Nelly Korda knows she’ll have to take artistic approach navigating around Dundonald Links at this week’s ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open — a creative challenge she’s looking forward to following a solo fifth place last year.
Does that explain why the world No. 1 decided now would be the right time for her first attempt at driving in Scotland?
“Parking, not very good — but everything else is great,” Korda joked with reporters on Wednesday about her first time driving “on the only side of the road.”
She copped to being a little bit more cautious than she would be back home but enjoying the experience nonetheless.
“Parking lots are giving me a little bit of trouble but I’ll figure it out,” she added. “A lot of roundabouts here. Roundabout here, roundabout, roundabout, roundabout.”
Once she’s able to get through the roundabouts and park, this is a links course Korda favors.
“You definitely have to hit more of like the imagination button,” she said, emphasizing the need to keep her shots low. “I wouldn’t say this is a really, like, old school links golf where some of the greens are a little bit elevated. So it is tougher to run it up as it is maybe like it would be next week.”
Korda started the year with consecutive major victories only to see Haeran Ryu match that with wins at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Amundi Evian Championship.
She’s naturally looking ahead to the last major of 2026, the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes next week.
“The ground is really firm,” she said of this week’s venue. “So it takes a little bit of a toll on your body with the vibrations and the firmness, but also a great prep week for what you think is going to be a firm and fast golf course.”
Despite trapezing through Europe like a tourist on holiday — beginning with Korda’s week off at her family home in Prague and concluding with her thoughts on the 20th Solheim Cup in September in the Netherlands — the interview was primarily dominated by golf.
Even when she was in “recharge batteries” mode last week, Korda was playing — tinkering on how to get better.
“Relive so many [childhood] memories, growing up and got to play golf there, too, which is always very scenic and different,” she told the media of Prague. “Just a very wholesome week. Lots of calories and food but a lot of walking, too, so it kind of balanced out.”
It’s not surprising a reset was needed considering Korda’s banner year — including winning at Riviera and seeing herself become a real-life Times Square billboard, along with that chance for a third major title looming on the horizon.
With less than 50 days until the start of this year’s Solheim Cup, the AIG is hardly the only significant event on Korda’s busy calendar.
“There’s no atmosphere like the Solheim Cup, and also getting to represent my country, it’s so much bigger than just being on team,” she said. “You get to represent your country. You get to represent your teammates, your captains, and then the atmosphere is just unbelievable. Nothing that you can describe walking on to that first tee and being in Europe on away soil, and also being on home soil ... there’s just no better feeling.”
She said her 2019 Solheim Cup memories at Gleneagles with her sister are something “we’ll get to look back on forever.”
She made her professional European debut at that tournament, and with Jessica made history by becoming the first sisters to play as partners in the competition. The Korda sisters ultimately went unbeaten with a 3-0-1 overall record for the week.
“Obviously you’re nervous, but it’s more of like butterflies in your stomach where you’re like, wow, this is the most unbelievable, like, energy I’ve ever seen from a crowd, and once you get a little bit of a taste of it, you’re like, I can’t wait to be back,” Nelly said.
“It’s not like an every-week kind of thing. It’s every two years, and you’re always like really excited to be on the team.”
