Do we like them?

Do we like Nelly Korda?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and a good stance on women in sport, held back from higher because the public record on her wider views is thin.

Korda is a Florida-raised golfer who became one of the faces of the women's game. In 2021 she won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, the first American woman to win Olympic golf gold since 1900, and the first golfer to take a major and Olympic gold in the same year. After the win she said “I've always been a fighter; I never back down.”

Her 2026 season has been a big one. She ended a winless run at the season-opening Tournament of Champions in February, and by June she had won the U.S. Women's Open at Riviera for another major. She is now chasing the LPGA Hall of Fame, a few points short after that first win.

The nearest thing to a stoush came with that first win. The event was cut to 54 holes in freezing, windy Orlando and the final round was cancelled, so she won without hitting a shot on Sunday. Annika Sorenstam questioned why the pros didn't play, but Korda said she was ready to go until she saw the cancellation email, and the call was the tour's. That's a rules row about the LPGA, not about her character.

On the harm check, nothing nasty came up, and I found nothing from her on LGBTQ+ people, migrants or the climate either way. The closest thing to a public stance is on women in sport: in January she told Golfweek it was “a huge and unbelievable miss” that women aren't playing alongside men in TGL. She also said she was still weighing the time commitment of the women's league.

Her Solheim Cup in September was a low-key story. The US captain said Korda was never slated for all five matches, and Korda's own reaction to a tough morning was a plain “By showing up and winning some holes.” No controversy there, just a team sport doing its thing.

I found no lawsuits, no court cases and no credible allegations against her, and the searches turned up a rapper with a similar name rather than any trouble for the golfer. The record is thin on the personal side, and that's honestly the whole list. A sportsperson who says what she thinks about equal opportunity and otherwise gets on with the job is an easy one to cheer for.