ORLANDO — Jordan Spieth has a swing thought this weekend for his dad: Swing like Nelly.
“It’s like playing with Adam Scott,” gushed Spieth. “She swings it so sweet. It will be nice to watch that tempo, and hopefully dad will watch that tempo and take that tempo.”
Saturday at the PNC Championship offers Korda her first chance to watch Spieth in person. Korda, currently No. 2 in the world, said her big takeaway last week at the QBE Shootout was the friendly vibes on the men’s tour.
Nelly Korda’s reaction to meeting Tiger at the 2021 @PNCchampionship says it all.
@NellyKorda x @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/BJ8jE1soDi
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) December 14, 2022
She’s looking forward to more of that this week as she plays alongside her father, Petr, for a second year in a row. Last year, Nelly met Tiger Woods, her childhood idol at the PNC and called it a dream.
“Every year I get a nice, sweet treat from this event,” she said.
Adding to that sweetness will be the fact that her entire family (mom, dad and Nelly, Jessica and Sebastian) will be together on Sunday for the first time in a long time. They spent 40 hours together watching Sebastian compete in the U.S. Open. Prior to that, they were all together for Jessica’s wedding last December.
“Out of that 40 hours, I probably saw him for like two or three,” said Nelly. “So he’ll come Sunday, and then we’ll all get to spend time together next week before he leaves to Australia.”
We are taking notes
#SwingGoals @NellyKorda #PNCchampionship #CelebrateFamily pic.twitter.com/Dli0D8IFhb
— PNC Championship (@PNCchampionship) December 15, 2022
Petr and Nelly had only played together three holes coming into this week. Petr spends a lot of time outside the ropes watching Nelly and on the courts working with Sebastian.
Dad notes that neither Jessica nor Nelly give him shots when they play, and that something is always on the line.
“He’s good,” said Nelly. “He shoots around even par. He is still like – he almost beat me a year ago, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ ”
Petr said he has played less than six or seven times this year. Even so, Nelly said he takes every opportunity to get in their heads.
“I can a little bit compete with them on the golf course,” he said, “but when we get on the tennis court, I feel good.”
After a trying year in which Nelly had surgery for a blood clot and missed several months of competition, she’s going into the new year feeling good after a victory at the penultimate LPGA event and couple of feel-good events.
“It was so special to be here last year,” said Nelly. “Made some really great memories. When we got invited this year, we were over the moon we could come back and play this event and make some more memories together.”