Team Nelly: An inside look at the people who help make Korda the world’s best

By the time Nelly Korda wrapped up her media obligations and finished signing autographs for the young fans who stuck around to meet the newest winner of the Chevron Championship, darkness had already descended on The Woodlands, Texas.

Korda had just capped a historic run of golf in which she won five consecutive events, matching Hall of Famers Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only women to accomplish that feat. In celebration of capturing the first major of the season, as is tradition, Korda leaped into the water beside the 18th green at the Club at Carlton Woods alongside her devoted inner circle – swing coach Jamie Mulligan, caddie Jason McDede, agent Chris Mullhaupt and athletic trainer Kim Baughman (as pictured above, in order, at the 2024 Rolex Awards).

“By having a great team around me full of positivity and working hard, hard work will always get you somewhere,” Korda told the media that Sunday.

Korda and her team were riding high on adrenaline, perhaps the only chemical strong enough to keep them on their feet. It was 8:30 p.m., but the team had been up since 4 a.m. in preparation for a marathon day in which Korda had to complete the weather-delayed third round, leading to 24 holes Sunday.

And they were hungry.

Inside the dining area of the ladies locker room, the champion ate with the four members of her team, in addition to her parents, Petr and Regina; her brother, Sebastian; and McDede’s wife, professional golfer Caroline Masson, and their son, Benton. Korda immediately withdrew from the next event on the LPGA schedule and the group started rebooking their flights.

As the dinner unfolded over the next two hours, the energy that had propelled the group through an epic stretch slowly dissipated as the team was able to relax for the first time in months. They captured the moment by taking a group photo in which they all held up five fingers in celebration of Korda’s record-tying run.

That’s the only win Korda has ever taken the time to celebrate.

****

It’s been 12 months since Korda and her crew enjoyed that celebratory dinner in Texas and although it’s a new year and a new season, the team remains unchanged.

Korda has granted me access to those she has deemed the forward-facing members of her team. There are others who make up Korda’s camp, like her parents, as well as additional coaches and trainers, but they provide support behind the scenes, and that’s where Korda prefers they stay.

But that’s Korda. Private. Shy. And a self-described homebody. Those aren’t the words often used for an athlete at the top of their sport, but the success she’s cultivated in recent years, particularly in 2024, has thrust Korda out of her comfort zone and into an uncomfortable spotlight from which she has largely shied away. The “bubble,” as Korda often refers to her tight, inner circle of supporters, has been cloaked in mystery as she doesn’t share many details, if any, about the individuals that have contributed to her success.

So, why is she letting me in?

“I’ve always been a very private person, in every aspect of my life. That’s just kind of the way I grew up,” Korda tells me. “But, it’s nice to show people your appreciation.”

Korda grew up in a household rarely seen in sports. Her father, Petr, won the 1998 Australian Open, a tennis Grand Slam event, and her mother, Regina, represented what was then Czechoslovakia, in tennis at the 1988 Olympic Games. In their sport, it’s commonplace for athletes to have a dozen or more members in their entourage, which includes anyone from coaches to trainers to agents. Serena Williams once had 40 people with her at the U.S. Open and Andy Murray had more than a dozen individuals in tow just before his retirement. Petr was no different, and Nelly marvels to this day that her father continues to go to dinner and spend an entire day socializing with his personal team, 25 years removed from retirement. That was the model that Nelly grew up observing and later emulated when it came time to formulate her own support staff.

“It’s very tight, close, compared to maybe some other teams that I see in the golf world, but in tennis you have a little bit of a bigger team and everyone’s very tightknit,” Korda says. “And that’s what I love, because this life is really hard, and it gets really lonely, and I know that I have my best friends, too.”

Korda’s support system has evolved into her social circle, too. In 2023, when her sister, Jessica, stepped away from competing on the LPGA Tour (injury and maternity leave), it left a void for Nelly, who had relied on her sister as her go-to dinner companion on the road. That’s when Nelly says she began to rely more heavily on her team as a social outlet and started inviting them to more dinners and offering up extra bedrooms in her rental houses to her caddie’s growing family, to have some companionship.

“I always had [Jessica] as my safe space and then she left and I was like, well, what do I do now?” Korda says, which led her to foster greater friendships with her team. “That’s when we all grew very close.”

****

A silver, metal fence separates the manicured grounds, imported trees, and exotic wildlife of Shadow Creek Golf Course from the outer world, where rows of gray, windowless warehouses border the neighboring street. A 6-foot-high berm topped with lush green trees and dense bushes creates a veil of privacy that makes it impossible to see what lies beyond. Just a media credential and a brief shuttle ride separate me from discovering what lies within the inner sanctum of Shadow Creek and where I’m scheduled to meet Korda’s inner circle.

