Welcome to Nelly Korda’s home. It’s called Pelican Golf Club, but the trophy stays with her. The world No. 1, in her first LPGA tour in two months after suffering a neck injury, entered the back nine with another six a stroke behind Charley Hull and rattled off five consecutive birdies as part of a charge for a three-under 67. to finish at 14 under, winning her third career LPGA Annika event title in just four appearances.

The title is Korda’s seventh LPGA win of the season, adding more ink to one of the most successful LPGA years in over a decade. It is the first time since Yani Tseng in 2011 that anyone has won seven times in one year, and Korda is the first American to accomplish the feat since the Hall of Famer did it in 1990. Beth Daniel.

Reaching this historic mark only happened because of the ferocity with which Korda attacked rehabilitating his neck woundworking with her physio trainer Kim Baughman three times a day to strengthen her neck.

“It’s so nice to play in front of friends and family so close to home,” Korda said. “I think that’s what makes me feel so comfortable here. I didn’t start the day the way I wanted, but that’s not how you start, it’s how you end. To have the run that I had on those five holes, yeah, I just kept at it all day.”

Korda, 26, has struggled with migraines since September during the Solheim Cup, where only a dark room would have delayed the pain. She suffered a neck injury during her training that led to the Asian swing, a consequence of trying to manage her migraine pain. Korda pulled out of a pair of tours in South Korea and Malaysia, focusing primarily on rehab for the past two months.

To straighten Korda, Baughman would drive 40 minutes to Korda’s house three times a day to work on strengthening his neck for up to 45 minutes. They hit the rehab center, unsure if Korda’s body, which has dealt with injuries that have sidelined her for four of the past five seasons, will let her recover in time to compete. She only got healthy enough to pick up a club two weeks ago.

“I think he needs a vacation which I’ll gladly pay for,” Korda joked.

Korda’s team developed a mini-camp to prepare her for the week, with swing coach Jamie Mulligan flying across the country last weekend to work with Korda. Her first coach, David Whelan, and caddy, Jason McDede, also helped her in her training.

Korda’s return accompanied one of the best-attended pro-am days in tournament history as she partnered with WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark Wednesday in Belleair, Fla. Korda showed no signs of injury with her 66-66 start — she is averaging 66.5 in 15 competitive rounds on the course — and fought back from trailing Hull by four through the first seven holes on Saturday, playing the final 11. holes in five under to be down one to the Englishwoman going into Sunday.

Korda was not penalized after playing the front nine in two over par, two behind when he stepped to the 11th tee. She made six straight one-putts on some of the fastest greens the tour plays as part of a nervous flurry of birdies and saved a 10-footer for par on 16 to stay two ahead .

“You should have felt the nerves I felt on the back nine,” Korda said. “And then, just after taking time off with an injury, it feels great to be back here. Nothing like being on the hunt, the adrenaline rush from the new back and being in the competition. I love it so much.”

The 15-time winner played 9-of-8 under at the weekend. Her brother, professional tennis player Sebastian Korda, surprised her by noting how the siblings haven’t seen each other since Nelly saw him compete at the US Open in early September, bringing his sister to tears when she saw him for the first time given and realized. it was the first time he had seen her win in person.

“It’s absolutely ferocious,” Sebastian said. “She’s clutch. There’s nobody I think works harder than her.”

Her second win in her home state brings another high to a tumultuous 2024 campaign. She began a five-game winning streak in January at her hometown Bradenton Country Club in the Drive On Championship. She took the first swing in Southeast Asia before sweeping the West Coast LPGA swing, winning the Seri Pak Championship, the Ford Championship and the T-Mobile LPGA Match Play before capping off her third five-match winning streak in LPGA history at the Chevron Championship in April. The two-time major champion won her sixth tournament two events later at the Mizuho Americas Open in May.

She then shockingly posted rounds in the 80s at both the US Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, missing three consecutive cuts for the first time in her career. The McDede group, who she has been with for eight seasons, Baughman and Mulligan have all been with her as they reassembled her game.

She steadied her results with a T-2 at the AIG Women’s Open, a 3-1-0 performance at the Solheim Cup and a T-5 at the Kroger Queen City Championship before suffering a neck injury. Even without breaking even, Korda secured her first LPGA Player of the Year award earlier this month.

History awaits Korda as he heads into the CME Group Tour Championship. With the $487,500 winner’s check bringing her season total to $4,164,430, she can nearly double her season earnings with $4 million awarded to the winner and break Lorena Ochoa’s single-season cash record of $4,364,994 in 2007 , in which he won 25 options in events.

Annika Sorenstam, the host of the tournament, sincerely hoped that Korda, on an upward legendary trajectory, could appreciate what he had achieved.

“I just hope you enjoy it,” Sorenstam said. “It’s so easy to move on that you really forget all the hard work you put in to get there. You set the bar so high that you almost expect it every week. There’s a fine line where you push yourself and still be able to enjoy the moment and appreciate what you’ve done.”