Nelly Korda's road to the LPGA Hall of Fame could stretch a little longer due to a qualifying glitch.
While Korda currently leads the Vare Trophy race for low scoring at 69.38, she will be ineligible for the award.
Simply put: She's not playing enough golf.
This week's Lotte Championship in Hawaii marks the last LPGA event on U.S. soil until mid-November. Korda isn't in the field on Oahu, and an LPGA official confirmed she has not entered any of the four events on the fall Asia swing, and those fields have closed. Her last event was the Solheim Cup, and she's in the midst of a two-month break from competition.
The next time fans will be able to watch the world No. 1 in action will be at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, where she's a three-time
winner. If she makes the cut there and competes in all four rounds of the CME Group Tour Championship, she will have 61 total rounds in individual events this season. That satisfies the first requirement for the Vare Trophy of a minimum of 60 total or 60 percent of official tournament rounds with an individual score, whichever is less, during the season.
It's the second requirement, however, where she falls shorts. Players must also compete in a minimum of 70 total or 70 percent of total official tournament rounds, whichever is less. That brings the Dow into the picture, which Korda did compete in over the summer, bringing her to a potential of 65 total rounds, five rounds short. She's even further below the 70 percent threshold.
Currently two points shy of the 27 points needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, the Vare Trophy is worth one point. The LPGA Player of the Year Award is also worth one point. Korda leads that one, too, over Haeran Ryu by 75 points.
Of course, a victory at either of her last two tournaments starts would be worth one point as well.
This isn't the first time Korda has missed out on a Hall of Fame point. In 2021, she led the tour in scoring but did not compete in enough rounds to win the award.
Several of the biggest names to play the game have done the same.
In fact, since 1992, the tour's leading scorer hasn't won the Vare Trophy seven times: Nancy Lopez, 1993; Laura Davies, 1996; Annika Sorenstam 2003, 2004; Sei Young Kim, 2020; Korda, 2021; Jeeno Thitikul, 2024.
In 2021, Lydia Ko recommitted to the Pelican event after realizing that missing it would make her one round short of being eligible to win the Vare. She put her name back in the field and ultimately won the prize and the Hall of Fame point. That year, three players ahead of her on the scoring list were ineligible: Korda (69.074), Jin Young Ko (69.186) and Inbee Park (69.534).
Ko secured her 27th Hall of Fame point when she won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A two-time major winner this season, Korda has played a total of 15 LPGA events in 2026, skipping both the spring and fall Asia swings. She typically plays in the unofficial Grant Thornton Invitational and PNC Championship in December, taking her playing schedule all the way up to Christmas. She will not take part in the new WTGL.
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: Here's why Nelly Korda can't win the LPGA award for low scoring