It’s a bright, sunny morning in North Las Vegas and unseasonably cold when Korda’s team reunites for her 7:30 a.m. pro-am. It’s the first time the group has been together, in person, since Korda began her season in earnest after taking a prolonged break following the first two events of the year in early February.

Korda’s blonde hair is knotted in her signature scrunchie, she’s bundled up in a long-sleeve white shirt and is wearing black pants. The world’s top-ranked player is flanked on the tee box by McDede, arguably the closest member of her team, who has been her caddie since 2018 and by her side for each of her 15 LPGA Tour victories. McDede has been known to drop whatever he’s doing at home to drive over and visit Korda if she’s struggling during an off week.

“Jay is definitely one of my best friends,” Korda says about her caddie. “We just clicked immediately. He’s so outgoing, he brings me out of my shell a little.”

Mulligan, Korda’s swing coach since 2021, is on the back of the tee box. The duo had a brief split because of scheduling constraints, but Mulligan has made himself more available in recent years to work with Korda on-site during tournament weeks, and the pair has since remained together. Mulligan stands directly behind Korda as she tees off on the first hole, crushing a driver down the fairway.

“Having Jamie at events has been really, really nice because yeah, he’s a golf coach, but he also brings me so much from the mental side as well,” Korda says about Mulligan, who joined the team along with his colleague and instructor, Brett Lederer. “I just clicked with them immediately and I think when I trust someone, I trust them fully and I really give them a chance.”

Overwhelmed by a beanie atop her small frame, Baughman, Korda’s athletic trainer, stands 50 yards behind Mulligan. It’s a distance Baughman seems comfortable keeping throughout the round as she trails the group for nine holes. Baughman is the newest member of the band, joining in an official capacity in 2022, but she first met Korda a decade ago during their shared time at the IMG Academy. Before the pro-am round began, Baughman got Korda physically prepared for the day, and once Korda is done with her practice, the pair will spend another hour together working on her recovery.

“Kim’s the one that keeps my body in line,” Korda says about her trainer. “She’s just so calm and happy all the time. She just puts me in a really good mood.”

Mullhaupt is Korda’s agent and has represented her since she turned professional in 2016. This morning, he stands on the rope line until it’s time for his client to tee off. With one white earbud snuggly in place and his hand clutching his iPhone, he gives off all the signals that he’s on a call. Mindful of his ability to distract, he takes off on foot down the cart path, where he darts in and out of the trees during the nine-hole pro-am at Shadow Creek.

“Chris, gosh, I’ve known him since I was like 5,” says Korda, who met Mullhaupt when he began representing her sister. “These are people that I’ve just always been really comfortable with.”

****

Professional golfers have long had their own teams, but the recent popularity of such increased with Jordan Spieth in 2015. That year, Spieth won five times including two major championships, and when asked about his successes would use the word “we” to describe his achievements. Spieth considered the value of his caddie, Michael Greller, along with his coach, Cameron McCormick, and the other members of his support staff critical to his ability to thrive on the course, as they also took on responsibilities that freed him up to better do his job.

“I’m the one hitting the shots and hitting the putts and getting the credit, but at the same time I believe that this is a – we’re a brand. We’re a company,” Spieth said about his team. “We’re competing together all for the same goal.”

That’s a common refrain among Korda’s camp, too.

While Korda tends to her putting, I join Mulligan, Mullhaupt, McDede and Baughman on a covered porch on the back of the clubhouse at Shadow Creek.

“The common goal is, we just want to make Nelly perform the best,” Mullhaupt says about how the group works together. “We all trust each other and I think we do a good job of staying in our own lanes as well.”

That’s not to say they don’t venture into each other’s areas of expertise as they seek advice and input for Korda’s greater good. All egos have been checked, which allows for a free flow of information between the team members as they work to achieve their objective of doing the best they can for the woman they affectionately refer to as “boss.”

“We all trust what each other are doing,” McDede says about his teammates. “If Jamie has a suggestion about a golf course for me, it’s not that I take it offensively, like I’m not doing my job. It’s just that Jamie’s been to these places a million times. Why would I not trust his information?”

Mulligan, often a source of information for the team as not only the veteran in years but also in experience, has emerged as the de facto leader of Team Nelly.

“I’m the CEO of a country club, so I think I act like CEO in this situation as well,” Mulligan says. “If it’s golf related and someone has a question, they’ll ask me the question about the golf, and then if I don’t have the answer, I’ll go find it for them.”

Mulligan, 64, is the CEO of Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, California, and, over the course of four decades, has taught more than two dozen players including Patrick Cantlay, who is currently Mulligan’s only other student besides Korda. As Mulligan shares details of his experience and discusses his time coaching Hall of Famer Amy Alcott, McDede jumps at the opportunity to rib the coach about his age which draws a laugh from everyone at the table. Mulligan responds in turn by teasing Mullhaupt about his love of cashmere sweaters.

