HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

February 1, 2025

Nelly Korda

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Nelly Korda after her third round at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Pretty stellar round today, especially ending. Take us through the ending there, three birdies.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, it was nice. Struggled a little bit with my putter inside ten feet, so it was nice to see three go in at the end of the round to hopefully boost me into the next 18 holes.

Was a little frustrating through kind of the middle of the round where I was hitting it really solid; just kind of wasn't converting too many putts.

Q. How are you kind of jugging the mindset of being in contention and wanting to capture another win versus first tournament of the year making sure you're on your Ps and Qs?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I think when you're competing it's just one objective and that's to win. That's the one thing that you're concentrating on. Doesn't matter how you're swinging, how you're putting. At the end of the day the main goal is to put the ball in the hole. You know, you can be spraying it all over, but people can contend doing that. At the end of the day that's what golf is about.

So, yeah, you are rusty and not -- maybe you may not have your A-game and all the trust in your game if you've been working on some stuff before, but I think when the gun goes off on that first hole, you're just competing and wanting to get the ball in the hole.

Q. Second straight day where you kind of got off to a sluggish start and still shot 64. What's going through your mind to help turn that around on the back to back days?

NELLY KORDA: I mean, I started on the back nine yesterday and front nine today. I just knew there were holes that were gettable that even if I started a little bit slower than I wanted to I could turn it easily around.

Q. How are you feeling three days into the season so far?

NELLY KORDA: Good. Yeah, happy. Enjoying myself. Doing what I love. I mean, seeing all the kids come out today was really nice, too, so that's always kind of a boost and a positivity.

Q. Talk us through the drive on 14, club selection; what was going on there? You almost knocked it in.

NELLY KORDA: 14 I was in between two clubs. It was a little downwind, but at that point in the day it got chillier, and I know in Florida when the temperature drops the ball significantly kind of goes a little shorter.

So I just kind of teed up the ball a little higher and swung a little bit easier at it. It landed perfectly; came up really soft on the green, too.

Q. I don't know what the angle is, but did you get a chance to see how close your ball wound up on 14?

NELLY KORDA: No, just saw the ending.

Q. Also, golf is golf, but how tough is it going to be to catch A Lim tomorrow?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day you just got to focus on yourself and kind of go through your process and give yourself as many chances as possible. It's golf. It's never guaranteed. If you're positive and give yourself chances anything is possible.

Q. When you finish a round like that on a good note, certainly probably makes dinner taste better. Are you the type where you don't want to rely on that, the momentum going into the next day? Do you wipe the slate clean? Are you able to turn that around and start fresh the next day.

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I mean, when you end poorly maybe there is a little bit more fire in you that you want to play well the next day, and then when you end the day well there is maybe a little bit more relief.

Next day is a new day, a clean slate, different wind, different pin locations, so it's just all about creating opportunities and you do that just with a clean slate.