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FORT MYERS, Fla. — Nelly Korda doesn’t feel like she’s had an offseason. So she’s taking a break after Saturday’s final round of the LPGA Drive On Championship.
The World No. 2 struggled and almost missed Friday’s cut before birdieing her final three holes to tie for 45th.
Korda played 17 LPGA events, including the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, in mid-November. She followed that up by playing with her former tennis star dad Petr in the PNC Championship in December in Orlando, and fan-girling Tiger Woods for a photo.
Korda, 23, played three straight weeks to open the 2022 LPGA season. But she won’t be going to the tour’s events in Singapore and Thailand early next month.
“Personally I’m definitely looking forward to my six-week break,” Korda said Friday. “I definitely need it. I think I am just a little mentally kind of fatigued but everyone’s going to through that.
“You’re constantly trying to get better and push your limits and challenge yourself. I think I’ve done a pretty good job doing that but sometimes you need step back and relax and take a break from everything, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
Lexi Thompson also will not be playing. She also had a long stretch. In addition to playing in the CME Group Tour Championship, she played with Bubba Watson in the QBE Shootout at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples in mid-December, and then played in two of the three Florida swing events to start 2022 including in Fort Myers.
But many players are not taking a break, and see the opportunity to go to the two events — the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and the Honda LPGA Thailand — that have 63-player and 58-player fields and no cut, so prize money is guaranteed. The purses are $1.7 and $1.6 million, respectively.
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While No. 1 Jin Young Ko, who skipped the first three events this year, and Lydia Ko, who didn’t play in Fort Myers, are in the two fields, so are Americans such as Stacy Lewis, who hasn’t been over to Asia in a few years.
Before her post-round interview Friday, Lewis was trying to make sure all of the various information tied into COVID-19 protocols was ready.
“It’s been a mess,” she said. “It’s just what one country requires our country doesn’t necessarily have. It’s just amazing how different countries work with health care.
“I thought Singapore maybe thought it was going to be easier to get these things, QR codes and forms and all of this stuff. It’s a bit of a hassle but working our way through it.”
Brooke Henderson, a top-10 player from Canada, is playing in both.
“I haven’t been in a couple years, so I’m definitely looking forward to going over there,” she said. “Two of my favorite events and I’ve definitely missed them, so excited to go over there and have no cuts and just try to be aggressive.”
Sophia Popov, the 2020 Women’s British Open champion, is not going. After getting full status in 2021 and wearing out toward the end of it, Popov is trying to navigate playing as much as she can but balancing getting enough rest.
“I didn’t take the necessary breaks I needed last year, and especially coming back from Asian events last year I was pretty tired and drained,” she said. “As much as I love those events and I love the golf courses, playing last year, I think that for me just from a mental and physical standpoint, I think it’s the way to go just to be fresh for the majors.”
Austin Ernst and Ally Ewing, who both got married in the past couple of years, are both not going, partly due to the virus.
“Just with all the testing and kind of how COVID is right now, kind of wanted to not travel,” said Ernst, who won the Drive On event last year. “It gave me a nice break to have.
“This is my 10th year on tour so I like being at home a little bit more than I used to, so that was definitely part of it.”
Ewing has an added reason for not going. She is a Type-1 diabetic, so she has a greater chance to have a more serious case of COVID-19 if she contracts it.
“The way I’ve played the last couple years has given me some stability in how I approach my schedule,” she said. “For me, it’s viewing travel in a different way than when I was a rookie out here. The strenuous travel for me gets mentally and physically taxing. I will have to say it’s maybe a part of it. I’m a Type I diabetic so when I travel things get difficult. Diet gets difficult, protocols.
“I’m not sure what our bubble situation is going to look like, but it kind of just ties you down to what you can do. So for me, I thought for looking beyond the rest of the year, it was going to be better for me long-term to stay and not play those events.”
For Swede Madelene Sagstrom, she sees going to the two events as likely less restrictive than last year when the pandemic was more at its height.
“That was literally kind of being locked in the hotel room and getting food at the door,” she said. “I feel like we’re hopefully in the end of things. it’s been easing up a lot for us in the last few months for traveling.
“It’s been tough, but it’s part of the job. You’ve just got to deal with it and move on. Everybody’s facing challenges and for us travel is one, but it comes with the job.”
Henderson feels a little more at ease going over this year after not doing so in 2021.
“I feel like (the restrictions were) necessary last year with the way things were, but it’s nice that it feels like it’s trending in the right direction and they don’t have to be quite as strict over there,” she said. “We made the choice not to go last year because we were uncomfortable, my sister (who is her caddie) and I, but this year I feel like the world is hopefully in a better place and our comfort level has definitely improved a little bit.”
Korda isn’t against going to Asia due to the pandemic. It’s more to do with the West Coast portion of the schedule starting a week after the event in Thailand.
“I love going over to Asia,” she said. “Typically I actually do well over there. Just looking at my schedule it just didn’t make sense (to go). It made sense to take those six weeks off. I’m trying to get ready for the summer. That’s what we’re going to do.
“It would’ve been three weeks off, two weeks over in Asia, and then one week off and then a pretty intense West Coast swing. I’m going to try as hard as I can to just take some time off.”
Lewis, 36, has been through these overseas travels since her rookie year, so a lot of what it entails isn’t new. But then there is what’s tied into the protocols.
“We’ve always gone kind of through the tournament to book your flight and done that, which is always a hassle in itself,” she said. “It’s just adding the medical stuff on top of it this year.
“I’m not stressed about it because I’ve been through this process. Sometimes you don’t get your flight until the last minute, and it’s OK. But the younger girls are probably a little bit more stressed than I would. It’s just part of the deal and you learn to work it out.”
Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/