Korda sisters follow in father’s footsteps on sports path

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Illinois: Jessica and Nelly Korda are friends as well as competitors on the LPGA Tour, where the sisters are showing similar proficiency with a golf club as their father Petr demonstrated wielding a tennis racket.

With Wimbledon in full swing, former world number two Petr is at the All England Club to support his son Sebastian in the Wimbledon boys’ competition, while the Korda sisters keep each other company and keep up the family passion for sports on the golf circuit.

Jessica, a four-times LPGA winner, is long established, while this is the rookie season for Nelly, who at 18 is nearly six years younger than Jessica.They are a close-knit family, as was evident after the first round at the Women’s PGA Championship last Thursday, where Nelly stopped on the way from the 18th green to the scoring area to call out to Jessica, who was extracting her clubs from her car on arriving for a later tee time.

“She’s my best friend and having her out here means a lot,” Nelly told Reuters.“She just guides me and having her out here makes me feel really comfortable so it definitely helps.”Asked for an example of how Jessica helps, Nelly said: “Little things here and there that are really tiny.”

Jessica, speaking to Reuters the next day, was more specific: “She’s always forgetting things,” Jessica said, a rueful smile on her face.“Where do you want me to start? Phone. She’s always forgetting her phone.”

Nelly and Jessica both played tennis among many sports when they were children, but their father’s post-career passion for golf rubbed off.“We love sports, very sport-oriented. (We) figure skated, gymnastics, occasionally tennis, skied. We did all sorts of things,” said Nelly.

“When my dad retired he started golfing and my sister started and I just followed in their footsteps. Dad’s really good.“He shoots around even-par. He was a scratch (golfer). He still beat me two or three years ago.”