Ahead of return at The Annika, Nelly Korda dishes on Iron Neck training aid used by F1 drivers
Beth Ann Nichols
- Nelly Korda is returning to the Pelican Golf Club after a five-week preventative break.
- Korda has learned to listen to her body to avoid pushing through injuries, a lesson from a past blood clot.
- She has been using an Iron Neck training device to strengthen her neck muscles.
- Korda is seeking her fourth win at The Annika event, where she is a combined 53 under par over the last four editions.
BELLEAIR, Fla. – Nelly Korda returns to Pelican Golf Club once again after an extended break. Last year, Korda came into the Tampa Bay-area event off one of the worst injuries of her career and managed to win her seventh title of the season at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
This time around, however, the five-week break was more of a preventative measure. She skipped the LPGA's fall Asian swing, including representing the U.S. at the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, and didn't touch a club for the first three weeks.
"Before, I would probably push through the injury, and then I would be out longer than if I was just like, 'OK, just take some time off, rehab it, and come back,'" said Korda. "I've just pushed a little too hard and I'm out for months, right?
"I learned a lot about myself and injuries through my blood clot because I was feeling the symptoms for about three weeks before I actually went to see the doctor. I went to the ER. If I listened to my body right then and there, that would've been three weeks I saved some time."
In addition to two-a-days at the gym, Korda used the Iron Neck training device to strengthen her neck from different angles.
"You can hook it up to a door, but it pretty much hooks up to a band, and you're trying to hold the positions to strength train the muscles in your neck from all different angles," said Korda. "That's why it's kind of like round. It can be hooked up from the back, the sides, doesn't matter. ... I think F1 drivers use it a lot to strength train their neck."
Winless since this event last year, Korda is trying to win The Annika for a fourth time. Over the past four editions of this event, she's a combined 53 under par at Pelican Golf Club — 13 strokes better than her closest pursuer, Lexi Thompson.
"It's definitely been a weird year," said Korda, "but I can't compare this year to last year because every year — if you go back and not just talk about last year or talk about my years before that, like I've had years where I haven't won and I played great golf; then the next year I won a few.
"So it's just sports. It's golf. You can't expect to win. You can expect to put in 100 percent: 100 percent into your body, 100 percent in your routine, into your practice, have no distractions. That's what I can control and that is what I will control. But everything else is kind of out of my control."