“That really drives Jamie crazy, if I put it around my shoulders. I do it just to bother him,” Mullhaupt says with a laugh.

“We all know our little idiosyncrasies of what bothers each other,” McDede admits with a smile.

And that’s the vibe among Korda’s team members, who layer sarcasm onto their everyday dealings so heavily that sometimes they have to check with one another to make sure it’s all in jest. The jokes, however, are all part of the effort to keep the mood light, not just among themselves, but also for Korda.

“[I’m] just trying to keep her laughing on the golf course. Obviously, she’s focusing on her golf, but in the little off moments you have in a day, trying to keep it light as possible,” McDede says about his interactions with Korda inside the ropes. “For my job, the more serious it gets, the more unserious I have to get because I have to kind of balance her out, out there.”

McDede describes the team as good about switching the humor on and off and getting down to business when they need to. He adds that his schedule with Korda hasn’t changed since he began looping for her seven years ago. Maintaining that schedule means meeting at the same time, eating at the same time, while also hitting, chipping and putting for the same intervals every day. McDede says it keeps Korda from feeling too rushed or from having too much excess time, either.

“Everything is very detailed,” McDede says about his job with Korda. “So, there’s no up-and-down range of emotions. And I think that’s a big key, to just trying to keep your emotions in check.”

Baughman maintains a regimented schedule with Korda as well, working on not just her physical routine but also her mental agility, too. When Korda is home, she’ll work with Baughman six days a week. Last summer, Korda added to her team another trainer in Jason Riley, whom Baughman will observe during his sessions with Korda and continue those same training blocks when they’re on the road. Baughman says every training day with Korda is three to four hours.

“We keep focus on staying present,” a soft-spoken Baughman says about the mindset she discusses with Korda. “Each week is a new tournament and staying in the moment, focusing on what you have in front of you.”

****

That ability to focus was tested early and often when Korda got off to an epic start to the LPGA Tour season in 2024. And as she racked up win after win, the pressure to keep that streak alive grew – along with the mounting expectation from the LPGA, her fellow professionals, and the media that Korda would take up the tour’s mantle and field any and every request to help spur the growth and popularity of the women’s game.

“I think Nelly does have a responsibility, and she probably doesn’t always want it, just knowing her,’” said former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis at last year’s Chevron Championship. “Continuing to play great golf though is No. 1. That’s what helps our tour the most, is her playing great golf. I would tell her to remember that.”

There was a desire for Korda to be the outgoing face of the tour, the one who would shepherd the women’s game into the mainstream and catapult the sport to a greater level of awareness. As an introvert, that’s not Korda’s natural demeanor, but she made an effort to take on more than with which she was comfortable.

“Nelly fully understands and feels strongly about the game and wanting to be an ambassador for the sport and wanting to do her part,” Mullhaupt says about her media contributions. “She does a lot behind the scenes that isn’t public that people aren’t aware of, that we don’t share publicly because Nelly doesn’t want that to be known what she’s doing.”

Despite Korda’s rise in popularity, Mullhaupt says they haven’t changed how they’ve gone about filtering requests, and he maintains that this focus has always centered on doing what’s essential for Korda to perform her best. In doing so, Mullhaupt says he tries to take as much off Korda’s plate as he can, and while there are certain initiatives that Korda is passionate about making time for, it often means saying ‘no’ to other outside requests.

Korda says the pressure to not just perform but to also meet the growing number of outside demands on her time reached a tipping point at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

With six wins already on the season, Korda came into the year’s second major feeling completely disconnected from her game and describes how her mind and body were no longer working in unison. Korda says the 10 that she carded at the par-3 12^th during the opening round at Lancaster Country Club wasn’t what led to the disconnect. Rather, she was already mentally exhausted by her start to the season and the subsequent challenges it provided.

“I was just fried,” Korda says about how she felt while competing at the U.S. Women’s Open. “I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and I just couldn’t execute it. I was just telling my team, ‘I can’t connect with the club.’”

It was a moment that tested the team, especially McDede, who was by Korda’s side as he watched her major hopes implode with three balls in the water on her third hole of the championship. McDede says it was at that moment that he made the decision to shift from his role as caddie and jokester to big brother and friend.

“There wasn’t much to say about the golf. It happened. It snowballed. It was obviously very heartbreaking to be right there and watch,” McDede says about what unfolded at the par 3. “I turned into Jay the friend and just helped her through the rest of the round because the world is watching.”

