Nelly Korda went to Greece after the Solheim Cup to unwind with her fiancé. Asked what she liked best, she said the food and the cats.
"Almost took a few back home with me," she said of the felines. "They were everywhere and super cute."
Korda's decision to take two months off from competition is a curious one, especially given that had she simply played a bit more golf, she'd be a lock for the LPGA Hall of Fame without winning another tournament.
Korda owns the lowest scoring average of the season but won't win the Vare Trophy, and the Hall of Fame point that comes along with it, because her 17 official events this season will leave her five rounds shy of the 70 needed to qualify.
A win this week at the Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, her
16th start of the season, would make it all a moot point, however, giving her the 27 points required to get into the Hall. A three-time winner already at Pelican Golf Club, Korda opened with a smooth, bogey-free 63 on Thursday to put herself in position. Hye-Jin Choi, still looking for her first win, and Minami Katsu co-lead after they shot 61 on a day of low scores in conditions so soft it required preferred lies.
Did Korda consider adding events to the schedule to wrap up the Vare?
"No, that's not me. That's not the way I think," she said, adding, "I don't know if I explain it really well, but I'm such a present, goal-oriented person of, like, I want to compete well in this tournament ... playing with Hye-Jin, that fuels me, that motivates me, right?"
And as fueled as she gets working on her craft, Korda is adamant about taking a break when needed. While she didn't have an injury this season, the 28-year-old felt like if she had pushed to play more, something bad might have happened.
"There are girls that play 30 events because it's their rookie year," she said. "My body just can't do that."
It's worth noting that world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler hasn't competed on the PGA Tour since the Tour Championship in late August. The LPGA schedule stretches from January to Thanksgiving, and with Korda playing in December's Grant Thornton and PNC Championship, her schedule practically goes all the way to Christmas.
Korda called winning the LPGA Player of the Year award for a second time "a massive honor," but it's not what motivates her. Same goes for the Hall of Fame.
"I mean, it would be absolutely amazing to be in it," Korda said of the shrine, "but I would say, I just take it tournament by tournament, and if I get there, then I get there, but if I don't get in the Hall of Fame, will I say that my career was bad? No chance, no. So, it's a very, like, slippery slope."
Korda gets her batteries recharged simply by being at home and in a routine. She likes to cook, sleep in her own bed, enjoy her gym routine. She only took about four days off during those eight weeks before getting back into it, but there was no guilt associated with a day off because there was no tournament around the corner.
After Solheim, she skipped a couple of domestic events and the entire fall Asian swing.
"After like Week 3, I was already ready to get back out here," she said.
It's easy to get burnt out on the LPGA during the summer with so many majors crammed together and, in the case of a Solheim year, two trips overseas. Even if the major championship schedule was less crammed, however, it might not mean she'd tee it up anymore.
"It's so much more than just on-course stuff," she said. "I have stuff that I'm doing for my sponsors, too. There's just a lot more behind the scenes that people don't see, right? It accumulates, and I would say, as an introverted person, like, the days, everything that I have to do, it just drains my batteries a little bit.
"And what fuels it is competing, practicing, honestly. That's what I love to do. And I never want to get lost in anything else."
Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek covering the LPGA and all things women's golf. Follow her on X/Twitter (@GolfweekNichols).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Why doesn't Nelly Korda play in more tournaments? The world No. 1 explains
