GAINESVILLE, Va. — She won all eight of the par 5s on Friday, victories that included a pair of eye-popping eagles on the 12th and 14th holes in the afternoon four-ball session to win her match against Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall 6 and 4.

Nelly Korda has played with five different partners in her four Solheim Cup appearances. She has never played two sessions on the same day with the same partner, not even her sister. And her overall record before this week was 7-4-1.

On Friday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Korda became the first American to win two consecutive Solheim Cup matches by more than three holes. That started with the first foursomes match of the day at 7:07 a.m. when Korda teamed up with Allisen Corpuz to beat Charley Hull and Esther Henseleit 3 and 2.

Then, playing with one of her best friends, Megan Khang, in the afternoon four-ball, Korda made four birdies and two eagles in 14 holes. Khang cut Korda with a birdie on the par-4 7th hole for what turned out to be only the 10th 6-up win in Solheim Cup history in foursomes and four-ball play.

It was Nelly’s second time winning 6 up. She also did it in Scotland in 2019 with her sister Jessica. Only two other players have two 6-up wins – Rosie Jones and Dame Laura Davies.

So, how good was Nelly on Friday? She and her partners birdied 16 of their 30 holes played. And while her ball striking garnered oohs and ahhs from the partisan crowd, Korda hit almost every putt the perfect speed, giving herself even more birdie chances than the ones she made.

That has been the biggest difference between the Korda of today and the one who hit a lull after her five consecutive victories from January through April. Even though her tempo and path look a lot better than they did two months ago, a lot of her current putting prowess could be attributed to the new putter she put in play prior to the AIG Women’s Open, one with a different head shape but the same weight as the one she used at the beginning of the year.

Of course, there were some shots for the ages, especially down the stretch. She drove the 10th green in four-ball, which was playing 277 yards. Her ball rolled 20 feet past the flagstick, and that eagle putt stopped two inches past the hole.

On the par-5 12th hole in the afternoon, she missed the fairway right and had an uphill lie in the rough. The approach was almost completely blind as a ridge bisects the fairway. Korda ripped a 6-iron. The ball hit the front of the green and rolled up to 18 inches for a conceded eagle three.

Two holes later, Korda hit a 4-hybrid from the fairway to seven feet. She then rolled in her second eagle of the back nine to end the match and enter the history books.

“I had such an amazing partner in Allisen (Corpuz) this morning and such an amazing partner in Megan (Khang) this afternoon,” said Korda. “To get the crowd going in the afternoon was so, so fun and something that I'll remember for the rest of my life. It puts like a little bit of an exclamation point getting to do it with Megan too in the afternoon.”

Nelly won’t speak of herself as a leader. She always defers to more ebullient veterans, players like Khang and Lexi Thompson.

But performance provides its own inspiration.

And in the middle of her fourth Solheim Cup, one thing is obvious: Nelly can play with anyone, which is a gift. Some No.1 players – Tiger Woods might come to mind – don’t often fit well in a team format. Try though they might, captains struggle to find the right personality to pair with their superstars.

Other times, matchups fall into place. When Lexi Thompson burst onto the scene, it took a couple of pairings and losses – including with her current captain and assistant captain, Stacy Lewis and Paula Creamer – before the perfect personality for Lexi emerged in Cristie Kerr.

Nelly is the opposite of that. She can play with her fiery sister and with the serene Ally Ewing. She can play with Allisen Corpuz, arguably one of the humblest major champions in the women’s game, and with Megan Khang who dances to the first tee, fist pumps the entire round and talks more than Lee Trevino on his fourth cup of coffee.

In short, Nelly is an American Swiss Army Knife, the perfect utility tool for all occasions. And while Captain Lewis pours over stats while painstakingly making her pairings, it looks like you could pull names out of a hat, pair them with Nelly Korda and have a good shot at earning points.

Nelly might not call that leadership. But plenty of people in the game would certainly beg to differ.

Nelly Korda is U.S. Solheim Cup Team's Utility Player

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