960s, a group of players actually formed a rebellion led by Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Sam Snead (ever heard of them?), and created what is now the PGA Tour.

But back to the LPGA. Over the decades, we've seen the foundation that was created in 1950 continue to build and globalize. Growing from just 14 tournaments and $50,000 in its first few years to competing in 32 official events in 12 different countries and 14 different states in the U.S. for $130 million—the LPGA, despite its hurdles has come a long way.

It'll be interesting to see exactly how the Tour will commemorate the 75 years. But as a starting point, they launched a new initiative LPGA75 that will chronicle the history of the organization and its biggest milestones.

I hope we get to see some deep-cut, archival stuff that gets refreshed and repurposed. The tour should give golf fans the ability to interact with the rich history and formulate new connections with the legends of the past. We often see men's golf embrace tradition and take trips down memory lane—conjuring up feelings of nostalgia to juxtapose with how much the game has evolved—ladies, its your turn!

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