LPGA Tour sensation and two-time major winner Nelly Korda revealed her engagement Friday, drawing a warm message from WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark.
Korda shared multiple professional photographs on Instagram announcing her engagement to Casey Gunderson, with the caption: “In this life… and the next.”
The golfer previously teamed up with Clark at the 2025 LPGA Annika pro-am following their initial meeting last year, while Clark was also recently connected to Steph Curry’s departure from Under Armour after a 13-year partnership ended.
The athletes have developed a strong friendship, with Clark commenting on Korda’s engagement announcement. Clark posted “congrats! ! !” accompanied by a love heart emoji, and Korda’s news generated significant engagement, accumulating 91,000 likes within six hours, following her gracious reaction to concluding a winless LPGA Tour campaign.
Clark is an avid golfer and has grown close to the World No. 2. Following Clark’s second appearance at the 2025 LPGA Annika pro-am, Korda acknowledged that Clark appeared significantly more at ease this time around.
The WNBA standout impressed among the amateur participants, joined by her Indiana Fever colleagues Lexie Hull and Sophie Cunningham for the competition. “I think she was maybe a little bit more comfortable,” Korda observed, contrasting Clark’s showing with her previous year’s outing.
“We knew each other a little bit more, so for us, chit-chatting was a lot of fun. I would say the same amount of people showed up this year as last year. That to me is really cool to see.”
Korda was also happy to witness Clark’s serious approach to the competition, noting that athletes from different sporting backgrounds frequently find it challenging to compete just for enjoyment. “I’ve been lucky enough to play alongside a lot of athletes, and everyone has that competitive drive to want to play the best,” Korda added.
“I think they get into golf after whatever their sport is, and some of them get really, really good. You always have that competitive drive in anything you do, if it’s from board games to other sports. Like we all kind of have that ingrained in us by now.”
Although Korda’s year concluded positively, she experienced a disappointing 2025 campaign, unable to secure a single tournament victory. Korda did claim runner-up at the Women’s U.S. Open, but surrendered her World No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul.
Korda also fought through a neck injury, but intends to return stronger in 2026. Clark remains confident that triumph awaits Korda soon, having followed her progress throughout 2025.
“It’s been cool to watch here over the course of the last year,” Clark said. “She put in a lot of time to create her own PE, and very unique to her and what she’s passionate about in herself, and obviously somebody that is very, very deserving, and been at the top of the sport for a long time now.”
Reflecting on the past season and looking forward to the next, Korda feels she has matured after a tumultuous year. “I feel like there was a lot of ups and downs, and it made me grow a lot mentally,” Korda expressed. “I would say I’m just also very grateful for it because, you know, success is never linear.”