It’s all part of the delicate balance that not just McDede, but the rest of Korda’s team, tries to maintain in their day-to-day management of the world No. 1, which ranges from juggling practice time with media opportunities to regulating emotions on the golf course. The team tells me that their biggest challenge is knowing what to say and when. And like in the situation that unfolded at Lancaster, McDede knew it was senseless to say anything at all.

“We do a really good job of not saying anything, unless it needs to be said,” Mulligan provides, to which Mullhaupt responds, “Almost the trick is, what do you not say?”

Following the septuple bogey at the 12th hole, Korda posted five bogeys and three birdies over her remaining holes for an opening 80. She headed to the driving range afterwards looking to reconnect with her game, with Mulligan by her side.

“I was almost more impressed with her that week than any week,” Mulligan says about Korda’s no-quit attitude as she recovered with a 70 in Round 2, missing the cut by two strokes.

“I just didn’t really understand, but I think it was like so many high-pressure moments and I don’t think I was getting enough rest,” Korda says about the rough stretch she experienced mid-season. “I was just constantly going, and I think that took a toll on me mentally.”

“I kept using the word ‘fresh,’ like let’s be fresh,” Mulligan says about the advice he gave Korda during that time.

“It’s just a bit of a balancing act that we all manage,” Mullhaupt adds. “I think we did the best that we can.”

Korda missed the cut in her next two starts as well, including the KPMG Women’s PGA. Adding insult to injury (or vice versa), she was bit in the leg by a dog while in a Seattle coffee shop following the KPMG. The chance encounter forced Korda to withdraw from her next event on the Ladies European Tour, but it also gave her a chance to reset mentally and physically.

“They told me I need to take a step back,” Korda says about her team’s intervention. “They’re always in full support of me being fresh, like fresh Nelly is the best Nelly, mentally and physically. They’re like, we can’t deal with you. Just go home.”

The forced hiatus also gave Korda time to reflect on what had changed since she began experiencing that feeling of disconnect. She realized she had gotten away from what worked best – just being herself. And who Nelly is, is not necessarily who everyone wants her to be.

“I was like, screw it,” Korda says about trying to please everyone. “People wanted me to be someone I’m not. They wanted me to be this outgoing person, and they wanted me to do more media. I appreciate the media, but at the end of the day, I am where I am because of the media, but I can’t lose sight of who I am.”

Korda and her camp thrive in a highly structured routine. The group characterizes themselves as detailed and process-driven, and they describe Korda in the same vein – highly focused, driven and regimented. But sticking diligently to a structure when it’s having unintended effects can be detrimental, as the team discovered last summer. Korda says it took her months to recover from the exhaustion she experienced and acknowledged making some uncharacteristic mistakes at the Olympic Games in Paris in August. She says she didn’t feel like herself again until the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews later that month.

“Sometimes you can keep doing your process, you just don’t need to do as much of it,” Mulligan says about what the team learned. “And rest is a big portion of that.”

“My main priority is always going to be myself and my game,” Korda explains about her focus moving forward. “If I get fried, my love for the game or the kind of [golf I] play lessens. I never want to get to that. For me, protecting myself is very, very important from getting to that.”

Korda’s schedule doesn’t allow much time for celebrating, but her victory at the Chevron Championship, her first major title in three years, was something that she and her team wanted to savor. Continuing the championship’s tradition of leaping into the water off the 18^th green wasn’t something Korda wanted to do alone – she wanted to share that with the people who made it possible.

“[Nelly’s] like, ‘Of course we’re going in the water,’” Mulligan remembers Korda saying to him after her victory. And, of course, Mulligan took the lead. Having made the leap into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills Country Club alongside the originator of the jump, Alcott, Mulligan orchestrated how the team would take this plunge.

“Jamie was definitely the captain of the jumping situation and was advising and telling all of us what we needed to do,” Mullhaupt says with a laugh. “It was really cold and not as deep as you think.”

“It was a little refreshing, but it was pretty murky at the bottom,” McDede recalls, having walked 24 holes that day with Korda. “I looked up and Nelly was already out of the water.”

“I was just glad we didn’t find any turtles or alligators,” says Baughman, which drew a collective laugh from the team.

For Korda, there are times where deviating from routine proves special, especially when such moments are in celebration of what all that focus and dedication has wrought. But it’s not just a jump or a dinner or an opportunity to reflect on individual achievement. It’s a chance to share, appreciate and express gratitude.

That’s the reason the ever-private Korda gave me access to her bubble, to the tight, inner circle within which she finds safety and comfort, so that a shy superstar could shine the spotlight on the group that has contributed so much to her success, and in doing so, say the words that don’t always come easily – thank you.

“We’re all pieces of a puzzle, and I can’t be me without them,” Korda says. “I would love to finish off my career with this team. I don’t want them to go anywhere.”