Q. Nelly Korda is with us now at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Nelly, what are your thoughts on your opening round today?
NELLY KORDA: It's hot. I'm still cooling down right now. Overall I mean, even par to start the major, I mean, it was windier in the than I thought it would be. So played a little tougher.
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with my first round in the conditions. It was pretty windy. It was hot. It definitely takes a toll on you, the Texas heat. So happy with my position.
I haven't even really looked at the leaderboard to be honest.
Q. How is your neck?
NELLY KORDA: It's better, yeah. Getting better every day, which is nice. Just because I injured it last year, whenever I do injure my neck it takes a little bit longer than normal. I kind of tweaked it before my round with Ariya in Vegas this year, during the night; I couldn't move then, so thankfully it wasn't as bad as that day.
Yeah, just takes me like a week to kind of recover when I tweak my neck now.
Q. Do you feel pain when you hit golf shots?
NELLY KORDA: In Vegas I did; right now I'm good. I'm taped up, yeah.
Q. When do you feel pain I guess right now?
NELLY KORDA: Just with rotation. And hard to sleep at night, too, just kind of get comfortable.
Q. Nelly, the saying is you can't win a major on the first day; you can lose a major on the first day.
NELLY KORDA: Yeah.
Q. Do you feel like you did a good job staying there and kind of within contact of the leaders with three more to go?
NELLY KORDA: Yeah, you can definitely lose a tournament; you can't win it on the first day. I felt solid. I was hitting it well off the tee into the greens, and just didn't really give myself too many great looks.
But I played pretty solid I think for the first day of a major. I mean, the pins were tough out there today.
Q. So look forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week, you know, your game continues to elevate?
NELLY KORDA: Yeah, hopefully trends in the right direction. Probably going to play a little firmer tomorrow. The golf course is just kind of played firmer and faster every single day. I know that they received a little bit of rain last week; not much this week.
So projecting it to bake out with the wind and sun.
Q. You guys had several long waits on the front nine. Along with it being hot, wondered if that tested your patience?
NELLY KORDA: I mean, kind of have to say like everyone in the group is kind of going through it. Just have to be ready when you hit. It was windy and the pins are tough, so you know that during majors the rounds are going be a lot slower.
Q. This a little bit of a bigger picture question. With the purse being what it is matching the high for a major, what do you feel like the tournament's role is in helping to grow the game of golf?
NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I've always said that whenever a company steps up and supports us and gives us a stage, I mean, there is so much gratitude that we have towards them. We can't thank KPMG and PGA of America enough for giving us this stage and continuously elevating women's golf.
Q. The third shot on the 9th hole, how important was it to stick that close given the duff chip at 7 and bogey at 8?
NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I didn't duff my chip, actually. Let's be clear. I just did not hit it where I wanted to.
Yeah, it's great to rebound with a birdie. Wasn't sure where to drop. The grass was like pavement. It was so firm. It's been walked on a lot.
Yeah, whenever you get to bounce back with a birdie and you get to kind of have in a sense a fresh start for the next nine holes, that's always good.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports