Denny McCarthy & Nelly Korda

December 10, 2025

MODERATOR:  Joining me here today ahead of the Grant Thornton Invitational are Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy.

Nelly, we’ll kick it over to you first. This is your third year playing in this tournament. Could you just talk a little bit about what keeps bringing you back and what you enjoy about this team mixed event?

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah. I think it’s a great way to end the year. It’s so fun playing alongside the men and another great opportunity at the end of the day to grow the game.

MODERATOR:  And then Denny, this is your first year appearing in this tournament.

NELLY KORDA:  Second.

DENNY McCARTHY:  She corrected you, wow. That’s what partners are for.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, Nelly. Can you just talk a little bit about what you’re excited for this year and for your partnership with Nelly?

DENNY McCARTHY:  Yeah. We played I think before, right before it became like the Grant Thornton and the coed event, and we had a great time. I played with Megan Khang a couple years ago and we had a great time also.

Anytime you get a chance to play with Nelly, I was looking forward to the opportunity. We had a great time three years ago. Our caddies have become good friends through that event, through that year that we played, and they’re even staying together this week. We’re kind of getting the band back together.

MODERATOR:  Is there a way that you think your games play off of each other? Anything that you have learned from one another potentially?

NELLY KORDA:  Definitely. I mean, I learned so much. I learn so much from the guys, but Denny, I was so impressed with his game when we played a few years ago. I mean, he rolls the rock really well. We’re going to have a putting competition right after this.

DENNY McCARTHY:  We are.  Yeah, when I was playing with Nelly back three years ago I knew she was a great ballstriker, I knew she was going to hit it great. I was really impressed with how she handled  she never got too high, never got too low, but some really tricky shots around the green into the grain. This place has some nasty intothegrain shots and her short game really showed off that week. I feel like I kind of stole a couple of her little techniques that she uses on her short game that I can kind of use to this day. So thank you.

NELLY KORDA:  It’s a beautiful thing.

MODERATOR:  You touched on it a little bit, but kind of what advice do you have to the new teams in the field this week about how to work together and how to navigate this course?

NELLY KORDA:  For me it’s like whenever you play in team competitions, I’ve been lucky to get to do that a couple times throughout my career, it’s just never saying sorry and you know that everyone’s going to hit bad shots, everyone’s going to hit good shots, but not to get too down on yourself when you’re not playing well and just know that your partner has your back.

DENNY McCARTHY:  Yeah, I think just trying to have as much fun as possible. It’s supposed to be a fun week.

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah.

DENNY McCARTHY:  You know, we’re out here just trying to do our best and have fun. We’re playing a couple tricky formats this week. I think, like she said, we’re probably going to hit a couple bad shots and not saying sorry and hopefully the other person can clean up the other person’s mess whenever that happens.

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah, not saying sorry, saying you got this.

Q.  I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but Nelly I don’t think has ever finished worse than T19 at this property. How much are you relying on her experience as you all 

JESSICA KORDA:  T19.

DENNY McCARTHY:  Yeah, she’s  I remember when we first played together three years ago, the scramble day I didn’t really  she putted first and I didn’t really have to putt that much that day. I think we both  we hit it really nice off the tee and into the greens and she made a lot of first putts, which is nice. Obviously she’s been here, she knows the greens, so she kind of showed me the way on kind of what the reads are doing are around the greens and how to play some shots around the greens. She took a lot of stress off of me, which is always nice.

Q.  Nelly, I know we talk about it every time when we get to this tournament. How important is this opportunity for both the LPGA and PGA TOURs to partner up like this?

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah, the best way to grow the game is for us to come together and lift each other up, support each other. That’s what this tournament does.

At the end of the day, it showcases the best women and men coming together and having fun and playing something different, something that we don’t get to do every single day. At the end of the day, I mean, I think that just brings so much excitement kind of to what the normal golf fans usually see week in and week out.

Q.  You got your dinner buddy back this week. How excited are you to have Jess out, practice alongside of her as much as you can and just be around? 

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah, we played our first practice round yesterday in a couple years. It’s so nice. Obviously she’s been out a couple times here and there and throughout the years, but I’m excited for her to tee it up this week and to kind of feel the nerves back. It’s going to be a fun week. It’s always so nice to have family around. I hope she just has fun and keeps it kind of light.

Q.  And finally for me, you shared some really cool offcourse news the last couple of weeks. The photos were gorgeous. Tell us about that and why you wanted to share that at this moment?

NELLY KORDA:  Yeah, the photographer definitely brought my vision to life. It was such an amazing experience, it was so much fun. I know that I’m a very private person, so I just thought that it was a fun way to kind of share the news, for the fans to see the next step kind of in my personal life.

Q.  Do you have a favorite photo from that carousel of the ones you shared?

DENNY McCARTHY:  I have so many. I think the water shots are super cool. I don’t know, there’s just so many to really pick a favorite. There’s definitely going to be a big collage on the wall one day, or soon.

MODERATOR:  Thank you both.

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