Imago
Nelly Korda, LeBron James Credit: Imago
Imago
Nelly Korda, LeBron James Credit: Imago
She again came too close to the win, but it slipped right through her hands at the CME Group Tour Championship. 2025 officially remains a winless year for Nelly Korda, who had a wild ride the previous year, winning seven events to cement herself as the world No. 1. While that outcome is sure to bite the American in the coming days, Korda does have other reasons to gush about — a future golf round with LeBron James!
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Speaking at the post-match presser, where she registered a solo third with 20-under par, Korda shared the details of a potential match with LeBron. “Hopefully, fingers crossed. I mean, he is a very busy man, and we definitely do not live on the same coast of the U.S,” she said with a smile. “So if timing matches up, it would be great to play with him.”
“Fingers crossed,” indeed, Nelly. Keep your hopes high. And why won’t she, when the basketball legend himself has commented on one of her posts? Korda, being as amazing as she is, shot an eagle hole from the fairway sand bunker in the final round. As the American celebrated it with her team, the LPGA’s official account posted the video on its Instagram. The moment was amazing, which prompted LeBron to reply in all caps: “INCREDIBLE SHE IS!!! WOW 🙌🏾🙌🏾.”
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Really, LeBron James is turning into a Nelly Korda fan, and we are not complaining.
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Even a day before, after the third round of the LPGA Tour Championship, the basketball legend had reposted one of Korda’s highlight reels on his story. The day was hot, marking her career-best round, as she shot nine birdies with zero bogeys. Korda inevitably took notice.
“He loves golf, and I love that he loves golf. I love how golf and sports bring so many people together, so it’s fun to see. And hopefully one day we hit the links together,” she said in her post-round conference.
This is actually a string of back-and-forth between the legends of the two games. Even during The ANNIKA, LeBron had tweeted about the golfer’s putt on the 18th hole. It looks like for him, the year 2025 has been a season of discovering a deep love for the game. Why do we say that? Well, his actions hint towards this.
LeBron James has, in the past, shown his admiration for several golfers, like Tiger Woods. But this year, the basketballer has been “bitten by the golf bug.” It all started in July when he officially played publicly for the first time. For LeBron, it was a “mind f**k,” as he captioned on his Instagram. By August, he was fully immersed. From involving his son to congratulating Tommy Fleetwood on his first PGA Tour victory this year, LeBron officially dipped his toe as a golf nerd.
“I actually wanted to challenge my mind with something else, and I picked up golf a little bit,” he told Steve Nash on Mind the Game. “…It’s me versus each hole…I love the aspect of something that is so uncomfortable and so hard.”
So, it won’t be surprising if in the coming days, we do end up seeing a Nelly Korda vs James LeBron playoff round (A showdown with Kevin Hart is already scheduled, anyway). All they need to do is match their Eastern and Pacific times. And when that happens, the impact will be bigger than anyone can imagine.
Why a round with LeBron James could shift the future of women’s golf?
In recent times, the LPGA Tour has seen growth and admiration. Especially among people who are not traditionally golf fans. The prize pools have increased exponentially to $131 M (triple of what they offered four years ago). Brands like Rolex, Aon, and Epson keep pouring money, and PIF has now officially collaborated with the Tour.
Also, from 2026, every LPGA Tournament and each of its rounds will be broadcast live across major US Networks. Now this is something that was just reserved for the men’s majors. The shift is pretty obvious at this point. “It’s fun to see women’s golf have its moment as well,” says Korda.
So, if LeBron James ends up having a round with Nelly Korda, it is only going to rope in more viewers. As she mentions, other sports see it too. Like during Wimbledon, stars like David Beckham or Sachin Tendulkar attend the finals. Even Rory McIlroy flew in to watch a US Open round, right after his TOUR Championship elimination. As per Korda, the LPGA Tour, too, should ride on this bandwagon.
And, it has been doing that. Inviting Caitlin Clark for The ANNIKA’s pro-am was one such move. Giving Kai Trump a sponsor invite was another (although it did cause a lot of backlash). The end goal is to get more attention, and LeBron James can definitely help in that.
“For people to finally see not just myself but all the other amazing girls out here and finally get their time…and people to invest in us and our craft and really know that we are great, has been a lot of fun,” says Korda. “I hope to see it continue growing.”
Written by
Edited by
Deepali Verma