Sarah Kellam is a Kentucky native and played collegiate golf at Northern Kentucky University. She currently serves as a Manager of Digital Content and prior to the LPGA, Sarah worked as a freelance content creator.
BRADENTON, Fla. — Nelly Korda is currently sitting in the top five on the leaderboard through three rounds at the 2025 Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands. After opening with a pair of 3-under 68s on Thursday and Friday at Bradenton Country Club, Korda caught fire on Moving Day, carding a 6-under 65 to move into a share a fifth at 12-under overall, six shots back of 54-hole leader Yealimi Noh.
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The Bradenton native started steady, picking up two birdies in her first four holes of the third round on the par-4 1st and par-4 4th holes. She then made three pars before rattling off five straight birdies on Nos. 8 through 12 to move to 13-under for the tournament, one of which was a chip-in birdie on the par-3 9th hole, a stretch that ties the second-longest birdie streak Korda has recorded since joining the Tour in 2017.
The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 stumbled a bit coming down the stretch, making a pair of back-to-back bogeys on holes 15 and 16 to slip back to 11-under overall. But Korda managed to get one of those strokes back on the par-4 18th hole, hitting her approach shot close and holing the short birdie putt to finish with a 65 and climb into a tie for fifth alongside Hannah Green with 18 holes to go in her hometown.
“It’s great. Having the crowd out here behind you makes it even better,” Korda said of day three at Bradenton Country Club. “Won’t complain. Wish I got two of those holes back. One really silly mistake three-putting, but that’s golf. It’s going to give you some. It’s going to take some. You just got to battle.”
While Rose Zhang is technically the defending champion at the Founders Cup this week, Korda is the last athlete to win at this venue, doing so last season after defeating Lydia Ko in a two-hole playoff to capture her ninth career victory at the 2024 LPGA Drive On Championship. That title kicked off Korda’s record-tying, five-start winning streak and was the first of seven wins that she claimed in 2024, one of which was her second career major victory that came at The Chevron Championship.
Before her win last year, Korda hadn’t played too much at this venue, only teeing it up at Bradenton Country Club for a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier here and there when she was younger. But it’s the architecture of this facility that really seems to suit Korda’s eye, and it doesn’t hurt that she has a lot of local knowledge about Bermudagrass, as she grew up not far from this week’s host course.
“It is a Donald Ross, and I play out of a golf club not too far from here called Sara Bay (Country Club), which is Donald Ross style as well. It’s similar,” Korda explained. “Growing up on this kind of old-school Florida grass helps because it is tough to kind of hit it off this.”
Korda will have a six-stroke gap to close in the final round if she wants to track down Noh and take home her 16th career LPGA Tour title in front of a supportive crowd of local fans, a win that would certainly mean a lot to the 26-year-old superstar. If she does pull off the improbable, it would be the Rolex Rankings No. 1’s sixth time coming from behind to win, with the last time she did so happening at the 2024 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican last November, Korda’s seventh 2024 victory.
But she isn’t thinking too much about all that with 18 holes to go at the Founders Cup. Instead, Korda is trying to glean all the positives she can from her Saturday 65 and then quickly turn the page to Sunday’s final round, one in which she will need to go low to have a chance at another Tour title.
“If I’ve made some mistakes, it’s been a loose shot here, loose putt here. It’s all sort of come together,” Korda shared when asked what was clicking for her this week. “Obviously, I would like to tighten up all the loose ends, but I’ll take it. I’m scoring, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you have on the range, doesn’t matter what you have on the practice facility. You have to go out there, and you have to go out and perform.
“I’m hoping that I can get on the run that I did last Sunday, but at the end of the day, I’m just going to take it a shot at a time and see where it takes me and try to dial in on those small targets.”
