NAPLES, Fla. — There’s just something about Tiburón Golf Club for Nelly Korda.

The American superstar is making her ninth start in the CME Group Tour Championship this week, having qualified for every edition of the season finale since joining the LPGA Tour back in 2017. The 15-time LPGA Tour winner has never finished worse than T19 in Naples, Fla., carding seven top 10s at Tiburón, four of which are actually top-five results.

And now, through 36 holes in the 2025 edition of the long-standing event, which was first added to the LPGA Tour calendar in 2014, Korda has once again put herself in position to capture her 16th career win, carding her new tournament-best round of 8-under 64 on Friday to vault into contention at the CME Group Tour Championship.

The current Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 2 opened with a “frustrating” 1-under 71 on Thursday, a round that saw her make two bogeys and three birdies on the par-5 1st, par-4 11th and par-5 14th holes to sit in a four-way tie for 40th through 18 holes.

Korda successfully channeled her aggravation into her round-two performance, quickly moving to 3-under for the tournament after throwing a one-two punch of birdies at the first and second holes at Tiburón Golf Club on Friday morning. Korda broke even on the sixth and seventh holes with a birdie on the former and a bogey on the latter, and she then climbed to 6-under total when she made three consecutive birdies on the par-3 8th, par-4 9th and par-4 10th holes.

The two-time major champion picked up her seventh birdie of the round on 15, polishing off her second-round 64 with a pair of birdies on 17 and 18, a score that has propelled Korda into a tie for fifth with 36 holes remaining in the Sunshine State.

“It's definitely great, especially after yesterday, being a little frustrated,” Korda said. “Coming back out here this morning, the conditions were great. The wind wasn't really that strong. Was able to be really aggressive after a lot of these pins and rolled some putts in. It's always nice to bounce back after a little bit of a frustrating round where you think you played better than you scored. It's nice to score well the next day.”

In her 32 previous rounds at this property, which doesn’t include the first two days of the 2025 CME Group Tour Championship, Korda has a scoring average of 68.72 strokes per round and has carded 22 sub-70 scores, seven of which were 66s.

The 71 and 64 she has recorded across the first two days of this year’s season finale have dropped that average to 68.65, an impressive but not entirely unsurprising statistic for the Bradenton, Fla. native. Her local knowledge has served Korda well over the years when it comes to Florida golf courses, evidenced by the fact that Korda has won four of her 15 career titles in her home state.

And now, Korda is well-positioned to add another tally to her win column at Tiburón Golf Club, a victory that she’s sure to want as badly as any, considering her successful – but up to this point winless – history at this facility.

A triumph at the season finale would be a fitting end to what’s been a solid year for the 27-year-old, particularly as many have questioned Korda about when she would earn her 16th Tour title after she carded seven wins in 2024. However, the veteran has remained incredibly patient throughout her pursuit of what has proven to be an elusive next title, a composure she just might be rewarded for that over the weekend in Naples, Fla – that is if Korda can keep the pedal down at a venue at which she has clearly figured out how to score.

“Just do my routine every single day. Just try to keep it simple,” said Korda when asked about what mentality she’ll take into the weekend at the CME Group Tour Championship. “That's kind of the key always to my game. When I start to complicate it, then my mind just starts to go, and that's like the worst thing to do as a golfer, or I think as an athlete, is have too much information in your head.

“Going to simplify it and do my routine and stick to that and see how it goes.”

Nelly Korda Cards Career-Best Score at CME Group Tour Championship in Second Round

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