Bradenton Golfer Nelly Korda Brings Home Olympic Gold

TOKYO, JAPAN — Bradenton golfer Nelly Korda took home the gold medal for Team USA in the women’s golf competition at the Tokyo Summer Olympics Saturday.

She finished the final round 17-under-par, overcoming an early double bogey to win the gold.

“Olympian and a gold medalist,” she posted on Instagram. "Wow, what an honor to wear red, white and blue on the podium.”

Korda, 23, dominated the second round of the competition and held a solid lead through the third round, NBC Sports reported.

Though she struggled a bit at the start of the fourth and final round Saturday, she ultimately came out ahead of silver medalist Mone Inami of Japan and bronze medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand by one shot.

"It feels amazing," Korda told ESPN. "Lydia was playing really well, so was Mone. They both played super well, so we were all bunched up there. It was very stressful, but I kept it together, I fought pretty hard.”

Korda entered the Olympics ranked No. 1 in the world — a ranking she earned less than two months before the start of the Olympics, reports said. She’s a six-time winner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour, winning her first major at the Women’s PGA Championship in June.

"I've had a pretty good stretch of events, but it doesn't mean necessarily that you're going to play well, so you kind of try to put the expectations to the side and just go out and have a nice fresh week, enjoy the Olympic experience because it's such a unique and fun experience now doing it for the first time,” she told ESPN. “And as Lydia said, you play for more than just yourself, you also play for your country. So safe to say I really enjoyed my first Olympic experience."

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Her older sister, Jessica Korda, 28, is also a professional golfer who represented Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. Jessica ended the competition in 15th place and ranked No. 14 in the world going into the Olympics, according to the LPGA rankings.

The sisters have a strong bond, supporting each other through all competitions, including the Olympics, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s honestly surreal,” Nelly said earlier in the Olympics. “It’s so much fun. I don’t know what I would do without Jess. We had a conversation a couple days ago. I was like: ‘So you’re going to be playing until the end of my career, too, right? You’re going to be out here as long as me. You’re not going to leave me, right?’ I’m just super grateful to have her, honestly, every step of the way.”

The Korda sisters come from an athletic family. Their parents Petr Korda and Regina Kordova were professional tennis players, according to Nelly’s Olympics profile.

Their father, Petr, won the Australian Open singles title in 1998. Their mother, Kordova, represented Czechoslovakia at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Their younger brother, Sebastian Korda, is also a professional tennis player. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this year.