The world No. 1 stays out of season one
Twenty-five players will fill the WTGL’s five teams when the league opens in November. Nelly Korda will not be one of them.
The women’s counterpart to TGL, the indoor league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, held its media day on Monday. Rufus Hack, president of golf at TMRW Sports, confirmed that talks with Korda’s camp had taken place and had not produced a signature for the opening campaign. He described the door as “certainly not closed” for season two and beyond, and said the conversations are continuing.
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A format Korda wanted built differently
Her hesitation is not new. Speaking to Golfweek in January, Korda argued that the sport had passed up something rare by not putting LPGA players alongside the men in the same arena, competing for the same money. She called it a major missed opportunity while still welcoming the fact that a women’s league was being built at all. Mixed feelings, in her own framing.
WTGL launches instead as a standalone product. The season runs from Nov. 8 to Dec. 23, slotting in before TGL’s third season begins in early 2027. The purse has not been disclosed.
Five teams of five players make up the field. Lexi Thompson and Michelle Wie West, both retired from full-time competition, carry the largest public profiles among the confirmed names. Hack pointed to the 25 signed players and their personalities rather than to the one who said no.
Why the absence registers
Korda is 28 and having the kind of year that makes an absence conspicuous. Four LPGA titles in 2026, two of them majors, at the Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open. Those were the third and fourth majors of her career. She also leads the Race to the CME Globe.
A start-up league selling itself on star power arrives without the player sitting top of the world ranking and top of the season-long standings. Hack’s wording suggests TMRW treats that as a season-one problem rather than a permanent one.
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